Emerging, blinking, into the bright spring sunshine after a long winter’s hibernation, I’ve noticed our wooden garden furniture is in a bit of a state.
I love the subtle silvery colour it has weathered down to, but I’m also aware it means the wood is totally unprotected, at risk from sun damage, cracking, splitting, mould, mildew and all the rest. Which means it won’t last as long as it should.
Posh wooden garden furniture sets deserve love and care. Even cheap garden furniture can last for years and years as long as you look after it.
Luckily there’s a very special week-long money-off offer on the cards, covering all our garden furniture maintenance products. It kicks off on 3rd May and lasts until the 10th, perfect for the spring DIY season. If, like me, you’ll be out there on bright May weekends transforming ratty, weather-beaten solid wood garden furniture into something sleek, gleaming and as good as new, this one’s for you!
15% off garden furniture maintenance, preservation and decor products
Keep your wood garden table and chairs looking like new with our comprehensive range of wooden garden furniture treatments, wood revivers and wood preservers, garden furniture oil (ideal for our silvery grey table and chairs), plus some cool, easy to use ‘makeover’ garden furniture paint products, available in gorgeous wood tones and stylish pastel colours.
- PROMOTION CODE: FURNITURE15
- Use the promo code at the checkout and we’ll apply your 15% discount automatically (Offer has now EXPIRED)
What can you achieve with all these top class products? Wonderful things!
Painted garden furniture – Hiding a multitude of sins with COLOUR
If you’re bored stiff of your outdoor garden furniture and fancy ringing the creative changes, how about adding colour? Osmo Natural Oil Woodstain is an excellent translucent all-in-one stain formulated to protect, feed and enhance exterior wood. And Osmo Country Colour is a fabulous product, colourful, opaque and oil-based with a lovely satin-matt paint finish.
And there’s more! How about painting your wood gazebo to match or contrast with your outdoor furniture? Like painting furniture, it’s a fiddly job. But exercise patience and the end result will knock your socks off – a breath of fresh air to cheer up a tired outdoor space.
Using garden furniture treatment for conservatory furniture
If you have a wooden table and chairs or wood loungers in your conservatory, they can suffer much the same damage as if they were outdoors. Many conservatories suffer from condensation, which is just another word for ‘damp’. When the sun blasts through the glass, you can get warping and other kinds of heat damage. And the temperature differential means you go from hot to cold incredibly fast.
Which brings us to a top tip: To avoid rot, keep garden furniture away from damp and shaded areas. And be careful when moving wooden items indoors at the end of the summer, since sudden, dramatic differences between the temperature and moisture outdoors and indoors can make the wood split.
Rattan garden furniture maintenance
Rattan is similar to wood, made from incredibly strong, resilient palm tree stems. Rattan has a strong core, is very hard to break, and most rattan furniture is bound together using the stem’s tough outside skin. Rattan is a specific material, while wicker furniture can be made from any number of different materials including bamboo, straw and rattan.
How to keep rattan furniture in good condition?
- Brush off dirt and dust with a stiff scrubbing brush.
- Clean once a month with a solution of hot soapy water, making sure you get between the cracks and in the corners. The more muck you can remove, the better!
- When the rattan looks all dry and cracked, it’s time for seroius action. Apply some Boiled Linseed Oil (not included in our 15% off sale). Regular linseed oil doesn’t dry and harden, so make sure you get the boiled stuff. Apply the oil until the rattan no longer absorbs it, when wipe it clean with a soft cloth and let it dry completely. Linseed Oil, natural or boiled should only be used on conservatory furniture as although its great for wood, it can attract insects who actually like to chomp on it and the wood its on.
- Add rubber feet to the legs to help prevent rot.
Maintaining teak garden furniture sets
Most of the best quality wood patio furniture is made of Teak and it’s a really easy wood to care for, needing very little maintenance and lasting for decades. On the other hand if you use the wrong type of product, it can actually harm the wood.
While the silver-grey colour of weathered teak gives it a rustic appeal, many of us prefer to restore the furniture to its lovely honey colour. This can be done, but if your furniture is exposed to sunlight over the summer you’ll need to repeat the process every year.
For a durable finish and brilliant longer-term protection we recommend Barrettine Garden Furniture Oil, which is perfect for maintaining woods like Ipe, Ironwood, Iroko, Idigbo, Meranti and Cedar, all of which have a fine grain and contain plenty of rich, natural oils. While conventional oils find it harder to penetrate the grain, Teak Sealer is thinner and gets into the pores easily.
If you just need a quick ‘n’ simple facelift, try Teak Oil. As with any product, you can get hi end and low and in terms of quality, we sell 3 of the best Teak Oil brands around. And the good news is that they are all in our garden furniture sale.
The big garden bench maintenance challenge
Wooden garden benches come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and flavours, from cast iron to cheap softwood and beautiful, rugged hardwood benches made to last a lifetime. How you look after them depends on the type of wood your bench or garden chair is made of.
How can you tell? Here’s a link to our post about how to tell the difference between soft and hard woods.
Our 15% off event includes proven, popular wood treatments for every kind of exterior wood including benches and fences, chairs and tables, gazebos, sheds and decks. Just pick your product of choice and arm yourself with a good quality paint brush!
Watch the crazy British weather
You can bring your outdoor furniture indoors, of course, and give it the treat of its life in the garage or shed. Otherwise it makes sense to watch the weather. If May turns out soggy and damp, it’s probably best to wait until your garden furniture is completely dry before kicking off your maintenance schedule. If it pees down all over your beautiful work before it dries properly, or you use the products on damp wood, the final effect will never be as good.
15% of all these brilliant products and more…
Here’s a quick run-down of just five of the excellent external wood finishing products we’re discounting:
- Barrettine Premier Wood Preservative – A solvent-based preservative giving microporous protection against rot, fungi, decay and mould, available in a clear version plus 7 cool colours
- Osmo UV Protection Oil Extra – The ultimate protection for sun-greyed wood including a powerful factor 12 UV filter
- Barrettine Danish Oil – Food, pet and child safe with a traditional formula designed to feed outdoor wood
- Sadolin Extra Durable Woodstain – A remarkably tough exterior varnish-based woodstain in 12 attractive shades
- Osmo Wood Reviver Gel – A fully biodegradable, odourless product to restore sun-bleached and weather damaged wood
Lost the garden furniture treatment plot?
Not to worry. If you’re bedazzled and bewildered, we’ll be more than happy to talk through the options. Just give our friendly team a call.
