Our outdoor furniture is made of cedar because of how well it withstands the elements and mostly we love the look of it once the final Finish has been brushed on.

Want to begin showing you how your outdoor furniture should still look like after 2 Seasons of Missouri weather when you use a good Varnish. The Varnish we use is CABOT SPAR MARINE VARNISH.

We learned from our mistakes with Varnishes from our first benches we had in front of our barns. We started out with oak and several different varnishes. Every spring we had to sand them down and try a different varnish on them and after 5 years the Varnishes was unable to protect the benches from the elements and had to be replaced.

We went with cedar for it's beautiful and colorful gain, the wood itself is weather resistant and its not on the carpenter Ant's menu. More importantly someone finally recommended CABOT SPAR MARINE VARNISH.

We Varnished this Table with CABOT SPAR MARINE VARNISH 2 years ago and it still looks as good as the first day. The trunk and base was given 2 coats, the table top 3 coats. The table was exposed from zero to over 100 degrees, direct sun, snow, ice, and rain. Every inch of the table was varnished not allowing the elements to deteriorate the wood.

Sense we started using Cabot Product all our new Outdoor Furniture or Folk Art we make gets sealed with their product. Please check out my latest project. https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Solar-Lamp-with-the-help-of-Mother-Nature-CO/

Step 1: After 3 Seasons Still Looking Good

This bench is on the west side making it exposed to the Sun more. Every inch was varnished not allowing the elements to reach the wood. It was given 2 coats

Step 2: After 4 Years

This was our first cedar bench and even with making a mistake it has still held up to the elements pretty good. My mistake was leaving the bark on because at the time I thought it looked good. By doing so the bark did not allow the varnish to penetrate the edges and has allowed the elements to discolor the edges. This fall I plan on taking the bark off then sand and finally 3 coats of CABOT SPAR MARINE VARNISH.