I love a good vintage find. That’s why I got so excited, slammed on my brakes, and stopped in front of my neighbor’s garbage pile when I spotted two rusty metal and well loved garden chairs. They were chippy, rusty, a little bent, and clearly looked like garbage. But to me, they were beautiful. Follow along as I restore these vintage garden chairs.
New and used metal garden furniture is expensive! When we stopped in front of the neighbor’s house on our way to the farm for our milk pick-up, I had the boys hop out of the car and run the chairs back to our house.
Painting Vintage Garden Chairs: Meadow Green
We then made a pit stop at the local Ace Hardware to pick up the perfect color of Meadow Green spray paint by Rust-oleum. Two cans covered the two chairs with two coats of paint. When choosing a spray paint, be sure to select on that is made for outdoor use and covers rust.
Later that day, I started cleaning up the chairs. I took out the pressure washer and blasted as much old chippy paint and rust off that I could.
I let the chairs dry overnight, then cleaned the remaining old paint and rust off with steel wool. Starting with a course steel wool, I sanded all of the parts of the chair. Be sure to wear gloves and protective eye wear while sanding with steel so as not to get little bits steel in your skin and eyes.
Time to sand
After sanding with course steel wool, switch to a fine steel wool. Finish sanding the chairs. Then, wipe down with a microfiber cloth. Here is the steel wool that I used for this project.
Depending on how rusty the chairs are, you may not be able to get all of the rust off. We live on a lake as our neighbors do as well, and the bottom of the metal chairs looked like they were sitting in the water and were extremely rusty. I wasn’t able to remove all of the rust but got it smooth enough that there were no rusty sharp spots.
I spray painted the chairs in the grass away from the house. Before spray painting the charis, I placed a plastic garbage bag under them to keep the dirt and grass off of the wet paint.
After giving the chairs one full coat of paint, I let them dry for about an hour and then gave them a second coat. I made sure to put extra paint covering any rusty spots.
Our new to us restored vintage garden chairs are ready to be used and make the garden extra beautiful with their bright green color and design.
If you love a good DIY project check out my post about making a slip cover for an old arm chair. I covered it in green velvet. I guess I love green chairs!
Thanks for stopping by! For more homemade family inspiration and recipes follow along @homesteadonlakeside .
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