Welcome to a beautiful morning at the Blog. It’s refinishing day and I have a great project to share with you. If you’ve been reading the Blog for awhile, you know that my daughter is in the process of moving to a new place and we have been helping her by thrifting some items for her new home. There is a great deck space outside her door and this week’s project will have a new home there.
This outdoor table and chairs in the picture above looks brand new. I estimate that it’s probably over 30 years old but now looks terrific. That was not the case one day ago.
In this picture you can see how rusted the chair looks. The table was even worse but I knew it could be restored to look just like new.
When looking at old garden furniture like this you need to be sure that the rust is mostly surface wear. I took a good stiff bristle brush to the table and chairs to take off any rust flakes or peeling paint. Then wiped it down to give myself a clean surface. Although the surface was rusted and the original patina was disappearing the metal itself was not pitted or worn through.
I spread the furniture on a tarp in the back garden and then took some cans of black satin rust oleum to apply a layer of paint to the furniture. After shaking the can really well I used short bursts of paint about 12 inches from the furniture to adhere the paint to the table and chairs. Using a stroking motion and short bursts adds an even layer without any drips.
You can see, in this picture, what a difference a layer of spray paint can make. The set now looks brand new.
Here are some additional close-ups of the newly painted table and chairs. I was really pleased with how this turned out. Our daughter will have a great set of outdoor furniture for her deck at the cost of a 30 year old set of furniture, three cans of paint and a little elbow grease. I call that a bargain.