a chair for jia joon

Recently Sasha and I were watching our favorite little person (aka Jia, our niece) for a day of zoo animals and froyo. On the way home, she came with us to drop some clothes off at the local Jewish Women's donation center. While we waited for Sash to drop off the bags, Jia and I wandered the aisles.

There wasn't too much of interest to me, but Jia felt otherwise when she spotted an Elmo doll on a faraway shelf and proceeded to scream out "Elmo" at the top of her lungs. Literally, I almost had a heart attack. Not one for letting small children touch "donated stuffed animals" (ew), I quickly changed directions. Jia soon spotted another item of interest.

An old, white, wooden child-size chair was tucked away in a corner. She screamed again in delight and quickly sat in it. I could see the happiness spread across her face as a result of finding something just her size. She was beyond excited and it made me laugh. Since the chair was wooden, and thus easily cleaned, I bought it. I figured it wouldn't be too tough to restore it to its glory days and give it a new life with a little girl who clearly thought it was awesome.

It sat in my living room for a couple of weeks while most of my free time went to the little event I'm planning (ie: our wedding) until this weekend when I decided it was time to fix it up.

Sash and I went to our local hardware store and selected the perfect shade of fuscia, which is basically Jia's signature color. Once I got home, we put a few nails in the wobbly seat and I started in on giving it about five heavy coats of semi-gloss paint. It took most of Saturday and then a little touch up on Sunday, but I think I successfully restored the little guy.

Before - not too bad, just a little shabby.

A little paint to spruce it up...

Final product with a little personalization to boot.

Judging by the screams and jumping up and down that came from our little Jia joon tonight, I'm pretty sure she remembered her chair. Seriously, you've never seen someone so ecstatic over a chair. Her excitement made all of the paint fumes I breathed in this weekend worth it.