Finishing The Outdoor Furniture

Guys.  What a difference some stain makes.  Remember when I built the outdoor couches and side tables/coffee table?  Or the outdoor cooler?  No?  Let me refresh your memory.






Well last weekend I got around to sanding them and finally staining them to match the Adirondack chairs.  You can see in the side tables picture below, that I had already started to sand them.  Being outdoors for a year definitely weathered them.  


So the one on the left hasn't been sanded yet and the one on the right has.  Almost looks like it did a year ago when I built them!  Well EVERYTHING needed to be sanded.  Couches, tables, and cI thought it would but I really wanted to make sure every nook and cranny got at least a once over so that the stain would take and not look splotchy.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to the staining until the next day.  But once I did, they started to look so different!  They were beautiful.  That stain makes such a difference.  I already did this to the chairs so it really shouldn't have been all that shocking.  But I really were surprised at how different they looked.  And how much BETTER they looked.

I started with the tables.  So they went from above to this...


Next was the cooler.  Now it looks like this!




Still need to put the lid handle, bottle opener, and cap catcher back on.  Also I moved it so that it's tucked in the corner and the grill is outside of that area.  Which you'll be able to see a few photos down.

Then came the couches turn.  

Didn't get any pictures of the couches during the staining process but here are the finished pieces set up in their little nook of the patio.




I've turned them from the original way they were set up.  Not sure if they'll stay this way or not cuz the couch against the sunroom wall gets the sun facing it.  Therefore that's a terrible place to sit unless you like being blinded by the sun.  But I wanted to get them away from the privacy panel so that it could cure and get weathered like the top part was already doing.  That will eventually be stained next year the same color as the furniture.

I don't know if I've shared the concept of that privacy panel from the other side yet.  But the front side (not view-able in this photo) is the veggie area.  The back side will have the outdoor lights for a little mood lighting.  Bow chica bow wow.  Here it is pre-table staining but this'll be the gist.  I have 3 boxes of those lights so I'll figure out what I eventually want to do with them once I get that panel stained.  But for now, they hang the way they are.  :)


Oh while I had the stain out, I put a second coat on the chairs....



I also don't know if I mentioned but I got a nicer, bigger patio table for outside this summer too.  It was a LOT of money but soooooo worth it.  I eat outdoors quite often, even when I don't grill dinner.  So having something comfortable was key.  Before I had a rectangle table that took up too much room.  This one is bigger in size but I think because it's round, it fits much better in the space. Don't mind the weeds. 



It didn't come with the umbrella but had a matching one you could buy.  That fucker was $119 and when I already dropped a LOT of money on the table, I said hell no to it.  Especially since I had 2 perfectly functional umbrellas already.  So for a while I used one of the aqua ones I already had.  But end of season clearance happened and VIOLA!


Matching umbrella to cushions!  This umbrella, while I don't think was worth the original price, is definitely bigger than what I was using, is better material, and tilts automatically rather than having to get on my tippy toes and make it tilt.  So for the convenience, the money was worth it.  HAH.  Now I use the two aqua umbrellas by the couches.  Oh and the above photo shows where the grill is now.  Instead of that being jammed in the corner and it being difficult to pull it out to cook, it's much easier to deal with.

The backyard is about done and where I want it to be.  I feel like I have been working on this backyard since I bought the house because it was so terrible.  I mean, the first few years I owned the house, I closed curtains in front of the slider going out to the then screened porch because the porch and yard were so disgusting.  Now, after adding the paver patio, the furniture, the fence, and really focusing on the grass (which lets be honest, I paid good money to have the shit that was back there ripped up and re-graded and had sod put down).... it FINALLY is a place where I love to spend most of our time.


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