How to Refinish Cedar Adirondack Chairs

Lawn furniture is very easy to neglect until it starts to look really old. By that time, it may be a little too late. You don't have to go out and buy new furniture just yet though. There are a couple things that you can do. A little sand paper, a Dremel tool, some stain, and some varnish is all it takes to make your Adirondack furniture look like new. This is a great relaxing project that you can do with your older kids. It is projects like these that can bring some conversation and wonderful memories later in life.

To get started on this, you will need to find a covered area that is well ventilated. If the weather turns bad, you do not want your bare wood left out in the rain, but you don't want to choke yourself with varnish and stain either. Once you have your furniture staged and ready you can get started. There are two different ways that you can handle this. The first is to dismantle the furniture completely. By taking it apart, you can get a better finish and ensure that all of the wood is covered. It will also allow you to get into the tiniest crevices and corners easily. If your furniture is nailed together or you are not that good at putting the chairs back together, you may want to leave them intact. If you do leave them together, you can use a Dremel to get as deep into the corners and crevices as you can. You want to sand all the wood surfaces down with a light paper until you get to the natural wood color again. You want to get all the grey color off of the wood. Once you get all the "old" look off of the wood, you can move on to the next step.

Before you apply the stain to the wood, you want to wipe it down really good. You can use a damp towel or rag to do this and make sure that you get it all. One trick that you can use is a nice furniture polish. A spray type polish is good at getting into all the nooks and crannies to remove any of the dust that may settle there. An air compressor is another good tool that you can use to get all the sand paper dust off of your furniture. Once you are sure that all of the dust is removed, you can apply the stain. With stain, you really want it to be able to soak in. You want to apply liberal amounts of stain. You can do this for about three or more coats (until you get the desired depth of color). If your furniture is still together, you may want to "dunk" pieces into the stain or you can use a sopping wet rag and squeeze it into the small little corners. This will enable you to get complete in the hard to reach areas.

After you get the stain applied you can now add the weatherproofing or varnish. You want to be just as liberal with the clear coat as you were with the stain. This is one of the most important layers of the entire job. These layers are the ones that will keep the weather off of your wood. You want the clear coat to dry with each layer prior to applying the next. This will get better coverage and help your furniture stay looking new. If you took your furniture apart for this, you can put it back together once the last layer is completely dry.

That is all there is to refinishing your Adirondack furniture. These simple steps can keep your furniture looking new for years to come. This little bit of work can save you from buying a completely new set of chairs. After all, you don't want to have to break in a whole new chair when your old lawn chairs have just gotten perfectly comfortable.