Bitten by that creative Spider: How to make any old cheap withered wooden chair look like an expensive teak wood chair

June 08, 2017

How to make any old cheap withered wooden chair look like an expensive teak wood chair

As you might remember I refurbished an old teak wood chair back in April (If you missed it, click here). I was surprised for how little money you could make it look like a new chair. I was also surprised when I read on the label of the teak oil can, that teak oil was actually made on a base of linseed oil and you could use it on any wood. There was still so much oil left in that can and no more teak wood furniture in this household so I thought of this very withered and old looking Ikea garden table and chairs set that I still had from my long passed student days.

I thought I´ll give it a try with one of the chairs for starters. The chair is still very sturdy. It just looked withered and old.

old withered cheap ikea chair before redo

The poor fella never really saw any love and spent the last one and a half decades outside.

So todays blogpost is about me experimenting with an old cheap and withered wooden chair, that most people would dump plainly for it looks.

And I was surprised how fast this was done! All it takes is sand down the chair, brush off the dust with a hand brush.

sanded and dusted old chair before applying the teak oil

this is what the chair looked like after sanding and dusting

And wipe the oil on with an old sponge. I gave it two layers of oil.
And Voilà: I present you a "teak wood" chair.

picture of before and after of how to make any old cheap withered wooden chair look like an expensive teak wood chair

This chair took me about an hour. I do admit using a power tool for sanding, though. Sanding by hand might need a bit more beef and time!

The cheap wood doesn't soak up the teak oil as quick as the real teak wood does, it might have something to do with how the wood was prepared before it was sold that time?

comparison between real teak chair and cheap wooden chair made look like a teak chair

I placed the real teak and the fake teak chair side by side and you don't notice much difference in the colours between the real teak wood chair and the cheap Ikea chair that got the teak oil spruce.

The can of teak oil cost me a little over 12€ and after refurbishing the two chairs I still have more than 3/4 of oil in my can. It goes a long way. I have one more chair and 2 little tables left of this Ikea set. Now I just need time to get around to it.