Painted garden furniture was something I had in mind for the garden; which I never thought I’d actually do! Something that always seemed a little too adventurous, and probably too difficult to do. But in the spirit of doing up the garden, and making it a much more fun space to hang out in; here we are!
This post contains a gifted product or products*, the content of this post is entirely my opinion.
As I say, painting the plastic furniture, seemed a little too much of a pipe dream; until I was chatting recently with the lovely people at Pinty Plus about a collaboration!
Painted Garden Furniture
Our garden furniture was sort of passed down to us, as we had the space, but no chairs out there! Which is wonderful, and functionally everything is brilliant. It’s just a bit faded, scratched, and well, used. In need of a bit of TLC, or perhaps… A brightly coloured paint job? Except I know nothing about painted garden furniture, and less about doing it myself!
Then came along the lovely people at Pinty Plus! Sellers of Pinty Plus spray chalk paint, Evolution acrylic paint, spray blackboard paint, as well as a range of jewellery making aerosols. Who, upon further discussion, seemed really keen for me to get to giving it a go!
Upcycling the Garden Furniture
Getting plagued by windy and wet weather made this project a little harder than it could have been but getting Stu in to help, we got there eventually!
Going from this:
To this:
How We Did It
Painting plastic garden furniture isn’t necessarily easy, though we thought it was a really simple way to brighten up the corner, without resorting to anything permanent to the actual garden. We were kindly gifted* some primer for plastics, and two cans of spray paint in two colours. I chose Melon Yellow* and Water Blue*. They are SO bright and cheery!
The steps:
- Wash the furniture with soapy water, and rinse thoroughly
- Wait until it is dry
- Apply primer, evenly across the area you’re painting
- Wait for that to dry (approx 15 mins)
- Paint.
- We applied a few thin coats to get even coverage, making sure to get in all the gaps and spaces.
- Leave to dry.
We did find some colour transfer after the chairs have dried, so at the moment we are using towels to protect skin/clothing when sitting on the chairs, though I am hoping we can find some varnish or similar to both protect the chairs as they are outside year-round, and also stop the colour transfer issue.
To find out more about my colourful bunting click here.
Aside from the amazing colour, which looks gorgeous, and didn’t end up too light or too dark; the major advantage with this paint is the quick drying time, though we did find the finish wasn’t fantastic, once it had dried. Mostly due to chairs not being the easiest thing to paint, with lots of curved edges and little gaps, we found it was slightly difficult to get even coverage because it dripped quite a lot, though we went with layering thin coats, which may have used more paint than necessary. Also we’re not experts, and I’m sure there are ways to get a better finish when you’re not limited to a couple of evenings to contend with the recent weather here!
With the paint we were gifted, we found we had just enough to do the four chairs, and in the end I did buy another can of blue (lack of stock means yellow will happen later) for some touch up paint work a few days later, which looked a lot better.
Finishing Touches
Adding a bright tablecloth, and some handmade bunting, we have a much more vibrant space that hasn’t altered our rented property! Which just goes to show with some small additions, you really can dramatically change your surroundings.
I’m loving all this colour, and I’m tempted to buy some fabric to make some seat cushions too at some point, but maybe next summer! As it stands at the moment, with some other bits and pieces added, I really love how it looks, it’s a much more inviting space, and I can’t wait to enjoy it over the summer, with friends and family. SO be sure to keep an eye on on my social accounts, where I’m sure I’ll share some photos!
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