Dream It, Do It: How to Paint Wrought Iron

I’ve had some rusty-looking wrought iron patio furniture staring at me from my backyard for years now. It came with the house. And it came from 1960-something. So unsurprisingly, it needed an update. My go-to tool for quick and inexpensive makeovers? Simple spray paint.

Krylon has the best color options. Opt for a matte finish—it always looks better.

How to Paint Wrought Iron

STEP 1: Sand

You need to make sure you give cast iron furniture (or cast iron anything) a light sanding before you put paint on it. You can use a sponge-block sanding pad.

STEP 2: Wash

My husband insisted that we didn’t need to spray the furniture down, but I didn’t want little dust flecks and spider webs sealed into my furniture, so I sprayed all of the chairs down with the hose, letting the furniture dry completely before applying primer.

STEP 3: Prime

We sprayed a light coating of primer on the chairs, since they were a bright red color that we wanted to hide completely.

STEP 4: Paint

In order to NOT spray paint our lawn a festival of colors (and to save our backs from hunching over), we put the chairs up on a sawhorse.

Voila! Indeed, this is the first time in my life I have felt like a DIY Goddess. Bust out the spray paint and you can too!

Rachael Herrscher is the founder of TodaysMama.com, a comprehensive blog community for modern moms. A self-described “wannabe tech geek,” Rachel also founded the Evo Conference for women in social media.