No Rest for the Wicker...

Wow. I think that title just might be the worst pun in creation! Hold on; I can make it work, you'll see... :-)

Sitting out on the front porch on these long mild evenings has been a big part of this summer for me. I love to sip me some ice cold lemonade -- ah! Bliss. This bliss almost didn't happen: our front porch wicker set was not fit for sittin' this year. We've been leaving it out all year for a couple of years and it was not looking too good. Ready for retirement. So, off I go window shopping for a new set; I was delighted to find that "wicker" is now PVC vinyl, woven around a steel frame. Not the most romantic, but looks just like the real thing, and all you do to get your set ready for sittin' is to hose it down! Huzzah! I've always had the original kind that you have to strip and repaint to have it look decent. Okay, back down to earth; the price of the set that resembled mine? Yeah, not gonna happen this year! Time to trot out the old set.

No rest for the wicker -- see? I pulled it off! ;-)

Yeah, that's me in my stunning painting outfit. Here's what I did to bring the old set back. First, I got a good stiff brush and aggressively removed as much of the old paint as I could. My set's a little more fragile, so I didn't go the wire brush route. Then I gave the set a high pressure wash from the garden hose and let the whole set dry. At this point, I got busy and so it was a couple of days later until I could get to it again, but I would at least let the wicker dry overnight. Then off to Home Depot, where I bought primer and paint. One coat of primer (letting that dry for several hours or even overnight), and two coats of spray paint made for wicker (I waited at least an hour between paint coats.). I have better results when I use primer to repaint wicker.

Here's a little before and after shot. A little paint makes a big difference. Hopefully my wicker furniture will be up for a couple more summers. Can't miss my porch time!