How to Refinish Kitchen Barstools

My kitchen has long been done, but I’m finally getting around to sharing some of my projects. In case you missed my Modern Rustic Kitchen makeover, go read all about it here. But today I’ll share how I transformed my old barstools to better suit my new kitchen.

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I originally bought these industrial metal and wood barstools from Target about 4 years ago. They still offer them here, or you can also find them on Amazon here. I love everything about them since they have the perfect mix of modern industrial and farmhouse. However, the dark tops no longer suited my space.

So to update them to fit my new kitchen design was super easy. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1:

Simply turn the barstools over and unscrew the 4 screws that hold the wood top to the frame.

Step 2:

Sand down the wood top. I used 80grit sandpaper with my small electric hand sander. Getting in all the nooks and crannies was somewhat hard, but I figured having some dark portions would be okay.

Step 3:

Next, I used Minwax stain in Weathered Oak and applied 1 coat. After it was completely dry I applied 2 coats of Minwax polycrylic.

To reassemble simply screw the wood top back to the frame. The overall color was much lighter and now matched my barn door along with the other wood accents in my kitchen.