Patio Furniture Makeover

We were fortunate enough to be handed down this patio furniture before we moved. It didn't really fit with our old casa, but I am glad we held onto it; the bar height is perfect for seeing over the fence and enjoying the views from the backyard. The only problem was the speckled beige paint that totally blended in with our tan exterior. Boring and blah!

So after looking at outdoor furniture finishes at the big box stores, and hearing YHL rant and rave about oil rubbed bronze spray paint, I decided to bite to bullet and get three cans of Rust-oleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.

I had been worried about how light seats would look with a dark base, but then I remembered this chair Janice transformed.

Image via Life Begins at Thirty, Right?

I figured with a fun pillow (that I will make down the road with some outdoor fabric I already have on hand), the contrast might look chic, like Janice's chair, instead of hey-I-was-spray-painted.

But before I could start spraying away, I needed to prep. I hosed down the dirty furniture and scrubbed everything down with a sponge and let it dry in the sun. While everything was drying, I removed the vinyl protectant wrapped around the base of the chairs to protect them from being scuffed by shoes (since they are bar height).

Then I built a spray painting corner in the unused side yard so I could spray outside (for ventilation), without spraying the fence or concrete. Here she is. What a beaut.

I carefully sprayed the table first according to the directions on the can, let it dry for an hour, and turned it so I could spray the opposite side and touch up any spots I missed. While the table dried for another hour I prepped the chairs by taping off the seats. I tell ya, this took longer and was more tedious than the actual painting.

Another can of spray paint per chair, and they looked like this.

One hour later, the paper came off and revealed chairs that looked like this:

(You can see where I missed a spot on the base of the chair in the second picture. I will touch it up, but I was relieved that it just looked a little bit dirty. No one seemed to notice.)

I let everything dry for 24 hours before putting the glass tabletop back on the table and accessorizing with some sand and votive filled mason jars.

The oil rubbed bronze ties into the door and window frames, and the seats tie into the exterior paint. (We hope to paint and install new windows and doors down the road, but at least for now, the furniture looks like it was chosen to complement the house.) Not bad for a set of free furniture and $21.00 for spray paint.

I will share another spray paint project I took on later in the week. Suffice it to say that I am fully addicted. If you come over, I might just spray paint you! I can't believe it took me this long to embrace the aerosol.