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Painting an iron and wooden garden bench with Aileen Hogan of Shabby.ie

Aileen Hogan of Shabby.ie – Fleetwood Paints Upcycling Ambassador 2019/20

Last week I started the ‘Iron & Wood Garden Bench Makeover’. It was Easter week and the sun had finally come out again. This poor bench was looking a bit tired, dirty and unloved and as I had inherited it from my Father I wanted to bring it back to life.

I have a lot of emotional attachment to this bench, as it sat for years outside my parents home and everyone who visited would sit and have a cuppa in the sun, including myself, many many times. I remember my Father changing the wood on it. I suppose after a decade or so, the wood weathered to a point that it needed replacing while the iron work will last forever !

You can see what I started with, rough weathered wood and iron work that is dirty and paint chipping.

STEP 1 :

The first thing I did was sand the wood with my palm sander with a medium grade sandpaper. Some of the stain came off, but more importantly the wood levelled back to smooth and all the loose bits came off. I then used a superfine sanding pad (22o grade) to smooth it even more.

STEP 2 :

I gave all the iron work a good wash down with a sponge and a 50/50 mix of methylated spirits and water. This improved the look so much ! You don’t realise how much is actually DIRT!

You can see the difference above after just the cleaning!

STEP 3:

I wanted to prime the wood and seal in that dark stain. I used the best primer for the job and that is and oil based primer called BLOXX IT and I rolled on two full coats to get very good coverage. You can buy this in your local Fleetwood stockist or online HERE

STEP 4 :

The next step was to choose which colour. I went for a bright colour to liven up the garden and a colour that I knew would look good with red geraniums and roses., The colour I chose was Shabby Teal from my paint collection for Fleetwood Paints and I used the advanced eggshell finish.

STEP 5 :

For the iron work I used a paint especially for metal and one that will go over rust! very important. There wasn’t much rust on it but i didn’t want to have to get those little bits off ! Fleetwood Metalshield is for interior and exterior metal and there is no primer needed before painting.

I wanted to go for black as I felt it was a richer colour than white and would go well with the teal. And here it is all finished!! Delighted with it. Yes a bit of work, but it was a labour of love as it means so much to me. Its almost like my Dad still sits beside me when i have my cuppa now outside my back door.