Updating Your Backyard: Everything Old is New Again

It’s dispiriting to look at beat-up wood, worn-out-looking wicker and rusted metal on your outdoor furniture pieces, given how pricey it could be to replace. Luckily, we live in the era of Pinterest, DIY blogs and home improvement websites that make it easier than ever to find inspiration and project ideas to tailor to your own tastes and needs.

A blog post at the Creativity Exchange shows just how transformative the changes can be, with two wood Adirondack rockers and a bench going from faded wood to semi-gloss black painted showstoppers. Family Handyman.com offers 15 tips to painting outdoor furniture, including what paint to use, whether prep is needed, and how to get the best results. If you are adventurous enough, you can even extend the paint party to your outdoor fabric chair cushions.

Thanks to specialty paint products like chalk paint, which doesn’t require sanding or priming, and even spray paints that work on wood, metal, wicker, glass and plastic furniture that is exposed to the elements, you can give what you have new life with minimal hassle. The Frugal Homemaker at her blog details her success in reviving her burgundy cushions with Krylon spray paint.

The upcycling boom shows no signs of slowing down, but do-it-yourselfers have moved beyond repurposing just pallets and concrete blocks to up the style quotient in their backyards. The key is to reimagine furniture and décor you may already have or can buy at a good price. Ideas include plastic trash cans from IKEA or the dollar stores repainted and used as planters, old light globes as gazing balls and shoe organizers or rain gutters as vertical gardens.

Pinterest is a good place to start when it comes to inspiration on seeing everyday objects in a new light. Dinah Wulf, founder of the website DIY Inspired, did just that when asked to repurpose an IKEA changing table as part of a decorating challenge for Parents Magazine. “My job was to totally transform/repurpose it into another piece of furniture that serves as entirely different function altogether within a $50 budget,” she said. Wulf went to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, “where I bought some cabinet doors and a few other things … and my successful trash-to-treasure hunt led me to make an outdoor potting bench for spring.”

—
Photo Credit:  Todd Castor / Shutterstock.com