On a visit to one of my favourite second hand shops, I found this childrens’ chair. After having seen a similar one at an antiques fair earlier that week, with at 90$ price tag, this one being sold for five dollars was very enticing 🙂

Although I thoroughly enjoy white, the paint was looking ratty while also giving the piece a very dainty and traditional look (white rattan furniture can look quite Victorian). Since I planned to add it to the front porch and wanted some colour to warm the space up (and coordinate with the other chair I had fixed for myself), I decided to paint it a dark powdery blue.

I covered the rockers with painters tape to protect them and sprayed painted the chair without modifying or preparing the surface. Making sure to apply the paint from different angles to cover as many facets of the strands of woven rattan as possible- also turning the chair upside down, I painted with light quick sprays of paint. I then sanded the rockers, in preparation for the stain.

Then, for a bit of a modern twist (chair and rockers being different), while still using traditional colours, I stained the rockers brown (although I could have kept them natural as I also liked liked them as was).

Once finished, I quickly installed the chair outside- to my daughter’s and her friends’ delight. Unprotected however….. it didn’t take much time for the paint to start chipping. Although the fact that the surface hadn’t been prepared, the paint (primer and paint in one), should still have been okay (the original white paint didn’t have the glossy finish of oil paint- which would made sticking to the surface more difficult). I have since heard that rattan tends to chip easily so the wear of little bottoms as well as rain was quite enough to peel away the paint. I have since applied a spray protector in a satin finish (as I didn’t find one with a matte finish), to keep it in good condition.

I had never really used spray paint before but for rattan, it was amazing. It allowed me to cover all the little nooks and crannies, most of the individual strands of rattan, without having the paint pooling into crevasses.