making a vintage wooden chair

Sunday, January 6, 2013

I have this really cool old barn wood desk that was given to me by an old co-worker that I absolutely love. I had the hardest time finding a chair that fit well with the warm color and style of the table so I knew that I just had to make one! Here is what you need and the process I went through:

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Supplies: 
A wooden chair of your choice
Wood Stain (I used 2 different colors, a dark rich and a lighter)
Hammer
Long nails & screws (will explain more below)
A cloth for rubbing the stain

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STEPS: 
1. Get your chair! 
My first step was to buy a chair. I searched for a long time and found a natual wood chair from Boston Wood - a local Boston woodworking store that hand crafts everything so it was definitely a plus.



2. Pick your colors! 
Next I had to find some stain that I thought would match. I decided to go with two colors so that I had lots of depth like the table. MiniWax Wood Finish - Red Oak 215 & Dark Walnut 2716 

 3. Beat it up! 
This is the fun part. To make the chair look like it has been around the block you need to scuff it up a little bit. I beat it with a hammer, put long nails on the wood and hit them with a hammer and scraped it a little bit with the nail - basically anything you can think of that would make it look worn and not so new. I found this idea from another blog that I didn't save so I don't quite know where to give credit for this idea! (photo is after I stained it to show dents).



 4. Stain, Stain, Stain!
After your chair is nice and beat up it's time to start the staining. I used the light color first and basically just started randomly applying it everywhere and rubbing it in with the cloth. I kept layering until I couldn't really see the original chair color and then applied the darker stain in random areas - do the dark in small amounts because once you overdo it you can't go lighter. I made sure some areas had more stain than others so it looked older. The areas with scratches and dents really started to pop and look amazing. It is kind of a personal preference to when you should stop. I probably did about 2-3 rounds of each stain to really make it look layered. Like I said above, don't overdo it early on, you can always keep layering! Now let it dry - I left mine in the sun just to see what would happen. (photo is about 2 rounds of staining).


4. Time to sit! 
Now it's time to enjoy your labor. Pull up the chair and take a seat! You can put some sort of polyurethane protectant on it but I wanted my chair to look matte only because the table was not shiny at all. I think it matches pretty well!




updated portfolio!

Sunday, December 18, 2011

I have now updated my portfolio with a few things! I need to get some more stuff up soon! Go check it out.

http://www.coroflot.com/jstudaker

pooh


Hey look at what I just found! An old painting I did for my momma!

little elves.

Saturday, December 17, 2011



I love getting christmas cards. Seriously. I actually like any kind of snail mail! I still send birthday cards to everyone in my family! Now thats dedication!

Anyhow, I like to make personalized christmas cards. This year I wanted one that reflected my boyfriend an I as a holiday symbol -Old Elves! Enjoy!

invites

Monday, November 21, 2011





I really like to make invites! Here are some (older) ones I made for my sisters! Two totally different style but I love them both!

business cards!

Saturday, September 17, 2011


Here are a few options I did for a friends business card. He already had the singular "e" as his logo so I just designed a few options that complimented the clean streamlined character. In a couple options I updated his logo by creating a circle shape around it. This way when he applies it to other materials it can stand out on its own and hold some visual ground.

back on my feet illustrations



I recently designed/illustrated a few recipes for a muffin cookbook that will be sold to help out Back on My Feet (http://boston.backonmyfeet.org/boston-landing.html), a local Boston charity.

Bakers donated their recipes and artist donated their skills. It's going to be a pretty awesome book! Stay tuned for when it becomes available for purchase.

The first design, I drew and cut EVERYTHING out of paper and then scanned it in. It was so much fun! The second design was done completely on the computer. Not my style typically but we needed something with a punch of color to go in the book.

Enjoy!
j

brooch

Thursday, July 21, 2011


just bought this amazing beautiful brooch from Sweet Bestiary! I just love everything they have! cant wait for it to arrive!

inspiration!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

i love these drawings by Matte Stephens! They are sooo beautiful. The colors, the composition completely drew me in!



http://www.etsy.com/shop/matteart

nyc holiday window displays

Saturday, November 13, 2010





Here I am looking through some old photos and I came across last years NYC holiday window displays. It was such an inspiring trip and they were so elaborate and detailed! I wonder how this year will top it! Can't wait to see...