Vintage High Chair

My mom has a vintage cosco high chair that she uses for her grandchildren. She got it from her mom, whom we called Mammaw. Mammaw had purchased it years ago using green stamps. When we were at my parents' house one time last winter, I noticed it again and decided I liked how small it is. It even folds up for easy storage. Since we don't have lots of kitchen space, I didn't want a large high chair. I happened to mention how much I liked this one and that I thought I'd try to find one like it.

A few weeks before my baby shower, my sister called to say that she saw a high chair exactly like my mom's in an antique shop in Strasburg. It seemed like it was in decent condition, so I told her to pick it up for me.

After getting it home, I decided it needed a little face lift. I prefer red to orange, green, yellow and white, so I went to work.

I figured out how to remove the bottom upholstered piece.

This enabled me to clean off more of the gunk I found.

Here it is half recovered. Lovely combination, eh?

I never did figure out how to remove the back, so I just hot glued the vinyl over top of the old stuff.

I used some webbing to cover the raw vinyl edges. Hot glue came in handy once again.

I then replaced the safety straps, because the old ones were very dirty and gross. Imagine years of baby food dried on and stuck in the crevices.

Notice the snaps? I figured out how to apply snaps, and so the straps are removable and washable. I suppose when Edwin learns how to pull snaps apart we might have a problem, but that won't be for a little while yet.

Here's Edwin testing out the chair prior to adding the straps.

And...voila'! The finished product. I sanded the chrome and used a toothbrush to clean hard-to-reach places. I have a cute, clean, practical high chair all ready for use.