I’ve had six good quality resin Adirondack chairs for quite some time. I bought them for my house in Texas that was a soft moss-green with snow-white trim and the original forest green color of the chairs was perfect for the white decks on that house. I also had three forest green tables and one white table. They all held up really well on the west-facing decks that baked in 110 degree Texas summers, but I did freshen up the color on them three years ago with a coat of forest green paint.
The problem in 2015 was they were no longer the perfect color for my house in Florida which is light gray with white trim and a bronze screened in porch. The bronze wasn’t my choice. The screen installers accidentally installed on the wrong house when there were several new construction homes on the block so the builder ended up giving it to me for free. Not my color choice, but I loved the price. Forest green furniture in bronze screened porch is a complete snooze-fest, yawn, boring.
I wrestled with what to do. Should I get rid of the furniture? Did I want to invest a whole lot of money in new furniture? In the end, I couldn’t justify getting rid of perfectly good stuff so I decided to paint the chairs and tables vibrant beach colors to brighten up my screen porch and patio.
Color and Paint Choices
Note: the colors in the pictures in no way represent the actual colors – the actual colors are much better than the pictures.
Six chairs meant six colors. I had painted one chair white last fall, and while it was boring, I thought I would leave it for now.
The first color I tried was Rustoleum American Accents 2X Ultra Cover in Lagoon. I bought 2 cans and it took less than one can to cover one of the chairs and the color was gorgeous. I was sold on painting the chairs.
Next I tried Rustoleum American Accents 2X Ultra Cover in Coral. Again it covered flawlessly and the chair was beautiful. I bought Rustoleum American Accents 2X Ultra Cover Seaside (a light aqua I love) and Sun Yellow and ran out of colors I liked so I bought Krylon Cover Maxx Ultimate Coverage in Sea Glass which has some green in it. I just didn’t like the Lime Green Rustoleum offered so I finished up a couple of tables with Valspar Tropical Foliage Satin.
- Lagoon – Rustoleum American Accents 2X Ultra Cover
- Seaside – Rustoleum American Accents 2X Ultra Cover
- Sun Yellow – Rustoleum American Accents 2X Ultra Cover
- Coral – Rustoleum American Accents 2X Ultra Cover
- Sea Glass – Krylon Cover Maxx Ultimate Coverage
- Tropical Foliage – Valspar
Painting the Furniture
I was completely happy with how the Rustoleum paints went on in their colors. The Seaside and especially the Sun Yellow took a little more paint to cover the forest green, but the application was easy and nice quality. I could turn the cans sideways or even upside down to get to awkward spots and the spray was uniform and beautiful.
The Valspar Tropical Foliage took more paint to cover and the application was close to the Rustoleum paints except for a tendency to splatter heavier drops on a regular basis. I have no idea why it was happening. I had thoroughly shaken the cans and continued to shake them throughout the spraying process so that wasn’t the cause.
I didn’t paint the bottom of the seat on the chairs since it would never show in any way, but I did paint all sides of the legs and the backs of the chairs thoroughly so they would look good from any direction.
Krylon Cover Maxx
Spraying the Krylon Cover Maxx Ultimate Coverage was an entirely different experience. The paint didn’t cover well at all, was watery so it ran where the Rustoleum paints never did. The application and coverage were so poor compared to what I experienced with the other paints I was really disappointed. The color was gorgeous, but when it proved to be a massive pain to get it on the chair I didn’t have any interest in trying it on a table, especially since it took the entire two cans to cover one chair.
Coverage
For the record, two cans of Rustoleum paint covered a chair, a table, and a bowling ball (for yard décor) in Lagoon, Seaside, and Coral. It took almost two cans of Sun Yellow to cover the chair.
One can of Valspar covered two tables which was not impressive coverage.
Two cans of Krylon Cover Maxx barely covered a chair and that was barely covering it.
My vote is for Rustoleum American Accents 2X Ultra Cover
Since the resin furniture I have painted a couple of wood items with left over paint and still love the Rustoleum American Accents 2X Ultra Cover.
My money is on Rustoleum American Accents 2X Ultra Cover in the future if I want an easily applied flawless finish without having to buy many cans of paint to do it.
If you want to know if a can of paint will spray in all directions (upside down, sideways), check the cleaning directions. If the can says turn it upside down and spray until no paint comes out that means it isn’t meant to be used upside down. If it says wipe the spray nozzle off when done using it, that’s the type you want.
