Over the last weekend, we decided to fix up an old wrought iron patio set that we inherited with the house purchase. We figured this was a good weekend project while we wait for our contractor to start on the house. The table and chairs had been sitting out in the elements for years and had a significant amount of rust.
We started by power washing the set to see how much of the lose paint and rust we could get off. This helped a little, but not as much as I had hoped. We then used a wire brush to scrub all the surfaces and remove any remaining loose paint. By this time, we were seeing some significant rust, so mid-project, I decided to make a quick trip to our local hardware store to pick up some Rust Remover. This product is a petroleum jelly that eats away rust when applied. Fair warning, if you decide to use something similar to this, please wear gloves! We ended up applying the rust remover several times and continued scrubbing with a wire brush. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get all the rust removed, because there was so much, but this helped significantly.
Next, the fun part! We decided to spray paint our patio set navy blue and used Rust-oleum Gloss Protective Enamel. Navy is going to be one of the primary accent colors for our house and carrying this over to our table and chairs seemed like a nice update from the typical black that you see with wrought iron sets. The spray paint was super easy to work with and the results were amazing. Our patio set now looks practically brand new! However, it did take quite a few more cans of spray paint than I initially anticipated. We have one table and 6 chairs and I started with 4 cans. I quickly realized this was not going to be enough and ended up making two additional trips to purchase more paint. It ended up taking almost 9 cans, but it was well worth it! A new patio set like the one we have would have cost us upwards of $1,000, but the paint ended up being around $40. Not to shabby!
If you are looking for a relatively easy weekend project and you have some patio furniture that you’re not in love with, painting is a budget friendly way to bring new life to your outdoor space! Now, I’m on a quest to find the perfect umbrella and chair cushions!