When we moved into our house two years ago, part of the agreement was that the previous owners would leave the patio furniture. After two winters outside, I decided this spring to refinish this set. I wasn't really sure what that would entail, but I knew from my little wrought iron set (which I blogged about here) that two coats of polyurethane weren't going to cut it with this set.

The general rule seems to be to wash and apply teak oil to the set. Unfortunately this set has already been coated with polyurethane that was peeling and cracked and just about impossible to sand away. I have yet to finish the dining chairs, but for now, they're clean and I'll probably just paint them. I will never have the time or patience to do with them what is really necessary.

Here is my official "Before" picture. The weird markings on the chair are from old layers of poly. It's almost charming.

During powerwashing.....

Here are most of the pieces after power washing. In total there are 4 dining chairs, two lounge chairs, and a table.

The next step was to sand and sand and sand and sand......The polyurethane was really rubbery and weird to get off. I focussed on the table top, edges, legs, and the two lounge chairs. The dining chairs had too many curved surfaces and I just don't have the stamina or hand strength to sand the polyurethane off by hand.

Below is the sanded table....

The final step for the two lounge chairs and the table was 8 coats of spar varnish. I did this in May and it has been a very HOT summer...but also relatively wet. So far it has held up perfectly, but I will be covering these pieces in the winter. I attempted to use teak oil on one of the chairs. It just looks bad because of all the polyurethane that is still left on them. Eventually I'll paint them, but I just haven't had the time and it's been way too hot outside this summer to even enjoy any of this.

The table is really beautiful!

The next step was rehabing the cushions on the lounge chairs. I bought an outdoor material from Fabric.com that I liked and wound up just using the old cushions because foam is SUPER expensive and all of these pieces soaked up a lot of money in spar varnish Again, I used 8 coats of varnish on all the areas that might hold water, like the table top and under the lazy susan. I only used 4 coats for the under side of the table and chairs. Still, it adds up.

I didn't bother with zippers because I just don't see myself ever taking these off to wash them. The fabric was $5 a yard and I used old foam. If something happens to them, then it will be time to just start fresh. Plus, zipper cost money, and by this point, I was done spending money LOL It was starting to turn into a hot summer. I started this over Memorial day weekend and finished the cushions around the fourth of July.

I did remove the old covers prior to putting the new ones on. Pattern matching was perhaps my biggest concern on these, and one of the larger challenges, especially when I was also trying to avoid waste. I do have enough material left over to make some pillows or a table runner or something.

Teak Patio Furniture Refinish