Everything Old is New Again

I saved myself a few hundred dollars by purchasing a couple of small cans of paint and polyurethane. I highly recommend it.

My Money Saving Project

Many moons ago I purchased a wicker furniture set. I only spent $99 for the set 9 years ago. It consisted of two chairs, a love seat, table and pillows for the chairs and love seat.  Even 9 years ago I thought that was a real bargain and I treated the furniture as such. After all, $99 for 4 pieces of furniture and 3 pillows, how good could the furniture be?

I abused it by letting it sit on the porch for 9 years without as much as one coat of weather protective paint. It was subject to sun, rain, snow, hail, freezing weather and of course humidity. In the winter (when I remembered) I would pull in the pillows so they wouldn’t get moldy. I’d wash them in preparation for the next spring/summer.

Needless to say year after year of washing and sitting in the sun, the pillow color faded. Additionally, year after year of sitting on the porch being subject to the elements, the wicker took a beating. It became washed out and a few of the threads were beginning to stick out.

Time for Something New

In this disposable society, I thought it was time to get rid of the old and buy new. The only problem is that I had the old price tag in my head and nearly died of sticker shock when I saw how much the stores were asking for a similar furniture set. They wanted 3 and 4 times what I paid for my set. Woah!

The Frugal Alternative

I went to Home Depot and purchased a quart of Rust-Oleum’s Caret Wine colored paint and a pint of Herbal Green. Rust-Oleum is good for indoor and outdoor projects. In addition to the paint, I bought oak colored polyurethane. It cost me less than $20 for the three cans of paint and sponge type paint brushes.

Weekend Project

On a sunny, dry weekend I started painting. The furniture was so dry that it almost sucked the paint out of the can through osmosis. By the time I finished one side of the chair the other side was already dry. I guess 9 years of neglect will do that to furniture.

The projected took about a day to complete. Here’s the before and after.

Before

After

The before chair on the right is the untouched weather beaten chair.  The before chair on the left has one coate of polyurethane.  As you can see,  I started the project backwards. I polyurethaned the chair first (the before chair on the left) and then thought about adding color. A professional would have probably done it the other way around by adding the color first and then the polyurethane. Oh well, I’m not a professional, just frugal.

Well Under Budget

Now that I’ve saved so much money on the furniture, I have enough money left over to replace the carpet on the porch. The price for the carpet, paint and paint brushes don’t come close to what it would have cost me to replace the furniture.

I love a bargain!

Tags: painting wicker furniture, polyurethane outdoor furniture, revaming old furniture