A Sunny Transformation

Recently we've been trying to focus as much time as possible on the exterior of our house in preparation for the summer months. Along with starting a veggie garden and cleaning up the gardens and front yard in general, I've been working on another project to spruce up our outdoor entertaining area. 

We were lucky enough that when we moved into our house last July, we had some family members moving the week before, and they donated a lot of old furntiture they didn't want/use anymore. Worked out well for us, as we didn't have to run out and spend a lot of money, that we didn't have, to furnish our first home. Fast forward a year later, the patio set we were given is looking a little worse for wear.

Don't get me wrong, perfectly usable, functional pieces that I am completely happy we got for $0. I just felt that we needed something a little more bright and cheery in the yard. Something I looked forward to going out to sit at in the morning with B and a cup of tea, to admire our backyard that we will one day transform into something beautiful. Once I decided this, I wasted no time getting to work transforming the table and chairs. The first step was to sand down the pieces of the table that were rusty, to clean them up and make sure that it wouldn't bubble and peel once painted.

(Looking at this picture, I'm wondering how my sanding technique worked. Who holds sandpaper like that??) The sand paper I am using above was something B gave me that he said was especially for cleaning up rust, and felt similar to a rough cloth. I used it on the areas that weren't too badly rusted. For the parts that were really bad, I used regular old sand paper (in whatever grit B handed to me...sorry!).

Once sanded and lined up, you can really see the rust on these pieces of our patio table. Not too worry - it wasn't visible for very long. I had it going from this....

To this, in practically no time! (They don't lie when they say that it's quick drying!)

For those of you who are interested, I used Rust-oleum's Painter's Touch in Caribbean Blue (Gloss). Even though I picked out the colour, I wasn't 100% sure about it before I started. I had some fear deep down about the colour being all wrong. Just to be certain I'd be happy, I did a small test patch on a plastic table we had laying around in the garage. I loved it immediately and after seeing it on our table pieces, I knew I'd love it on the chairs, and away I went...

Talk about a fun transformation, right? (Please pay no attention to the giant dead patches of grass. Those are all thanks to the dogs. Another project on our to-do list.) The blue makes the chairs so much more cheery, and they really pop in our yard, which is currently very drab! I didn't want to stop with the blue chairs though. Since two of the six chairs we received were a different style and colour, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to add a completely different colour into the mix.

What colour? Well, that one's taking a little bit longer to cover the way I've wanted it to. I plan on finishing up the set this weekend - so keep an eye out next week for our completely transformed patio set!

Do any of you have some old patio furniture you've given new life to? Or maybe some chairs that are calling out for a facelift like ours were?