Projects update: chair and screen

A while back I showed you a couple of projects that I had started: refurbishing my patio chairs, and using an old shower door to create a garden screen. Both of those projects were not quite finished, as the chair needed a stain or protection of some kind, and the screen needed to similarly be protected and also installed.

I couldn't have it just leaning against my house, blocking my garage door forever. So this past weekend I tackled both projects, completing both!

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I'll start with the screen since it was more involved. Staining was not too difficult -- the hardest part was deciding upon a color. In the end I chose a "natural" colored oil-based deck stain/sealant.

As much as I love freshly sanded wood, that moment of applying a stain to bring out the richness of the wood, the beauty of the grain, well, it's so satisfying!

So how was I planning on mounting this free-standing screen?

Using these metal fenceposts! I hammered down the little tabs that are meant to hold fencing wire, then painted the posts silver to match the metal panels in the screen:

Using a level I made sure that the first post was completely vertical, pounded it into the ground, then measured the spacing for the second post and did the same. Then I just screwed the posts to the screen:

It's quite solid, but we'll see what happens when the ground is really soft and the wind blows. I may need to redo this at some time, or add another brace. The legs of the screen are sitting on bricks to keep them out of contact with soil.

I placed it in a gap between two bamboos. This first image is what you see from the driveway:

It's not very prominent, but you can still see it from various places from the prairie beds, and even when you're back by the pond.

I think the color goes well with the bamboos, which will stay green year-round unless we have a very severe winter.

I plan on making more screens before the summer is over, based on how great this one turned out.



On to the chair project. Here's a reminder of what the chair looked like before staining:

Nice, but faded even after a week in the sun. It can't stay unprotected or it will soon be grey and weathered -- which might not be a bad look but isn't what I'm going for right now. So stain is needed...


Like with the screen I again chose an oil-based deck stain/sealant, but this time the color was much more bold:

I was hoping for something less red and more brown, but once I applied this I loved it! Has lots of orange tones in it, and we all know that orange is pretty fabulous in the garden, right?

It goes great with the greens and blues of the surrounding plants:

I have several more chairs to update, and I already decided that in total three will be this color. The others I haven't really decided upon yet, and will likely experiment.

What do you think?


It's satisfying to get projects finished, isn't it?

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