Restoring Outdoor Furniture and Restaining the Deck

So I left our new (June 2019) patio furniture uncovered all winter long. (To see the outdoor furniture post, click here.) But why did I do that?! I stored the cushions and pillows but left the wood furniture outside. I don’t suggest forgoing a cover unless you have a covered deck or patio. The outside elements of wet rain and snow sitting on the wood damaged it. I was sure it would be ok because I added an additional teak sealant to it. Well, that clearly didn’t work. So, I want to share how I restored our weathered outdoor furniture and figured while I was at it, I might as well restain the deck.

I prematurely stained our deck after we moved into our new custom built home (are you seeing a pattern here?). I’m aware you need to let the wood “season” for a few months but I just had to do something. Well, they tell you that for a reason! It had started to peel in spots, (mostly) and thankfully under the rugs. So, with the quarantine, I decided I might as well restain the deck since I don’t have any excuses. I sanded down all the spots that had peeled, used our deck brush to clear away dirt and sprayed the deck down with a hose to rinse it all away. We happened to have an extra gallon of stain leftover from the first time.

Restaining The Deck

Fortunately, it didn’t take long and I went over the entire deck (not the spindles). And please ignore the janky stain brush I used. I can’t exactly leave the house so I used what I could find in the garage. Lol Luckily, this cheap brush worked great! The fake owl is there to deter birds from pecking our windows and pooping on our deck (doesn’t work). This stain color is from SuperDeck by Sherwin Williams and called Hawthorne. Already a big improvement!

Restoring the Furniture

Determined to not buy new patio furniture that’s just a year old, I decided to sand the arms down and the coffee table. I used a piece of sandpaper and did it by hand and was done in 10 minutes. It came off very easily. Then I remembered we have transparent cedar stain left from our cedar posts on our front porch- also in the garage. I knew at the very least, it would look better than skidded up arms and a peeling table. Can’t hurt, right?! Yay! It was a perfect match!! I figured if it didn’t work, then I could just paint it with exterior paint (probably black).

Now to anyone who may consider this patio sectional, I do love it. I should have covered it to protect it, but we did buy this cover and will absolutely use it this fall. #lessonlearned

We power washed our patio cushions and outdoor rug, pulled out our throw pillows and our pots for plants.

Here’s our deck and restored patio furniture now. Look at the coffee table! It looks brand new again and was really easy to fix. I used Valspar One Coat Exterior Stain & Sealer in Transparent Cedar Naturaltone (all-weather defense).

This was a simple project, just a bit of elbow grease but relatively easy. This isn’t my patio or backyard reveal either, it’s coming. But guys!! That’s because the best part of our backyard I haven’t shared yet!! That is 100% my husband and I’ve had no part in it. He is so talented with landscaping and I have another surprise, but that will be the next post. If you follow me on Instagram and have seen the stories, you may already know. But because our deck is relatively small, we added a patio extension last fall. And my husband had our contractors dig a big hole that I’ve hated since October…until now. 🙂