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A Quick, Colorful Patio Makeover Just in Time for Summer

by on Jun 28, 2018

This post is sponsored by Wagner

We are in the season of outdoor lounging. Here in the upper Midwest, summer is at a premium and we live outside as much as possible. There’s no better way to indulge in this time of year than to sit on the patio and soak it all in.

My parents have a stunning backyard with gorgeous gardens, fruit trees, and fountains. They live outside in the summertime and spend hours on their patio. Though their backyard is spacious and lovely, there’s nothing special about the patio itself. They have a set of Adirondack chairs that were in need of a refresh. These chairs remain outside in the spring, summer, and fall and were in bad shape. Their paint was peeling and wearing off of the armrests.

In order to refresh them, we needed to remove most of the paint from the chairs in order to give them a clean base from which to work. The task of removing paint is generally a real pain. This is especially true with Adirondack chairs because they have so many angles and nooks and crannies. We immediately knew that sanding the chairs would take forever and be a messy job.

Instead, we used a Wagner Furno 750 heat gun to strip the chairs, and it was a game changer. The gun blasts high heat in a targeted stream and blisters the paint. Once the paint bubbles, you simply scrape it off with a straight edge. We’ve stripped furniture with chemicals and with sandpaper before, and this method was by far the best. It was easier, faster, and created way less mess.

Once most of the paint was peeled from the chairs, we gave them a light sanding to prep them to take the paint. Hand painting the chairs would have taken us days to finish, and the chairs would have showed all the brush marks.

Wagner FLEXiO 3000 Paint Sprayer

So we decided to turn to our trusty Wagner FLEXiO 3000 paint sprayer.  The FLEXiO 3000 can spray un-thinned latex or oil-based paints, primers and stains and gives a light-textured, roller-like finish. It’s perfect for jobs like this, where rolling is simply not an option, and brushing would take forever. But we’ve used a Wagner paint sprayer indoors as well, and were pleasantly surprised by how great they were for doing an interior wall.

Spraying a patio chair with a Wagner Paint Sprayer
A few tips for using a Wagner FLEXiO 3000 Paint Sprayer Properly
– Keep the nozzle tip clean! Carry a damp cloth around with you and wipe it frequently. This helps avoid spattering
– Spray closer to the surface than you think you need to. These sprayers don’t overspray very much, and its best to get pretty close (6-8 inches) to make sure the paint covers sufficiently.
– Use high quality paint.
– Find the right paint volume and fan power settings. Read the instruction manual that comes with the tool to learn how these settings affect your finish.
– Use the right nozzle head. The FLEXiO 3000 comes with two heads, a detail nozzle and a wide area nozzle. Use the one that’s appropriate for your job
Wagner FLEXiO air power settings

Wagner FLEXiO operating instructions

This is the third Wagner paint sprayer I’ve used on DIY projects, and it’s definitely my favorite design yet. The updated FLEXiO provides more even coverage with less overspray, and the new, numbered paint flow dial is really handy. Best of all, they reduced the number of parts in the nozzle, which makes it a lot easier to clean.

We wanted our chairs to have a satin, smooth finish, so we sprayed them using  Sherwin-Williams Tempe Star SW 6229.

The painting process was a breeze. We were able to paint six chairs in about three hours. We did two coats, plus touch-ups, allowing for some drying time in between coats. The paint process was quick and easy, and the finish was smooth.

Freshly-painted Adirondack patio chairs

And! Since we had another Wagner iSpray head lying around, it was really easy to pop in another color, and whip up another quick DIY project for this makeover: a stenciled outdoor rug.

We grabbed an old jute rug that had seen better days, and taped out a simple border on it. Then, we used the FLEXiO 3000 to spray a bold, black border on the rug, giving it a super quick refresh:

Blue tape marking off different sections of the floor.

A person standing on a tarp on the ground.

A person uses a paint brushing machine to put black paint on some wood.

The After!

First, a reminder of what the patio looked like before:

outside patio with spring style patio chairs mixed with white and orange

Now, here’s a look at how the chairs turned out:

A cute patio with bright blue Adirondack style chairs,
A blue lawn chair on a rug and stones with pillows on it.

lemon water outside a shelf

coffee table patio with 5 blue patio chairs
Two mostly empty glasses with orange slices in the bottom sit on a tray on a patio table.

Outdoor patio with two blue chairs and white throw pillows nestled between a modern wood end table.

A white bowl on a blue and white napkin next two to glasses of ice water with lemon

Want to see a few other paint sprayer projects?

A patterned rug sits under a sofa in a white room.

Tools can be used for painting .

White hallway with a coat hanger

Help us spread the love by sharing on Pinterest!

 

Patio chairs before & after

This post is sponsored by Wagner, but all opinions are mine alone. Thanks for supporting the great companies that make all the content on Curbly possible.

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