How to Paint Your Cedar Adirondack Chairs

There has always been that moment when we are tired with the way our home looks. To add a little life to your furniture a new coat of paint may be the best thing you can do. Painting your Adirondack furniture can be a much cheaper and easier solution to your desire to change things up a little. If your furniture is looking a little old and needs a facelift, repainting can also be a viable option. If you are repainting to make up for age and wear, you will want to dismantle your furniture to remove all of the worn parts of the wood and to get the paint into every nook and cranny. If you just desire a new look, you can leave your furniture intact. Either way, it is a simple project that can be done by just about anyone.

The first thing that you need to do is decide on a color to paint your furniture. There are several colors that you can go with as well as designs. You can paint the bottom in blue with white stars and the back red and white alternating for a patriotic design or you can create your own masterpiece on each chair. There is no end to the designs that you can put on your chairs. After you have decided on the color, you will now need to decide on whether to sand the wood down or not. If the wood still looks in good shape, you may not need to sand it down. If you are also getting rid of an old and worn appearance, you will want to sand it down. If you are going with a lighter color, it may look better if you start from bare wood. Darker layers under lighter colors can dull the paint or even change the color all together. Using a light sand paper, rub the wood until the natural wood color returns. You can use a Dremel type tool to reach the tiniest of crevices and get all of the old paint and bad wood off of your chairs. After you get the chair sanded down you will want to wipe it off with a damp cloth or some furniture polish. You want to get all of the sanding dust off of the chair so that it doesn't mar your paint job. An air compressor is another way that you can get the dust off completely. If you did not sand the chair first, you still want to wipe it down really good to make sure all of the dirt and dust is off of your chair. You will need to pay particular attention to the feet of the chair as they are more prone to dirt.

Once your chairs are completely clean you can start with the next step. If you went down to bare wood, you will want to apply a weatherproofing coat to keep the wood nice and new looking. You can now add your paint. You want a smooth and even coat of paint with each layer. While this may be a little difficult, you can use a very fine sandpaper to smooth it out after each layer. If you allow clumping or drips in the first layer, they will get worse with each additional layer. If you apply the paint thickly for each coat, you can easily smooth it out with the sandpaper. If you do sand it down after each coat, you will want to re-wipe the chair before adding another. You will need at least three coats of paint for a base. You can continue until you reach the desired color depth that you want. If you are painting designs on your chair, you want to use the base color for the first three layers. You can paint the designs with this color as the background.

Once you have finished with the paint you will want to add copious amounts of clear coat. These chairs will be out in the weather all the time and you will need to protect them from the elements. The clear coat or weatherproofing will aid in this. The clear coat will seal your furniture and can even protect the designs that you have painted on your chairs. To prevent dry rot on the feet of your chairs you may want to tack on some rubber pieces. These will keep the feet of your chairs off the ground and provide a little bit of a barrier from the wet ground.

That is all there is to breathe life into your Adirondack chairs. These simple steps can give you a whole new look or add years to your furniture. A little care on a scheduled basis can also help to prolong the life of your wooden lawn furniture. It sure beats buying a whole new set.