Refinishing Teak Furniture
Teak furniture is the best furniture that money can buy. Teak wood has amazing natural qualities that, coupled with its rarity, have made it extremely valuable. For this reason, it is often referred as the “gold” of woods. In the same venue, the classic look, durability, high quality, and specially, the status symbol of teak furniture, have made it be known as the “Cadillac” of furniture.
Teak furniture looks great and it’s very classy indoors. However, it is outdoors when teak furniture really impresses. It can be left outside and it won’t get damaged from wind or water. Unlike metal, it won’t get hot under the sun, and unlike plastic, it won’t break down with heat.
Teak furniture doesn’t really require any maintenance. Nevertheless, refinishing teak furniture is done by people who want to give their teak furniture a specific look.
The easiest way to refinishing teak furniture is also the most natural one and requires no work at all from the user. This method of refinishing teak furniture is known as patina, and it consists on simply leaving teak furniture on the sun as much as possible, not taking under shelter. This will make the teak furniture turn into silvery gray. While some people avoid this, others find the change in color cosmetic and do it on purpose, specially if they’re adding other types of metal furniture to the mix or because grey and silver go much better with the surroundings than brown.
On the other hand, there is another type of refinishing teak furniture for the people who want to keep it in its natural honey color. In this case, teak sealer is used for refinishing teak furniture. On the other hand, refinishing teak furniture with too much teak sealer can darken the color of the wood. As with the change to silvery gray, this is not always an undesirable effect, and some people do it on purpose if that’s the color they’re aiming for. Refinishing teak furniture with sealer adds UV and solar protection, which can slow down the graying process caused by natural sunlight. In addition, refinishing teak furniture with sealer prevents mold and mildew from growing on the surface of the wood. Unlike varnish, sealer is breathable and lets the natural oils of teak escape without any problem.
Finally, unlike other types of wood, refinishing teak furniture with varnish is not recommendable. First of all, varnish is not breathable, and the pressure of the released oils of teak wood will form bubbles on the surface and maybe make it crack or peel. And once that happens, only vigorous sanding will remove it off.