How to pimp old garden lounge sets

Your garden lounge set’s looking awful. It has come to the end of its life. Maybe you want to replace it, perhaps you don’t. We gave ourselves the challenge of dreaming up cool things to do with old garden chairs and settees. This is what we came up with.

Ideas to repurpose old garden lounge sets

Modern rattan weave garden furniture usually has a rust-proof aluminium frame, as tough as old boots. If the weave is a goner take it off and see what’s underneath. The frame of a chair might actually be rather beautiful, a contemporary sculpture-in-the-making for your garden.

The metal frame might already be finished with a coating, or left bare, or a bit of both. It might look brilliant as it is. But you can paint it easily using any kind of exterior metal paint, from an on-trend dark or pale grey to white, silver, gold, a pastel colour, matt or gloss, whatever you like.

The beauty of chair and settee frames is their delicacy. You can see through the frame to the views behind and around. It won’t interfere with your planting or hoover up the light. Slim lines, sweet curves and interesting angles make it a visual treat of an object. Set diagonally at an interesting angle in grass, half-buried in the earth, hung from a branch using a chain or rope or used as to frame a lovely solar garden light, it’s instant re-purposing cool.

The frames of these chair designs lend themselves to sculpture, with lovely curvy shapes for you to play with.

You can weave climbing plants around the frame to create garden art eye-candy. Scented climbers are gorgeous. Use evergreens for year-round impact. Grow flowers below the place where the seat was so they look like a flowery seat cushion. Wind ribbons around the frame, hang baubles or bunting, bells or wind chimes, or string the frame with pretty LED lights.

If the frame design is suitable you might be able to make new seats using old planks of wood. You could try winding rope, natural string, plastic string, or even wool around the frame to replace the seat cushions in a new and funky way, not for sitting on, a work of art. Use slate. Have a play, see what occurs to you. Rummage around for inspiration. Visit the tip, see what’s available in the ‘for sale’ area for next to nothing.

The strong, simple lines of this set make the chairs perfect for creative sculpture and just as good for imaginative plant stands and displays.

When the rattan is in good enough nick…

When the resin rattan weave is in good enough condition, another bunch of ideas spring to mind. If you don’t like the colour or it’s really tatty, you can paint over it with an exterior product to cover plastic. It might crack off over the winter but if so, just give it another quick coat in spring.

Think planters. Arrange one planter or a crowd of them on the seat, fill them with flowers and it makes a very stylish planting area. Think pink or scarlet geraniums spilling out of them, and rambling nasturtiums in jewel-like reds and oranges, and multi-coloured pansies, all super-easy to grow. Paint terracotta pots with ordinary household emulsion to tone, match or clash with the colour of the resin. Use all one colour or mix and match for a gypsy caravan look.

Grow seeds and cuttings. Make a display of veg home-grown in pots. Showcase one big, dramatic potted plant or garden lamp on each chair, set symmetrically to demark your garden party area. Put the settee in a shady nook where you can grow fern and shade-loving things in containers.

Can you turn a footstool into a planter by cutting off the rattan under the cushion to make a box? Maybe make a plant stand out of a footstool by putting a slate or wood top on it? It might make a great-looking candle stand, garden lamp stand or side table. You can see how the footstools below would make fantastic planters.

We hope you enjoy getting creative with your old garden furniture. If you want to replace it with something absolutely fantastic, head for our garden furniture section.