Outdoor Decor

It seems that I may be obsessed with giving furniture a new look, I just love the idea of turning something worn into something new and shiny!

We received these out door chairs, which I thought would look great on our back patio, for FREE!  They have a great shape and are solid wood, but they are obviously very faded and the wood was a little rough, especially on the arms. It was nothing that a little sandpaper and some stain couldn't fix.

I started by cleaning them up and dusting off all of the webs and tree particles then I lightly sanded them with a 320 Grit sandpaper. I did the sanding by hand because they didn't need varnish or paint removed, I simply wanted to smooth out the wood. 

After wiping the dust with a damp rag I was ready to begin my staining process. For the first chair I used a MinWax Stain in Dark Walnut. I applied the stain with a foam brush and the wood soaked it right up - there was no need for wiping it.

I was surprised at how fast the process went but noticed that it was really difficult to get into the creases and in-between the slats. I cleaned up, with still one chair and a bench togo, and ventured out looking for Spray Stain [I had seen it before from Krylon but had never tried it]. I thought it would make the hard to reach places easy to finish! First I went to Lowes, then Home depot, and FINALLY found MinWax's version of Spray Stain at Emigh's Hardware in Dark Walnut.

This is my new favorite product -  it is AH-MAZING! Im not sure how it would work on other projects but for the chairs it made staining a breeze. I laid down brown paper to product the ground underneath and proceeded just like I would with spray paint - even steady strokes in the same direction. I stained the remaining chair, bench, and filled in the light spots on the previously stained chair in no time.

The stain covered evenly with minimal dripping and the best part is you can't even tell which chair was sprayed and which chair was stained with traditional stain. Three cans of stain and a couple of hours later the out door furniture was done! I let it dry a full 24 hours before I applied an out door spray Polyurethane   in a semi gloss to help protect them from the sun, water, and tree droppings. I highly recommend the spray stain for projects like this or ones that have lots of hard to reach places, and trust me anyone can do it! 

I am in LOVE with the finished product! Now just a new little table and some cushions and we are set! Cant wait to sit out side and enjoy the summer nights with Z. <3