Painting Wicker.....Should or Shouldn't You?

Have you ever painted any wicker item? It can be a devil, getting into all the little grooves and crannies. Spray paint makes the job much easier, but then you don't have the selection of color and if you want to use more than one color there is alot of taping off to do. I personally don't care for painted wicker, I mean isn't that why you buy wicker in the first place.....to get that natural color of the branch or grass? Guess I just like the natural look of wicker or even rattan, so I steer clear of using paint on it. And another thing is if you do paint wicker and then change your mind about the color, your in for a real treat when trying to remove the paint. It's a very long and tedious job to get paint off of wicker, in fact it's almost impossible to get it all from those nicks and crannies.

I perfer to use stain on my wicker when it gets faded from the sun. Using stain is much easier than paint, I just use a throw-away brush and the stain of my choice. It does take a 1.5 hr or so to do a chair, but the results are worth it. The wicker takes stain really well and will make your wicker furniture look like new.

I also have a pair of wicker chairs that don't need stain every year but do need some TLC. Wicker will dry out and almost appear lifeless, so I give them a good dusting and then wipe them down with a lubricating oil. Pledge has a new product that does just that and it makes the wicker shine and will keep the wood from becoming dry and bridle. For getting into all the groves of wicker, use a throw-away brush.