Winter Restoration

Renovating weathered furniture

All to often we purchase lovely hardwood furniture... but forget to protect it!

Many of our clients come to us with the most amazing hardwood furniture that when purchased looked vibrant but alas the care instructions went missing. Thinking that it was already treated the furniture was put to immediate use and the advice to protect especially in winter is forgotten.

Here are two examples that with patience and more than a little elbow grease were brought back to life .

The chair was left outside without protection...

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... with moss and the elements to do their worst

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So we removed the moss and sanded back as far as we could..

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... before staining, sanding and then staining again!!!

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Until the beautiful chair was revealed.

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This solid teak garden table had also suffered!

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With bleaching leaving every surface a very sad grey.

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So once again we removed all the surface debris and sanded and stained...

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Until this gorgreous little thing was brought back to life.

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The Advice

If you do decide on a lovely new piece of hardwood furniture for the garden ALWAYS read the care instructions!

These will in most cases remind you that the piece should be covered in winter to protect it from the elements and at least once a year to treat with a suitable oil to prevent the wood from drying out too much and splitting. This treatment should also be carried out as soon as you get it home!

For older existing pieces the work is a lot more time consuming as you can imagine. For the examples above we use a tried and tested method...

Remove all debris such as dirt, moss and wildlife using a mix of wire brushes and scrapers. (You will be surprised how many spiders you find!) But do not worry about causing minor scratches to the wood.
Sand back ALL surfaces using at least a 80 grade sandpaper to reveal the original appearance of the wood. (It does not have to be perfect!)
Carefully stain ALL surfaces with a light coat of a good quality exterior stain. Take note that the colour of the stain may change depending on the wood. For example we normally use a natural oak stain but in the case of the chair above we chose an antique pine to add a sense of warmth to the appearance.
Once dry (Follow the instructions on the tin) use flexible sanding pads to gently smooth the raised grain and then add another coat of stain. Take care not to allow the stain to pool or drip as this will cause dark patches of thick stain to form. Then allow to dry once again.
Using some of the already used sand pads gently run over all surfaces then remove any dust with a soft cloth. We find that micro-fibre cloths are best.
Finally use a furniture wax (applied in small circles to all surfaces) to bring back the colour and add a shine. This also can be done using 2 micro-fibre cloths. One to apply and the other to buff.