Refinished porch rockers
I was in the right place at the right time when I found these 2 porch rockers. My husband I had finished building our porch and I new it needed a set of rocking chairs.
I started by numbering all the slats of the seat on the back r1, r2,r3 (r for red b for blue) ect. and removing them. Then I used 120 grit sandpaper and an orbital sander to remove all the paint. Since the paint was coming off easily I didn’t need to use any chemical removers. I typically only use chemicals if the paint or finish peels and balls up on my sandpaper. After I got as much paint off as I could with my sander, I folded a piece of 60 grit sandpaper in half and use it to take the paint off the cracks and tight areas. Then I did a final sanding with my orbital sander (and some by hand) with 220 grit sandpaper.
I bought a gallon of exterior dutchboy duraclean paint (that I do not recommend for furniture) and used my sprayer to apply the paint. I set all of the seat slats in a row with the numbers all on one side and sprayed the bottoms first, careful to not spray the numbers. I also tipped the chairs forward and sprayed the underside of them first. After everything dried, I tipped the chairs upright and turned the slats over and sprayed again. Again, I did not spray the back of the slats where I had numbered them. After everything was dry, I screwed the slats back onto the seat and gave the chairs one final spray obviously, covering the numbers this time. Had I brushed the paint on, I would have needed about a quart of paint but since I sprayed, I used a little over half of a gallon.
This project would probably use around 2 cans of spray paint per chair but please note that spray paint is not going to give as good of coverage as a regular paint does. I have a lot people that tell me they are terrible at projects like this but it’s not the person, it’s the products they use. Advertisers and DIY shows push these products but don’t show the true end result. I even saw Joanna Gaines spray painting some kitchen chairs once (1 can for 4 chairs). It doesn’t work that easily!
I am very picky about paint. I have my favorites for interior paints that you can read about here. But I’m still experimenting with exterior. Dutchboy Duraclean does have good coverage but it’s (2 weeks later) still tacky. My shirt still sticks to it when I get up. I think it would be fine for painting crafts or a building but not for furniture. I’ve had no problem with it peeling off or leaving black tracks on my porch floor so it does have good adhesion. If you have a favorite exterior paint or have had a bad experience with exterior paint, please feel free to comment!
