Spray Painting Wrought Iron Furniture

Author:: Rachael Herrscher
Updated:: Nov 7, 2019
Original:: Sep 7, 2011

I've had some rusty looking wrought iron furniture staring at me from my backyard for years now. It came with the house. And it came from 1960-something.

2 things inspired me to give my wrought iron table and chairs an upgrade:

My friend Anna (@ohhhbetsy) told me I should spray paint it turquoise. Genius, I hadn't even considered spray paint!

I saw this picture on Pinterest and it gave me the inspirational direction I needed:

Spray painting is my new favorite thing! It gives things an instant makeover, is inexpensive, and fairly simple. Here's how we did it:

Spray Painting Wrought Iron Tip #1: Picking the Colors

I wanted the exact same colors in the picture above. I was surprised however to find the fairly limited selection of spray paint colors available at the home improvement store. I expected lots more options. I wasn't in the mood to wait and I didn't even think about searching online (heaven forbid). In one quick Google search I did find this great site that has loads of color options: Krylon

Note: choose from the matte finish colors. They look better.

Spray Painting Wrought Iron Tip #2: Sand It

You need to make sure you give iron furniture (or iron anything) a light sanding before you put anything on it. You can use a sponge block sanding pad like these little guys from 3M.

Spray Painting Wrought Iron Tip #3: Wash It

My husband insisted that we didn't need to spray the furniture down but I didn't want little dust flecks and spider webs sealed into my furniture with spray paint. I sprayed all of the furniture down with the house and let it dry completely before we applied primer.