Weathered outdoor furniture revived

[kimamery]

Worn timber outdoor chairs sanded back and coated with furniture oil.

• The project
• Steps
• Tools and materials
• Before and after
• More inspiration for your upcycling project

 

The project

I bought a set of outdoor timber chairs on Facebook Marketplace that needed some improvements. They had spent a lot of time in the elements, the timber was cracked, rough, dry and very grey. This is what I did to give them a new lease of life.

Steps

Step 1

Firstly, I needed to sand back the timber to see what was underneath. Using my orbital sander, I used three grits, starting with 100, then 180 followed by 240. This gave the timber a beautiful, smooth finish. 

Step 2

Halfway through. I also hand sanded the hard-to-reach areas. 

Step 3

I then needed to apply a furniture oil to nourish and protect the timber. I opted for clear so that the natural timber tones can be seen. I applied two coats of oil using a brush. As you can see, it looks very dark while wet but once dry, it should be a more natural in colour. 

This is 24 hours after I applied the oil and I couldn’t be happier with the result. The beautiful red tones of the timber are shining through. The chair looks like new again and is protected from the elements. I plan on reapplying on a yearly basis so I won’t need to do all that sanding again. 

I’ve worked on outdoor furniture before and this was by far the most far gone. I was surprised how well it came up, too.

Tools and materials

Materials used in the project:

• Feast Watson clear outdoor furniture oil

• Sandpaper.

Tools used in the project:

• Orbital sander.

Before and after

More inspiration for your upcycling project

Workshop member pepsp used Dulux Aquanamel semi-gloss in a timber chairs upcycle project.

Community member Dani used paint and beeswax in her Hamptons-style outdoor furniture transformation. 

Get more ideas from our Top 10 most popular outdoor furniture projects. 

[JacobZ]

Hi @kimamery,

Thank you for sharing this project with the Bunnings Workshop community.

It is always great to see furniture get a new lease on life, and might I say it's come up a treat. 

Congratulations on your project and I look forward to seeing what else you come up with in the future.

Jacob

[Dave-1]

Evening @kimamery 

What a return for some elbow grease! You have really brought it back to life The fiddly bits would have been a pain, how did you manage them? Only thing I can think of was a strip of sandpaper and using it like a saw to sand those hard to get places. Would have been intense.

Really nice work and love the colouring.

Dave

[Christine61]

Beautiful!  I just asked about the same project but the thought of sanding is really off putting.