Joe inherited a hand-me-down patio set from his parents a few years ago. It served it's purpose by giving us a place to sit outside, but after sitting in the weather one too many months the paint was faded and coming off the metal. And, when I say the paint was coming off, I mean that it was basically a powder and it would smudge off anytime you touched it. As a new homeowner, I want my new house to be as perfect and cute as possible, but I also need to prioritize what I spend my money on. A few weeks ago, Joe and I decided that we wanted to buy a beautiful new sectional for our great room (pics will be posted when we move in). So, the cash for a new patio set was absolutely out of the question. Enter: our first DIY project!
The first step was removing the mesh fabric from the chairs. This was very easy and just involved taking out a lot of screws. The fabric was held in on the top and the bottom by slats that screwed in to the metal of the chair. Taking the tabletop apart was also just a matter of removing a few bolts and screws.
After removing all of the fabric and separating the glass from the tabletop, since we don't yet have a garage (come on August 15), I laid down plastic and put everything in the middle of the yard. Before I could start spray painting, I needed to get all of that old paint/powder off. I used a few sheets of 180 grit sandpaper to rub down all of the metal surfaces to remove any rust and any loose paint. After sanding, I wiped the tables and chairs down with rubbing alchohol just make sure everything was clean and dirt- and dust-free.
After I did all the dirty work, Joe decided to come out and help me with spray painting! (I'm just kidding...he was working on an exam and I impatiently started without him, so he came out as soon as he finished.) And, just to give you an idea of how new I am to DIY projects, I originally bought only one can of spray paint and clear enamel each for this project not realizing I would actually need 4x that amount! At least Joe got a good laugh! After I went back to Wal-Mart to get more spray paint, we began painting the table and chairs. We put about two coats on (I say about because I wasn't good at keeping track and I think some got more and some got less). Once the spray paint dried, we put on two coats of sealer to make sure the chairs were water-proofed and had that pretty, glossy look.
We reattached all of the mesh fabric to the chairs once everything had dried (we allowed 24 hours). And, voila! It looked like we had a brand new patio furniture set.
But, I still wasn't happy because I thought the glass top still looked rundown and, after all of that hard work, there was nothing that really made our patio furniture stand out from the store-bought stuff. So, I decided to makeover the glass tabletop. But, you'll have to wait for the next post to see that because it is still in the works! (And I promise to post better "after" pictures once I get the tabletop finished.)
Materials Used During This Project:- 180 grit sandpaper
- Bottle of rubbing alcohol
- 6 cans of Rust-oleum Metallic Black Night
- 4 cans of Rust-oleum Crystal Clear Enamel
