Last year, in an attempt to gain more outdoor living space, I bought two wood lounge chairs at Ikea. After a year being exposed to the elements,they were in rather sad shape.
Mom had just finished staining her deck with a solid color deck stain from Sherwin Williams. I liked the dark charcoaly-green color and she had just a bit left over. Being the helpful daughter I am, I tried to use it up. Plus it has a five year warranty for decks, so I should not have to do this again for a while.
I wiped down the chairs to get the dirt, pine needles, and other crusty stuff off. If you really want to do it up right, clean with a deck cleaner.
I painted one coat with a foam brush. If I did this over again, I would use a real paintbrush. The foam brushes tore apart midway through the second chair. But cleaning brushes is a huge pain to me, so I'm all about disposable.
I did one thin coat. A few things I learned about this product: Stir really well to mix the stain as it tends to separate if left standing for a few days. It's a lot runnier than paint, so thin coats and use a dropcloth.
After one coat it looked nice, but the wood still showed through.
And then it rained for four days.
After the downpours stopped, I let the chairs dry out for a few days. Then I painted a thin second coat on and let it dry while I went out of town for work.
When I got back, they look like this:
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