Backyard Deck Refurbish
Our deck was due for a bit of an overhaul this year so at the beginning of the season went to work on it 🙂 AND our entire family has enjoyed this space SO much more now, that there’s furniture that works well in our space and the addition of a ceiling fan really helps to enjoy the evenings outdoors in our refurbished backyard deck space!
A close-up picture of our new patio set and the darling pillows I found at Costco…
Here is a “before” photo of the same space…
The first thing we did after clearing off the furniture was to Power Wash the deck, it’s important to get the entire deck thoroughly… scrubbing it down really well would work fine too!
After quite a bit of research we finally decided on a stain to use… we went with Messmer’s U.V. Plus for Hardwood Decks! It’s available at Ace Hardware’s all across the country but you won’t find it at Lowes or Home Depot.
When applying stain- it’s important to wear a heavy duty gloves to protect your hands. If applying it by hand use a lint-free cloth or an applicator tool can also be used. We like to apply it by hand because it’s easier to control the amount of stain and we can quickly catch any place that’s gotten too much stain because it will puddle… if that happens it needs to be wiped up quick!!
Here’s a photo of the stairs before and after the new coat of stain…
SO much prettier!!
We also installed a water proof ceiling fan but, we’ll cover that install in another post! We already had an outdoor table and chairs set that’s never really fit well on our deck so, we moved it by the swing set! It’s still close enough to the deck to be useful when we have gatherings but not in the way like it was before 🙂
We also covered up the hard water stains on the water fixture which we’ve had for a couple of years, to do that we sprayed the inside of the bowls with black spray paint and then using a little bit of xylene, we lightly rubbed on the spray paint to make it look more distressed…
AND last but not least… I LOVE these solar lights from Ikea! We’ve had them for a couple of years and they still work great! The umbrella is for taking the dogs out when it’s raining… just in case you were wondering 🙂
I’ve actually been meaning to get this post written up for awhile BUT, time some how gets away from me… SO, if your looking at refurbishing a deck soon- we hope some of this information is useful 🙂
We LOVE our Backyard Deck Refurbish… it’s been so nice and relaxing in the summer evenings!
Love,
Ruthie
I linked this post up to Today’s Creative Blog !!
Nice job! Looks brand new. By the way, did I spot garden boxes in your yard? Did you make those?
Yes, Mam!! We have a a mini series on gardening posted and we show how to build a box too! (https://cookingwithruthie.com/2012/06/11/how-our-garden-grows-week-8/) We all LOVE our deck so much more now that it’s been spiffed up!
What a nice space you have, the deck is beautiful! Isn’t it amazing what a power washer can do. We used a power washer on our house this spring and were so shocked that our garage door was actually white. The whole house sparkled when we were done.
beautiful!
Thanks Tara! I wish it stayed looking that good all the time 🙂
i LOVE it!
You are an inspiration.. I look the deck!!!!
Thank You for the sweet comment… as you can tell it was a well-needed project!!