Ombré Rocking Chairs

Hello and welcome back! I have a fun little upcycle for you today. You may be tired of hearing about how much I’m ready to get outside and start working, and for that I’m sorry. But, I’m SO READY! I finished the first of many outdoor projects, our rocking chair upcycle. I’m trying to fix the back porch up a little and I’ve narrowed the pergola curtains down to two options (check out my outdoor curtain roundup here). I wanted to add some color out here because the gray and white can get a little dull looking. So, I had an idea to paint these chairs in an ombré effect to add a little interest and I know this will go with either of my curtain choices.

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Materials

Zinsser B-I-N shellac-based primer

3 different paint colors, dark middle and light

cheap paint brushes (I found mine at Wal-Mart for $0.49) at least 6-8

nitrile powder-free disposable gloves

Lacquer top coat

These rocking chairs were a super cheap, I bought them on sale at Wal-Mart last year. They are comfy, but they weren’t quite ready to be outside chairs. I started by fixing the chairs up structurally by using wood glue and new screws.

Then I coated the chairs with two coats of Zinsser B-I-N shellac-based primer. This stuff is great, you don’t have to sand much, and it covers well and protects the wood pretty well. Now, it’s time to paint. At first, I was going to do a yellow and gray ombre, so this is how it started.

However, when I started blending the gray and yellow, I didn’t’ like the puke-y color it was, so I decided to go with a more of a coral color. So, I painted coral over all the yellow. Because rocking chairs are kind of hard to paint, I did the bottom rails and rocker with the darkest color, the seat and all the slats with the coral, or middle color, and the top with the lightest color. The blending of the ombré takes some time, so if you can get that on the easiest parts of the furniture the better. So, I decided to blend on the columns. I started at the bottom and mixed the gray and coral together.

I painted the mixed color in between where the coral and gray both ended.

Next, I took some gray and pulled it up into the mixed color.

Then, I took some coral and pulled it down into the mixed color.

Here’s the trick – use some disposal nitrile gloves to blend it together. Make sure to get powder-free gloves.

You have to work while the paint is wet, and you may need to replace the gloves often. Once the colors get smudgy on the glove, you have to get a new one. Just blend and touch up and blend and touch up until it starts to look right. I let it dry once and then did the same technique again until it looked perfect.

Next, I moved to the top. It’s kind of the same technique, but just one small change with the lighter colors. It was a little more fickle on the top. First, I mixed the colors together.

Then I painted the mixed color between the two colors.

I then had to mix the mixed color with both the lighter and darker color. Does that make sense?

Then, I put the lighter mix between the white and middle, and so forth. then I used the gloves again to blend.

It took a little more work with the lighter colors, because you could see the mistakes a little easier, but I just kept working and blending, a little more paint, a little more blend, etc. I used some very cheap, 49 cent paintbrushes and tried to keep one white and one pink, and one mixed. I put the color on, then blended with the glove.

Let it dry, and then inspect. I noticed that there were a couple of slats that were not quite there, so I started on the process again.

If the colors become a little too hard to work with, just get as close as you can and then let dry. Each layer is a bit easier.

That’s it! It wasn’t so bad, it just took a little time. Worth it, I think!

After I took that pic, I noticed a little of the yellow shining through, so I went back over that part with the coral color. Then, after I was happy with the results I coated it all with a protective lacquer coat.