furniture face lift

j and i are [very] quickly learning that people weren't kidding about the never-ending "honey do" list when you're a homeowner. although the inside of the house still needs more work, we've been trying to focus on fixing up the outdoors (yeah - you know just in time for winter! go figure.) but anyways, here is our labor day weekend project #2 (see here for #1)

we had purchased this patio furniture set from ikea a little over a year ago. it was cute, cheap, and we couldn't wait to eat outdoors more; however, we failed in following the foot notes of the ikea instruction sheet by not sealing the furniture. that fail combined with leaving the chairs outdoors all year to endure all of the elements, left us with outdoor furniture looking like this:



for a close up:


even closer!:


i know what you're thinking - you can't wait to eat at this table, right?


so when we prepped the deck for staining, we figured we'd go ahead and pressure wash the furniture while we were at it. this is as we started pressure washing:


ta da!


now for the sanding (please note, we did put this part off for over a month. we're slackers sometimes so please forgive us):


now we're ready to stain! finally!:


here is the furniture after the first stain (we moved them to be in the sun to dry faster after we stained in the shade - it is august in georgia after all):


COMPLETE! now we just need to wait for those dang mosquitos to go away so we can actually be outside for longer than 5 seconds without getting bitten (thanks for the advice JC)!


with projects #1 and #2 are finished, now it's on to the next one (there are so many to choose from)! lastly, i just need to recover the outdoor cushions and plan a backyard party - i'm thinking the fire pit will need to make an appearance! yay fall!

hope you're all getting out in this wonderful weather and enjoying every second of it! ♥