Patio Furniture Makeover

About a year and a half ago we bought a 5 piece set of outdoor wooden furniture from World Market.  I believe it was about $500 for a bench, 2 chairs, a side table and coffee table.  Compared to other prices we were seeing, it was a really good deal.

I always meant to treat the wood or seal it with something, but never got around to it.  The reviews on the website are all glowing, people have said that their furniture has held up very well.  Granted these people are responsible and oiled their furniture once per year.   Some even said the cushions held up well – I would never dream of leaving the cushions outside all the time, even if I had gotten around to Scotchguarding them (which I may do still).  They don’t appear to be outdoor cushions and the covers aren’t removable to be washed.  I don’t think even Scotchguard would protect them from full on weather 24/7 (correct me if I’m wrong).

So my wooden furniture is on a shady but open air patio, not a covered porch.  And I never sealed or oiled the wood.  And here’s what it looked like.  The chair on the left has some definite mildew grunge.  The bench on the right has just had a good scrub with a bleach/water mixture and a stripping pad (like a sponge, but really hardcore).

Here’s the closeup.  See how the slatted back still looks pretty nice, but the top is really grody with a pinch of birdpoo to complete the look.

I sprayed everything off with the hose, but it was pretty obvious that it was more than just dirt.  The scrubbing not only took of the mildew, it also took off the original red stain.  But that was just fine with me, as it went along with my master plan to never maintenance these chairs again except for an occassional hosedown.  Here’s the furniture all naked and ready for a new look.

I figured to really protect the wood, it should be covered in something that is meant to protect wood that lives outside its entire life.  Not too long ago my dad stained his porch a nice tawny gray, and I thought hey that would work.  And sure enough he had almost a whole gallon of leftover stain that he gave me.

This lovely look is brought to you by Sherwin Williams Exterior Deck Stain (flat acrylic) in Belvedere tan.

Why hello Mr. Belvedere.

Aren’t you looking so fresh and brand new.  And younger!

It took about 2 coats to get a nice solid look, but this stuff dries fast.  As I worked my way around one piece I could put another coat on in spots where it needed it.  No long waits around for anything to dry before getting that second coat on – basically no wait at all as there were so many sides to paint on just one piece.  The gallon was supposed to cover a couple hundred square feet, but we went through about half of it just doing the furniture.  I was suprised.

My fence looks so blah in comparison.  Chris was gracious to join me in the painting project and good thing.  After so many sunny days, we finally got some rain, and this stuff couldn’t get wet for 24 hours after painting.  I started Saturday and left it out overnight, and saw a few sticky speckles the next day like some water drops fell on the table.  They painted over just fine and once finished, we stuck our pristine new furniture in the garage to set since rain was finally heading our way.

Do I regret not oiling/sealing the wood in its original stain?  Not really.  Yes, scrubbing the furniture was an un-fun task that took a couple hours of my time.  But the reddish wood used to just blend in/fade away with the red brick patio.  And between the yellow house and red shed and red garage, some nice crisp gray is a refreshing change.  Plus we don’t have a generic World Market set anymore.  Now its Mr. Belvedere.  Classy.

I’m going to Google Mr. Belvedere now, because I really have no idea who that is supposed to be.