If you have a few pieces of old, wooden furniture lying around, you can turn them into beautiful pieces for your garden or patio with just a few coats of paint. A brightly colored bench or stool is perfect for reading under a tree, but you can use the techniques in the gallery to paint any wooden furniture including shelves and cabinets for storing gardening supplies. With a little bit of work and a small budget you can have a whole new piece of outdoor furniture.

Here's what you need to refurbish furniture for outdoor use: sturdy wooden furniture / paint brushes and/or a paint roller / sand paper and an electric sander / a soft, clean cloth / painter's tape / a drop cloth / exterior latex based primer and paint, a pint is usually enough to cover an average sized piece of furniture.

You may have some old benches or other furniture lying around that you want to repaint for use outdoors, or you may want to buy something to use. Either way, be sure your piece of furniture is sturdy. If a bench is falling apart at the seams, a new coat of paint won't help, but as long as the furniture is structurally sound you can turn even the most worn out pieces into something beautiful.

Before you start priming and painting, you will need to prep the surface of your furniture by sanding it. If there is any varnish on the surface of the wood you need to sand it until the shine is gone, but you don't have to strip it down to the bare wood unless you want to. If you don't have an electric sander you can sand by hand, it will just take much longer.