How To Paint Cast Iron Furniture

I ran across this old cast iron chair and love seat at a garage sale. Talk about heavy! Wow! It was all I could do to load it up. I wasn't sure how old these pieces were when I bought them, but when I examined the bottoms I saw the makers name. They were made by the Atlanta Stove Works, which went out of business in 1930. They both had some rust, especially the chair, so I bought them pretty reasonably. The chair was $5 and the love seat was a little more.

Here is the bottom of the chair. You can see here how the paint was badly chipping and rust was setting in. I decided to use some elbow grease and a wire brush to knock off the loose stuff. I could have taken the set to a professional sand blaster, but I didn't want to pit the antique iron by doing that. I also could have treated it chemically, but rust removal chemicals can be really harsh to work with.

After brushing like crazy for a while it was time to paint. I wanted a painted finish that I was not going to have to be repainted constantly, so I went with oil based Rust-oleum Rusty Metal Primer and oil based Rust-oleum Semi-Gloss White. I started with 2 coats of primer. I used a very inexpensive "chip brush" that I had lying around.





It was really hot outside the day I started this project. It was around 90 outside. I did that on purpose. Oil based paint typically takes a long time to dry and I wanted a few good hot days to complete this project. I allowed 24 hours between each coat of paint that I applied. So, this was about a 5 day project. Even after 24 hours at 90 degrees the paint is still not what I would call totally cured. Total curing will take several days.






Above is how the furniture looked after the primer coat was applied. Another reason to apply the paint in hot weather is that the paint is a not as thick going on. The thinner paint enables it to seep into all the tiny paint cracks and rusty spots that I couldn't get off with a wire brush.




Here is the chair on top an old table during the painting process. By the way, if you have never used oil-based paint, it is a runny mess at times. I recommend dipping your brush into the can no more than about 1/4" at a time. Less paint on the brush means less runs and drips. You should also keep a rag and some mineral spirits handy to wipe your hands on and for touch ups. Wear clothes you are not afraid to throw away. Oil based paint will not wash out of your good jeans.

Here is the love seat.

My outdoor vignette.

The birdhouse is one I made. I did a post on it a few days ago. Here is the link in case you missed the post.

Birdhouse