Recently I decided my garden bench that used to be a Craig’s List bed frame, needed to be refinished. I repaired, sanded and repainted the bench before setting it onto our porch where it would get less exposure to the rain.

Well, it wasn’t weathering the elements too nicely. Or maybe I should say it was weathering them poorly. Regardless, I really liked the bench and decided to strip it and start over again. I believe the main problem was that the bed frame was not solid wood, it was glued pieces. Then, if you factor in that I used spray primer and spray paint, the rain and moisture got in easily and caused the wood to swell and some of the glued joints to come undone.

But, the bench was still structurally sound, so we moved it onto the screen porch and I got ready to refinish it.

Refinishing a Weathered Garden Bench

Safey First, (as Meri-K will tell you.) Because I was sanding and scraping the old paint I had to wear eye protection and a dust mask. I also wore ear plugs while sanding and gloves to keep my hands from getting rough.

Materials:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Instructions:

Begin by using the wire brush to remove any flaking paint and to get into the grooves of the spindles (and other hard to reach places.)

Tip from a Handy Girl: I am about to share with you a helpful time saving trick, so pay attention. If you have a power sander that holds the sandpaper with a clip. You can stack your sandpaper. I put the 220 grit on the bottom, then put the 1oo grit on top of that. After sanding my bench with the 100 grit, I simply tear off the top sheet and expose the finer 220 grit.

Sand down the bench with a rough 100 grit paper first, then follow up with a finer 220 grit sand paper.

Secure any loose pieces of the bench. To use Gorilla Glue, you need to moisten the two pieces that you will secure.

Then put a small amount of Gorilla glue onto one of the pieces.

Clamp the joined pieces and allow to dry overnight. (By the way, don’t waist your money on cheap clamps. That little black & orange number below just bit the dust last weekend. My Irwin clamp is a CHAMP!) Check back after 30 minutes to wipe off any Gorilla glue that has spread out of the seam.

Because the posts on my bench were really falling apart, I decided to remove the ball finials.

Use a saw to cut both finials off.

Patch the hole using toothpicks and wood glue.

After the glue has completely dried, saw off the toothpicks.

Add a curtain rod finial on top of the sawed off posts.

It looks like those finials were there all along!

Clean your bench off with a damp rag to remove any sawdust.

Cover the entire bench with one coat of KILZ Clean Start Primer. Want to know why I use KILZ Clean Start primer for all my projects now? Read how much I love it in this post where I used the same primer for painting a bamboo rug. I’m never buying any other primers (unless I’m priming a tricky surface, then I’ll use BIN 1-2-3 oil based primer. But, I won’t be happy about using that stinky stuff.)

After the primer has dried, use a piece of fine grit sand paper to gently remove any burrs or imperfections.

Then wipe off the bench with another damp wipe. I used Benjamin Moore Impervo Semi Gloss paint for the top coat on my bench. It leaves a really tough coating and will hold up to wear and tear.

Roll on the paint in one area. Then follow up with a brush to even out the paint. Remember to run your brush in the same direction as the grain of the wood.

Lightly sand after the first coat has dried and finish up with a second coat of Benjamin Moore Impervo paint. I didn’t add polyurethane, but if you are really concerned about a piece of furniture that will be exposed to the elements, go ahead and add two or more coats of polyurethane.

My bench should successfully last outside now for three reasons:

  1. I moved it inside the porch and out of the direct sun and rain.
  2. I primed the bench with a good quality brush-on primer (instead of a spray paint type.)
  3. I brushed on two coats of paint making sure I got into all the cracks and crevices of the bench.

Here she is in her newfound home, our screen porch:



With zero VOCs and the quality that is standard in all the KILZ products, this primer is a must have for the DIY painter!

 

Disclaimer: The products mentioned in this post are products that I use and stand behind. The opinions expressed in this post are authentically mine. I was sent a gallon of KILZ Clean Start Primer and the Irwin Quick Grip clamp to try out, but I was not paid or swayed to write favorable things about the products. If I don’t like a product, I won’t write about it. And I certainly won’t pass it off on my valued readers.

 

 


Let me hear some noise! Blow the horns, shout out loud, let’s get ready to PAARRRTTTYYYY!

Could there be a more exciting week? I think not! On this date one year ago, Pretty Handy Girl was born. I wrote my first blog post and since then y’all have followed me through the beautiful and the ugly.

But, wait, there’s more! On Thursday, 40 years ago, I was born!

I couldn’t be more excited to celebrate my 40th birthday with you and you and you – all 3,350 of you (and counting!)

In honor of this memorable week, I will have a different giveaway for each day. In no particular order, here are some of the gifts I have for you (thanks to some wonderful companies who donated them.)

Janimie Necklace of Your Choice

Dremel Trio

A Selection of All Things Pretty Handy Girl (Sorry, I will not be included in the box.)

KILZ Primer

Gift Certificate to spend at Leen the Graphics Queen

A Selection of Irwin Tools

AND MORE!!!

So, be sure to stop by EVERY day this week to see what you could win! Who’s with me now? Can I get a woot woot!

I leave you with a photo compilation of me over the past 40 years. Enjoy!

P.s. Get a load of my wings and my hot prom date! No funny comments, that was me and Pretty Handsome Guy in the 80’s. {Baahahaha. LOL}

I had my oldest Pretty Handsome Boy choose a reader tonight. Call me old fashioned, but I decided it was more fun to have a traditional pull a name from a hat drawing instead of using Random.org. I planned on cutting up all the followers’ names and putting them in a hat. Well, then I discovered that there are almost 800 followers now! So, in the interest of choosing a name tonight (instead of some time next week), I asked my son to pick a number between 1 and 788. He chose 530. Then I matched that number to my compiled follower list in Excel (okay, maybe not old fashioned after all.)

And, the lucky #530 follower is…

NANCY!

Come on down girl and collect your prize.

You are the winner of a fabulous CD/DVD Car Visor Wallet – but wait, there is more – it comes fully loaded with $25 to spend on Amazon.com.

Okay, okay, calm down, I know you are excited. Let me tell my readers a little bit about you.

Nancy lives in Northern New York and has a blog called Flatrock Cabin. Recently she and her husband renovated her craft room. You can see the details of this multi-tasking crafter’s dream here.

And she has a sweet little companion that keeps her company when she’s crafting.

Congratulations Nancy, I hope you put that gift certificate to good use.

Everyone else, I hope you had a fantastically Happy Halloween. I know our boys had a fun time. Pretty Handsome Guy and I slaved on some very lavish costumes.

We were black eyed peas. Ha, ha! It took us all of about 5 minutes to pull these outfits together.

Now that November has arrived, I’m excited because I have a lot of new projects to show you. Stay tuned…

Ahem, may I have the drumroll please?

 Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tata…

…and the winning number chosen by Random.org is:

#59 (well, that is random isn’t it!)

 

Michelle! Wooohooo! Come on down and pick up your prize:

And for everyone else, don’t be blue. I was a busy beaver in September and stood up to Robin’s Stashbusting Challenge. So, when I saw this tutorial written by Jorja over at Puking Pastilles (Great name! Don’t you think? Any other Harry Potter fans?) I knew this was a great way to bust some of my fabric scraps.

I took some of these:

And a few of these:

And cut them like this:

Then did a little of this:

To make this:

And because I already had my stash out, I also made these:

But, I put the most effort and love into this one:

Because it is for someone very special to me! You!

I will choose one of my followers (via Google Friend Follower or FeedBurner) to receive a Pretty and Handy CD/DVD visor wallet. So, you too can roll around town with one of these:

But, wait! There’s more! Inside one of the sleeves will be tucked one of these:

And the best part is that if you are already a follower you will be eligible. You don’t have to do ANYTHING! No tweets, no likes, no comments, nada, zilch, nothing.

One of my Pretty Handy Assistants (Boy #1 and Boy #2) will choose a follower for me at the end of October. So, if you aren’t a follower, head over to my side bar and either click the “Follow” button or add your email address to the FeedBurner subscriber box.

Thanks again to all my readers. I wish you good luck in October!

Now, I have officially said goodbye to Summer. Sniff, sniff.