Upcycling Joys

Charlie's favorite thing in our kitchen is his big boy chair. We have a small house and his Peg Perego highchair was so big for our table space. In addition, it seemed like he was on his own island away from our table when we would eat dinner every night.

My Aunt Margaret always had a tall chair at her table for her children. This chair was perfect for little ones who wanted to sit at the table yet were still to small for a regular chair. Online searches found similar ones, very well Amish made children's chairs. The price was more than I wanted to pay & that's how our very own child's chair was fashioned....

One afternoon, I spotted a Jenny Lind style high chair. Old, wooden, solid and $8!! T & I hauled it home and got down to business. Below is an example of a similar high chair:

We removed the tray and then the metal hardware (that attached the tray to the arm rests). We sidled the chair up to our kitchen table to check measurements. It was necessary to cut the arm rests back a few inches and trim the bottom of the legs a bit. After we made the changes, it slid up to the table.

Next, we sanded and then painted our chair. After it dried in the sunshine, we brought it in & Charlie has been sitting pretty ever since!

He enjoys being able to climb up all by himself and I love how the chair looks great at our kitchen table. It matches our glossy black spindle chairs perfectly.


As promised, here is the Swiffer cloth idea.

I made my cloths from leftover flannel scraps, but the microfiber cloths from the dollar store would work really well. (You probably wouldn't even need to sew/serge them).

No worries about exact measurements, just about the size of a paper towel. The main thing is that you are able to tuck it into the place on the Swiffer that "catches" the cloth.

The flannel gets better the more it is washed. Great for a dry sweep or a light damp mop. Just toss into your washer when finished.