|
How long have you had that cedar
chair
out on the patio? Have you taken care of it so that it is in
at
least fair condition? If so, you may be thinking about
restoring
it and working it in with your new patio furniture, simply because you
love the piece and can’t stand to see it go. If
it’s
been loved and kept in good condition, it shouldn’t be too
difficult to restore. Think, though, if it’s worth
the
trouble before you begin the restoration.
How warped is your cedar
chair?
Does it look like it’s been bent and torn during decades of
use? If it is not recognizable as the chair you purchased,
you
should just let it go – it’s lived a good, long
life and
needs to meet its end. However, if you can still recognize
your
patio chairs for what they once were, and there is a minimal amount of
bowing, splintering, or chipping of the wood, you can most likely move
forward with the task.
Assuming that the point is to
work the old chair in with new cedar patio furniture,
your first step is to make the chair obviously cedar once
again.
This involves some serious sanding, and how much simply depends on the
age of the chair. You want to keep going until at least the
top
layer is removed, using coarse sandpaper to make the job easier and
quicker. If there is still dirty, distorted wood, you need to
keep sanding. When you are through, the color should closely
resemble (although a perfect match may be impossible) the color of the
new cedar furniture.
At this point, you’ll
want to
compare its style to the other patio chairs you’ve
purchased. Does it fit in as is, or could you modify the
style to
make it fit in? If modifications are needed and you are not a
carpenter, find a friend who can help you, and work on the shape of the
back or wherever the discrepancy is and make it work.
Be aware that, if all the other
seating is Adirondack cedar chairs
and this older chair is not, it’s going to stick out and
needs to
be brought in as a special centerpiece or focus to avoid throwing the
rest of the design off balance. You want to avoid questions
about
why there is one chair different from the rest of the patio set you
have out; it should be obvious, or it should go away.
Once you’ve determined that you can fit it in with the crowd,
you
can determine whether or not you should paint it. Most people
like cedar for its natural color. However, if there are now
imperfections in your old chair you wish to cover or it
doesn’t
seem to fit in with your other wood patio furniture, you can paint it
any color you like to turn it into a conversation piece. |
