I need help with restoring chairs?

[Katymac]

Someone has offered me 25 wooden chairs for the nursery.

They are plywood and stacking - quite stylist really. They are in quite decent knick & would only need sanding and either varnish/wax or paint.

I can probably get a local youngster to do the work.

I have several minor problems

1. They are too tall for the average 3 year old they need to be 25 cms, & 5yo 30 cms. They are 45cms I think they would cut down but would they look too squat

2. How much to pay the local youngster?

3. What should I finish them with varnish/wax or paint

i really like the idea of using recycled chairs for the nursery - but not if it's a stupid idea

Any thoughts/opinions?

here is where I got the height of the chairs from

& at £59 to £63 a chair getting these for £1 each would be fab - but not if they look crap

If I painted them I could get 3 in each rainbow colour plus 2 white & 2 black

Or is that naff - should I varnish them? Natural wood is nice

Or maybe different pattens on each chair

Stripes/flowers/check/zigzag??

No that's just silly

OK Despite talking to myself - I have made some discoveries

1. even if I lower the chairs they will be too deep for the children

2. My dad reckons it will take about 3 or 4 hrs to refinish each chair - so at minimum wage that is £14 for the local youngster

3. I can't use them for the children - but is it worth having 25 chairs for adults (eg for in the nursery/for events/for the out of school room/am I totally mad??)

you could use those paints that are child friendly non toxic, non allergic, aura i think it is, suitable for cots too,
painting them - if they get dirty u can wipe down.
varnishing them u'd prob not notice the marks and wouldnt bother to wipe down but for cleanliness paint might be beterr

katymac
if u have the space to store
keep them they will come in useful somewhere along the line

Hermykne - thank you for talking to me

That's what I'm thinking

Watse not want not

So I still need 30 odd children's chairs

Hmm - I don't think ebay will sort that

katymac, you could resell the chairs on ebay as funky dining chairs, could market it them as 'Remember your school dinners?' Why not relive them in your own dining room, they will make a talking piece amongst your dinner guests, and when they leave you could get them to add their own grafitti to the chairs with a permanent pen! I have got 15 school wooden chairs to get rid of, but haven't had chance to paint them up and resell them!

How high are the seats on yours?

similar to yours, they were advertised as being childrens chairs, then when they arrived they were actually bigger as if they had been in a secondary school! Planned to cut them down but then would have had the same problem with the seat!

Damn, never mind - it was worth asking