Painting Outdoor Furniture and Accessories

 

Spring has sprung (for most of us) and I know a lot of you are starting to think about fluffing your outdoor areas. Last week, I shared my front porch revamp project and I promised I would be back today and share the tutorials for what I do year to year when it comes to the best products for painting outdoor furniture, accessories and garden planters.

 

 

Over the years, I have pretty much painted everything that you can imagine to update and refresh my outdoor pieces.  In fact, some of my pieces have been painted so many times that I lost count.  If you use the right paint and do good prep work, your pieces can look like new every year!  I only use spray paint on outdoor pieces because the finish is far more durable than traditional latex paints.  It’s also so much faster too!

This year, I only painted the metal pieces that you see.  Everything else was painted last year or the year before.  I’m breaking this post down by the types of things that you might want to paint.

Outdoor Metal Pieces

Whether metal is rusted or not rusted, you can paint it quickly with spray paint.  If you use a great primer with rust inhibitor, you will extend the life of the finish as well.

I was really excited to see how amazing my rusted metal plant holder turned out.  This is what it looked like before I sprayed it.  It was rusted out pretty bad:

 

 

and this is what it looked like after I primed and sprayed it in chrome:

 

 

 

I also sprayed this tall candle holder that was also rusted (sorry I do not have a before picture)

 

Again, using a stop rust primer-paint inhibitor is the key when it comes to painting metal pieces.  I prefer Rust-oleum products for inhibitor primers as my base coat.  For pieces that are rusted, all you have to do is lightly sand the piece (takes just a couple minutes to get the flakes of rust off) and then spray with a rust inhibited primer.  This basically stops rust in its tracks and seals it in.  Then you can do your top coat.

The chrome color top coat that I used is actually an automotive spray paint called Dupli-color in the color chrome.  I think it’s the best colored chrome out there and it looks like real chrome instead of a shiny silver:

 

 

Normally I use Rust-oleum products for my top coats (which are also great) but I have been using automotive spray paints more and more because I think they will last longer and weather the elements better as a top coat for metal pieces. You can pick up Dupli-Color at any auto part store and the color selection is amazing.  I wrote a post here about using automotive spray paints if you’re interested in learning more.  Below is an image from that post highlighting how it’s being used in some creative ways:

 

 

This year, I also sprayed my cast iron candle stick with a rust inhibitor primer and the top coat was a high gloss:

 

Outdoor Wood and Furniture Pieces

Last year, I painted several of the pieces that you see on my porch and I have been so impressed with how well everything has held up.  I wrote a tutorial last year on how I spray painted my outdoor furniture and planters here.

I think the most important thing about spray painting outdoor furniture to ensure that it lasts a long time is to use a good spray primer.  I prefer Rust-oluem Painter’s Touch:

 

 

The top coat isn’t as important as the prep and base coat in my opinion.  My bench was painted two years ago it’s held up in so well in the Texas heat and humidity:

 

 

 

Ceramics and Garden Pots

It’s amazing what you can spray paint and when it comes to ceramics and fiberglass garden pots, you can instantly try out a fun new color or freshen up the finish.  I treat ceramic pots the same way I would fiberglass garden pots when it comes to spray paint.  I use a good primer like Rust-oleum Painter’s touch and let the primer dry completely before doing the top coat.  As far as top coats go, anything will work and I choose the brand based on the color I want.

If you can believe this, I painted this 15 year old fiberglass garden pot a couple of years ago and it was in really bad shape and as you can see, it looked like new with a fresh coat of spray paint:

 

The great thing about using spray paint on old beat up pieces like fiberglass is that the paint works as a sealant and stops the deterioration.

I think that about covers it.  Happy spring fluffing and happy painting!

 

 

Cheers!

Cyndy