Before & After: Painted Patio Furniture

When we moved out of our condo in Boston, we agreed to give our patio furniture to our renters as part of our negotiations. It fit well in the space, they really wanted it, and we really wanted a tenant. Sold!

But, that meant when we moved into our new house, we had no outdoor furniture, and no money to buy it because there were 176329 things on the to-buy list more important than patio furniture, which was kind of a bummer seeing as we moved in in the middle of July, at the peak of deck enjoyment season. The peak.

Just as I was mourning all of the al fresco dinners and sunrise cups of coffee overlooking my backyard that I would never have, my husband began to clean out our garage … and happened to find an entire set of metal patio furniture in the attic there. (I know, right? It totally means we’re meant to live here.)

The chairs and table were in great shape given that they were probably from 1970s (just guessing based on color palette, here), but they were ugly, ugly, ug.ly. The four chairs were painted primary blue, yellow, green and red, with white, chipping arms. And the table (which looks like a DIY job?) was black.

Nothing a little spray paint couldn’t fix! I sanded down the chairs, hosed them off, let them dry, and got after it with my paint can. I chose Valspar Outdoor Paint, which I got at Lowe’s, and two cans did the trick.

Here’s how they came out (I haven’t gotten to the black table yet, so ignore that part! We plan to get rid of it altogether and get a teak table next year, so it will probably stay that way ’til we take it to the dump in the spring.)