Outdoor furniture painting

[SunGoesIntoHiding]

Sorry I struggled seeing which topic to put this under (gardening doesn’t seem quite right!) but thought home decor might included this.

I have a wooden garden bench that has old paint on. Most of it is still smooth it’s just grubby (tried cleaning it didn’t budge) with few missing chips. What’s the best way to paint this? Can I just paint over what is there?!

I also have an ikea metal bench outside which has a coloured coating (not sure of what tbh) which is starting to fade and peel in places with the odd bit of rust. Again how can I best restore this simply and cheaply? Ideally just painting over it if that’ll work.

thanks for any advice

For the one garden bench could you sand down the old paint before painting? The metal one you could just use outdoor metal paint, we used some from b&q to restore an old outdoor furniture set and it looks like new

Oh thank you. Would I need remove every bit of paint or a rough sand and good for new layer (it’ll be same colour)?

If there's flaking paint on the wooden bench, it needs a good sand. But start with a stiff wire brush first to get off anything loose. Then sand. Then wipe it down, sugar soap solution is great. Once dry, paint. We've started using osmo paints for outdoors, pricey but great. Also rustoleum is hard wearing, but be warned it takes ages to dry! 2-3 coats and it'll be like new.

For the metal bench, deal with the rust and flaking with the stuff wire brush. Something like hammerite paint would work to tart it up. You might need a couple of coats.

Thank you!