Spray Painting Our Collected Vintage Patio Furniture

Anyone else start the process of collecting things waaaaaay (like, years?) in advance of a big project? Just me?

Such was the case with our vintage patio furniture, accumulated over literal years in the *hope that one day I would have a porch to use them on. In the meantime, they’ve been shifted all over the yard on lawn days, covered in vines along the fence line, etc. I’ve cleaned them off maybe once a year to spend some time outside, but without a permanent home, they sort of migrated around the yard in search of an out-of-the-way spot.

I painted them once-upon-a-time before a child’s party. But they promptly ended up along the fence line again and were in need of some serious love before placing them where they belong: on our new porch.

When I initially began thinking about what to do with my vintage wrought iron furniture and how to “spruce” them up for our back porch, my first instinct was to sand blast as a way to prep the surface for new paint.

Sand blasting is the best way to remove existing rust and flaking prior paint jobs. Essentially, a course material (typically sand) is forced via air at a high rate of speed at a metal target. The resulting friction removes loose particles and creates a smooth surface.

Originally, I thought about having a company professionally treat my furniture. But I just had so much of it, and with a big renovation project on the horizon for us, I wanted to save my pennies.

For a time, I even entertained the idea of sandblasting the furniture myself. Rob owns a commercial-sized air compressor, and I thought seriously about purchasing my own supplies and giving it a go. But when I looked at our furniture, it truly wasn’t in terrible shape. A few pieces were rustier than others. But on the whole, I couldn’t justify buying materials to do something one time … and make a total mess doing it.

Enter, a wire brush.

Full disclosure: A wire brush is not sand blasting. While it certainly will get the job done “well enough,” if you’re looking for professional-grade results, wire brushing simply isn’t the route to take.

Sand Blasting vs. Wire Brushing

	Sand Blasting	Wire Brushing
Pros	Smooth, professional-grade finish	Very cost-effective surface prep option
Cons	Expensive	An imperfect finish

However, if you’re like me and don’t mind things looking a little imperfect and rusty over time, wire brushing was the absolute cheapest method.

For each of my pieces of furniture, I went through two rounds of wire brushing, with a thorough wipe down of the pieces in between. One of the pieces in roughest shape was my vintage bar cart. I wire brushed the heck out of it, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

The Results

I painted each piece in Rustoleum Laurel Green, which I absolutely love. At first, I was really concerned about the glossy finish amplifying the imperfections of the wire brush surface prep. But my fears were completely unfounded. I actually feel like the coverage is better with the glossy finish than the finishes I’ve experienced with satin finishes.

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It took me a single coat to cover the black paint previously on most of the furniture.

Because I had so much furniture to paint, (and remember how terribly my index finger ached after the last painting), I also purchased a Rustoleum Spray Grip. It slid right over the top of the spray paint bottle and allowed me to have so much better control and coverage. I only had one incident where I slid it on too forcefully and broke the nozzle off a bottle, but other than that, this thing made the whole project go so much smoother.

It makes my heart so happy to seem them all painted on the porch. I can’t wait to see how much better they’ll look with new fabric cushions.