Caring for Outdoor Furniture

Q: I’m planning to buy some good-quality wooden outdoor furniture for my deck. My neighbor’s outdoor table and chairs are looking pretty sad already, and they’re only a couple of years old. How should I go about caring for outdoor furniture so that it looks good over the long haul?

A: Having a lovely outdoor sitting and dining area adds so much pleasure to a home. If you live in a temperate climate, it feels like a must. Even a small balcony or patio feels like a whole other room in your home if you can dine there. But buying quality outdoor furniture—especially wood furniture—is a major investment. A teak table that serves six can cost thousands. Each chair can run $500 – $1000 or more. Sturdy and attractive alternatives to teak, such as eucalyptus or acacia, are more affordable. However, they still aren’t cheap. New chairs, benches, outdoor sofas, dining tables, gliders, and wooden porch swings look great when new. But to keep them looking good for the long term, caring for outdoor furniture takes a little bit of time and effort about twice a year.

I oil my wooden outdoor furniture at the beginning of the outdoor season (April or May), and again at the end of the season (September or October). Oiling your furniture at least this often will make a big difference in its appearance. If you oil and store or cover outdoor furniture regularly, you can double its usable life. You’ll also delay cracking, splintering, and warping.

Metal outdoor furniture requires special care to keep it from rusting. Wicker furniture needs love to keep it from sagging, splitting, or mildewing. We’ll touch on how to keep these materials looking good and functioning well over the long haul, too.

Oil Outdoor Wood Well & Often

It’s best to oil wood and keep it covered during the winter months. This keeps sun and water from bleaching it, and significantly slows down the loss of color. It also keeps wood from turning rough and splintering.

Do you want your furniture to weather to silvery grey, as teak does when left untreated? First, wash it at the beginning and end of the outdoor season. When it’s dry, apply a neutral furniture oil, such as lemon oil. If you leave it outdoors all year round, it’ll turn grey faster. (But it’ll also crack and the wood will get rougher earlier.) Using neutral oil does slow the greying a bit, but also keeps the wood from splintering, so it’s worth it.

Maybe you’d rather keep the warm tones of the wood for as long as possible. If so, use oil with a bit of brown stain in it to refresh or alter wood tones. I recommend Penofin oil; I used to buy it at the local lumberyard. It seals decks, and it comes colorless or with added color. You can use it to darken or change the color of your wood.

My old Crate & Barrel dining set and outdoor benches kept their lovely brown-stained finish and avoided warping and splitting for over a decade. I used untinted oil each spring and autumn, and stored my furniture in the garage each winter. I always store all outdoor furniture cushions in boxes or large trash bags in my attic or in the rafters of the garage in the off-season. Make sure they’re thoroughly dry before you box or bag them up, so they don’t grow mildew or develop a bad smell in storage. It’s best to cover them while they’re being stored, or they’ll get dusty and discolored.

Oiling outdoor furniture

Caring for outdoor furniture does take a little time if you want it to last. Oiling a wooden outdoor table and six chairs well takes about an hour, give or take. You’ll want to apply oil to your clean, dry furniture outside, or with all windows wide open if it’s on a screened-in porch. You’ll need excellent ventilation, both to avoid breathing in fumes and to keep from causing a fire hazard.

Apply the oil to a clean cotton rag. I like using very cheap, white terry cloth washcloths—colored washcloths can stain wood. I buy these cloths in bulk at home improvement stores or Target. When you rub the oil on your furniture, follow the grain of the wood. Make sure to cover all exposed surfaces. Some will drip, so if you oil furniture on a sunporch, put a tarp under it so you don’t stain your flooring.

Let the oil soak in for at least ten minutes, then use a fresh, dry towel to wipe it down. This avoids oil pooling, minimizes likelihood of attracting dust, and lets you use furniture sooner. It’s best to let the oil on chairs soak in overnight so it won’t come off on your clothing. If you can’t wait that long, wipe it down well with a clean cloth after you’ve waited at least an hour to see whether it’s ready for use.

Tabletop Decor Traps Dirt & Stains Wood

Outdoor tables look terrific topped with planters, lanterns, candles, platters, or bowls. However, anything that sits on top of your table will gather dust around it. When it rains, that dust can get washed into the wood and discolor it. This is especially true around planters. Soil and water often get washed onto the wood and lighten or darken the wood stain. Even one rainy day can cause permanent stains on a table with such decorations on it.

To avoid damage or staining, you can do a few things:

• Only put decorations out just before you go outside to enjoy your patio or deck furniture
• Take decorations in at night and before showers and storms
• Keep your table well oiled to repel water and stains
• Put saucers or trays under any plants on outdoor tables
• Consider using table runners underneath those saucers. If you plan to keep your table covered day and night, use water-repellent outdoor fabrics that won’t fade in the sun

Caring for Metal Furniture

Metal outdoor furniture needs regular upkeep, too. Again, you’ll want to start by cleaning it and letting it dry thoroughly. Then add a coat of automotive paste wax to all surfaces. If you use paste wax every time you clean your furniture, you can prevent rust build-up. It’ll keep surfaces shiny and smooth—just wipe it down thoroughly after you wax. As with wooden furniture, do this at least twice a year. This will keep your patio furniture looking newer longer.

Keeping metal furniture out of wet weather is especially important unless it’s powder-coated and impervious to moisture. If it’s prone to chipping or rusting, keep it clean and apply a fresh coat of paint to it as necessary. Hardware stores carry special paints for outdoor metal furniture. Rust-Oleum paints are particularly good. They also make a clear coat that you can spray over existing finishes to waterproof them without changing their color.

Wicker Furniture Doesn’t Like Extremes

First, let’s define wicker. Wicker isn’t a material—it’s a weaving technique seen most commonly in basketry and furniture. It comes in two main varieties: natural wicker made of rattan, and synthetic wicker made of resin. In each case, many thin lengths of pliable material are woven together and held in place around a sturdy frame. Both materials can look beautiful and stay functional over time, but they need care to hold up over the long haul.

Natural wicker

Rattan, the material used to make natural wicker, is made from the outer skin of one of 600 species of solid tropical timber vine. These vines—which are found in Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and the Malay Archipelago—wrap themselves around other trees. Rattan makers remove the inner core, then flatten the flexible outer layer and wrap it around wooden or metal furniture frames. Contrary to popular belief, rattan is not made of bamboo. Bamboo is a hollow-cored grass that doesn’t bend.

Wicker made of rattan has a lot of give to it. But with time and exposure to heat and sunlight, rattan becomes brittle, and can crack or split. Much as it dislikes being overheated, it dislikes being wet even more. Rattan wicker catches rain and irrigation, and keeps water from draining and drying promptly. Accumulated water softens rattan and causes it to mildew. This can make it turn black and rot.

While rattan wicker makes attractive outdoor furniture, it prefers dry, covered patios and balconies and indoor sunrooms. If you use it in an open area, pull it inside or cover it up during big storms or extreme heat, and store it inside during winter to avoid mildew. Keep it looking good throughout the year by vacuuming it occasionally, or brush it down with a clean, dry whisk broom.

Synthetic wicker

Synthetic wicker made of resin is more weather-resistant than natural rattan wicker. Vacuum it occasionally to keep it looking good. If it gets extra dirty, you can spray it off with a hose. It’s not prone to mildew like natural wicker, but if dirt gets wet and sits for months in the pockets between resin strands, it can eventually stain the material. It’s worth covering it up during the off season.

Synthetic wicker is made of resin, which is a major component of plastic. As you already know, plastics become brittle and their colors can bleach over time when exposed to too much heat or direct sunlight. The same is true of resin wicker. That’s why you might want to pull resin furniture into a shady area during especially hot periods, and cover or store it during cooler seasons.

Off-Season Storage

In the off-season, store your furniture in a garage or shed if you can. This is by far the best way to avoid damage from the freeze-and-thaw cycle. Wax metal furniture, oil wooden furniture, and vacuum wicker before you store it. With wood furniture, let the oil soak into the wood overnight, if possible, then move it under cover.

If storing it isn’t an option, covering furniture with fitted covers or even clean waterproof tarps works. If you don’t have fitted covers, weight the corners of the tarps. Or you can tie their ends together under the furniture. This way, they don’t flap up or fly away, leaving furniture exposed to the elements. Check on your furniture regularly during the winter, if possible. Make sure it’s still covered and water isn’t pooling under the tarp. Water can cause staining or mildew if left to puddle on wood or natural wicker, and can cause rust or paint chipping on metal surfaces.

Caring for outdoor furniture consistently will pay off handsomely. You’ll enjoy the comfort, durability, and beauty of your wooden, metal, or wicker garden, deck, or patio furniture for many years to come.

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Kadima Design via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)