Do you have old teak outdoor
furniture that you have
thought about restoring but aren’t sure where to begin? In looking through your
old patio furniture,
you are most commonly going to find that there is slight weather damage
that
should be easily repaired with the right tools and a little elbow
grease. You may
want to start with your old cedar
garden bench that has been around for years and not used in ages.
Teak patio
furniture actually has a really long lifespan,
and even though you are looking at this old garden bench and thinking
it’s a
lost cause, the damage is probably mostly superficial.
Therefore, you can go about repairs in
several ways. Regardless
of the final
outcome, the first step to repairing this wood patio furniture is to
sand it
down. Teak
furniture can be in
excellent shape a couple of layers into the wood, and removing chips
and
bulging areas that are damaged from rain and other weather elements can
give
your cedar garden bench a brand new look.
At this point,
with all the damaged layers removed, you
should have a fairly smooth wood surface with which to work. This is where your options
come in. If you
want to use the bench as part of a set
of lawn and garden furniture that you already have, you’ll
want the bench to
match the color of this set. Therefore,
you may want to consider simply staining the wood bench the same color
as the
other pieces.
In fact, you
may choose to stain the bench regardless of the
additional lawn and garden décor that you have.
Even if you leave the bench bare, you’ll want to
protect the wood with a
sealant to keep it from being so easily damaged by the weather.
Another option
you may consider is to paint it to match
other garden décor. While
painting a
teak bench can give you greater decorative options, you also have to
remember
that wood absorbs paint, and you’ll have to use several
layers should you want
the color to be noticeable. You
may want
to apply a coat of Kilz prior to beginning with a colored paint to help
with
this issue.
Whether you
are trying to match new wood rocking chairs or
older home garden décor, you have a number of tools with
which to bring back
your old cedar garden bench, if you start with a good, complete sanding
of the
bench to prepare it for additional work.