Do you have old cedar outdoor furniture that you have thought about restoring but aren’t sure where to begin?  In looking through your old patio furniture, you are most commonly going to find that there is slight weather damage that should be easily repaired with the right tools and a little elbow grease.  You may want to start with your old cedar garden bench that has been around for years and not used in ages.

Cedar patio furniture actually has a really long lifespan, and even though you are looking at this old garden bench and thinking it’s a lost cause, the damage is probably mostly superficial.  Therefore, you can go about repairs in several ways.  Regardless of the final outcome, the first step to repairing this wood patio furniture is to sand it down.  Cedar log furniture can be in excellent shape a couple of layers into the wood, and removing chips and bulging areas that are damaged from rain and other weather elements can give your cedar garden bench a brand new look.

At this point, with all the damaged layers removed, you should have a fairly smooth wood surface with which to work.  This is where your options come in.  If you want to use the bench as part of a set of lawn and garden furniture that you already have, you’ll want the bench to match the color of this set.  Therefore, you may want to consider simply staining the wood bench the same color as the other pieces.

In fact, you may choose to stain the bench regardless of the additional lawn and garden décor that you have.  Even if you leave the bench bare, you’ll want to protect the wood with a sealant to keep it from being so easily damaged by the weather.

Another option you may consider is to paint it to match other garden décor.  While painting a cedar bench can give you greater decorative options, you also have to remember that wood absorbs paint, and you’ll have to use several layers should you want the color to be noticeable.  You may want to apply a coat of Kilz prior to beginning with a colored paint to help with this issue.

Whether you are trying to match new wood rocking chairs or older home garden décor, you have a number of tools with which to bring back your old cedar garden bench, if you start with a good, complete sanding of the bench to prepare it for additional work.