Red Rocking Chair

I’ve always wanted a rocking chair, especially the old fashion kind that people used to sit on while on their porches like in those movies about the deep South. When I started nursing, I decided it was high time to get one, since I was probably going to spend a lot of time rocking a baby and I wanted to be comfortable.

Since we didn’t have a lot of money to go out and buy a new rocking chair (I hadn’t realized that they could get so expensive), we decided to look around at local thrift shops. To our surprise on half price day at the Salvation Army, we saw an old wooden rocking chair on sale for only 20 dollars. The finish had worked its way off most areas and it was wobbly in places, but with a little work it would do.

The how to, or how I got it too look like what it does today:

1. After buying sandpaper, brushes and some paint, I got started sanding down the old finish. It took me a bit longer than I had figured sanding around all of those round edges, but not as long as it would have taken if I had completely sanded off the varnish.

2. Then I washed off the dust left from sanding, let it dry completely and got ready to paint. The paint I bought was a bit translucent, which meant that I had to paint the whole chair about 3 to 4 times. In the end, I liked the look of the wood through the paint. Nevertheless, if you want to save time, make sure you buy paint as opaque as possible.

3. Finally, I added a seat cushion I bought at IKEA. Someday, I’ll sew a new one and post it. For the time being, I like the cushion I got and the reds match great.

I put Jonas in the rocking chair to take a picture, but it was hard to get him to sit still enough to take it. I wouldn’t advise putting a nine-month-old baby in a rocking chair without a lot of supervision. However, as an adult, they are the best and if you are nursing, you have to have one. I’ve put myself to sleep nursing in mine a few times.