Outdoor furniture care guide

Outdoor furniture is not a new thing in the world but not really popular in Viet Nam due to the main characteristic of houses in Viet Nam with no big garden or yard, many of them are apartments with small balcony, therefore outdoor furniture if any is likely to find at resort, homestay or restaurant. With design orientation that is more eco-friendly with open space, having a few outdoor pieces becomes more necessary. There are certain differences between outdoor & indoor furniture, the difference can stem from materials, coating treatment, structure, therefore the item supposed to use indoors cannot be used outdoors, and vice versa. Due to low demand, it is understandable if the user is not able to distinguish between outdoor & indoor furniture, in upcoming articles, LIdee is glad to share with you more about this topic.

At LIdee Haus’ website, all products are defined into outdoor & indoor so that customers will find it easier to have some first distinguish before learning more about the product. Mentioning outdoor, the first thing to pay attention to is how the item will look like after putting in outdoors with sun, rain impact… for a while. In this article, LIdee will talk about the use & care for outdoor furniture made of wood. 

For outdoor wood furniture, the most popular finish is oil coating with yellowish brown color like honey (or puce depending on color formula), this coating serves as protection layer but not solid paint that still shows the wood texture (like a transparent coating with color). Under environment factors (rain, sun…), the surface color will fade out & become a bit lighter compared to initial condition. It’s quite hard to define a fixed period of when the item gets fading as there are several factors. First, it’s the matter of wood quality, coating quality & treatment level, products coming from different manufacturers are indeed different which leads to discrepancy in color fastness rating. For product with poor workmanship and raw materials, the color change can happen quickly after a short period (1-2 months). Second, it’s the weather condition, let’s assume 2 similar chairs bought from the same store and placed outside in 2 different timings: hot weather with high UV rays and fair weather with dim sunlight, the color fastness discrepancy is obvious. Third, it’s the care & maintenance, still the story of 2 similar chairs, the one who is kept under shade will definitely remain color better rather than the other one kept randomly in outdoors without any shade. For those above reasons, after 6 months – 1 year, if the product color is noticeably lighter, please do not jump to conclusion that the product quality is not good, this is a normal reaction of natural wood outdoor item under environmental impact.    

Example on outdoor product after 2 years of putting outdoor without roof.

In case the product is just a bit lighter meanwhile the structure is still good, you have a knack for DIY and only want to “make up” the surface a bit without buying a new one, then what to do? Back to the main point, LIdee is glad to share with you some quick tips:

1. Oil maintenance care for outdoor furniture & dry cloth (or brush) are mandatory.
2. Before taking action, clean the item surface with damp cloth in order to make sure the surface is free of dirt or any obstacles before retouching. Please note that it should be normal water, a bit mild soap is fine (if the stain is too stubborn), no detergent please.
3. Clean the whole surface again with dry cloth, it should be 100% dry with no wet position.
4. Use sand grit 320-400 to sand the surface. Just imagine it’s like sanding your nail after clipping, the purpose of this step is to eliminate stubborn marks that do not go away even after cleaning with soap and to get rid of the “old jacket” so that the new oil coating can penetrate into the wood surface. It’s an utmost important step as applying a new oil layer without sanding will turn the surface impermeable & sticky.
5. After sanding, use dry cloth to clean the whole surface to get rid of wood dust (sanding will cause enormous wood dust).
6. Wipe the item with oil coating and leave it dry naturally within 48 hours. The ideal place for drying should be in house to avoid environment factor, outside place is also fine but preferably with roof.     
7. When the product is dry, use sand grit 1000 (ultra light grit) to touch up the surface, this step is optional.

In case you are not too familiar with the steps or have no suitable tools, please contact LIdee Haus for further instruction & assistance!

The article content is written by LIdee Haus, please do not reup without credit. Photo credit @stockasso (Deposit Photos USA)