It was super cute as it was but I wanted to spruce it up just a little bit!

I started by using paint stripper.  The existing paint was chipping a bit, so I wanted to remove it before I painted it again.
Once the paint stripper did its magic, I scraped away some of the paint.  There was a lot of paint left over, so my husband helped me sand the horse down as much as we could.  I wanted the existing paint as flat as possible so it wouldn’t interfere with the new finish.


In the middle of this, my husband had an idea.  The existing seat was a little thin & worn out, so he decided to make a new one.  He took a board we already had & made a new seat.  He traced the existing seat & made a new seat slightly bigger.  Once he was done, I used some stain to stain the seat!
I’m really loving painted & stained mixed pieces lately!  I used to paint everything, but now I want to expose & enhance the wood grain when I can.  On this project, I knew it would be much easier to paint the horse instead of refinishing it, so staining the seat was an obvious choice.  I think it gives it tons of character!


Once the horse was sanded fairly smoothly, it was time for paint!  I used one of my favorite paint colors for this project.  I picked it up a while ago on clearance & I just love it!  It’s the same color I painted my coffee station cabinet & lots of other random things!  I think it comes off more as a warm white instead of a grey.
After a few coats of paint, the rocking horse was complete!  I really love how it turned out!  It’s so cute as a display piece!  Also, if we ever have a foster placement young enough, they can even ride on it!  I love it so much!