Renovated Industrial Swivel Drafting Chair

Sometimes, a revamping project doesn't turn out as planned, for many pesky reasons -the good side of this is that it can become even better than expected!

This lovely industrial drafting chair from the 70s, for example: when I took it, both the bent plywood seat and back rest were hand covered in white enamel paint, and I thought that it would look much better if I restore them to their original wood finish.

So I started sanding the seat... uh-oh, I could see why that previous owner had decided to paint it! the nice plywood had a laminated plastic sheet on top, terribly boring and plain looking.

Further inspection made me realise that the back was also covered in plastic, so it was actually better to leave as it was -but the bottom of the seat, ah! the bottom of the seat seemed promising!

I removed it from the steel frame (this was kind of hard, in fact), and the sanding here it did give me what I was looking for. So just by turning it upside-down I could have a wooden seat after all, and actually, the combination with the white back rest looked more interesting than if both had the same finish! Happy ending -my favourite for projects.

This vintage industrial drafting chair is surprisingly comfortable, with a 38 x39cm seat and height that can be adjusted from 46 to 70cm. The sturdy tubular steel frame with foot rest and four legs is painted in dark chocolate brown. The back rest adjusts in depth and height by means of two large plastic nuts.

Here on the right is a -bad- picture of the chair, just bought: both the seat and back had been painted white, brims and all. That's when I thought it would look much nicer exposing the wood underneath the paint.




And here is the almost-failed renovation process, step by step:

Sanding the seat: and not finding the plywood that I expected... so, removing the seat

Sanding the bottom of the seat: bingo! the lovely plywood wasn't covered here. And sanding the brim of the back rest, the only wood that could be exposed there.

Re-painting the plastic-covered side of the seat white; varnishing the wooden side. Then I just put all the parts together again