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Do you have old cedar 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 benches that has been around for years and not used in
ages.
Cedar 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. Cedar log 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 cedar 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. |