SustainableQATAR’s Weekly Challenge 35~ Furniture Treatment

Share it!

Discuss here!

SustainableQATAR’s 52 weekly challenges – that is one challenge per week for a whole year themed by month – are Qatar-specific and Qatar-relevant opportunities for all residents to take actions in personal life, work and within our communities.

Read the blog post on the October Theme – GARDENING

After a few months of intense sun exposure, our wooden garden furniture starts to look dry and the color starts to fade away. What can fearless gardeners for climate action do to spruce up garden furniture and make them look new again? Here comes a homemade non-toxic solution straight out of our kitchen cabinets.

Fearless Gardening for climate action – Giving our wooden garden furniture a thorough treatment with ingredients from our kitchen cabinets will make them look like new without toxic and smelly solvents, paints or varnishes.

Who has such a vision? Or determination? We do, and here is how we can keep our wooden garden furniture look their best with a homemade treatment straight out of our kitchen cabinets.

Exposure to sun, heat, wind and dust takes a toll on all materials. Wood, like leather and our skin, is a natural material that needs an occasional ‘lotion’. If we want to maintain the natural look of the wood and not seal it with paint, we can do so in a few simple steps with black-tea, mayonnaise and vegetable oil. Ready?

To maintain outside wooden furniture without toxic chemicals:

Prepare a strong black tea solution by boiling water in a large pot and place 10-20 black tea bags inside.
After the black tea solution has cooled down, take an old stiff brush; dip it into the black tea solution and liberally brush off the wooden surfaces you wish to clean and treat.
The black tea solution is acidic and together with the brush helps remove any sand, grit, and dust from the wood before the ‘lotion’ is applied.
Allow the wooden furniture to briefly dry in the sun.
Mix a ‘lotion’ of half mayonnaise and half vegetable oil.
Now apply the homemade non-toxic mayonnaise and vegetable oil lotion onto the wooden garden furniture to look like new.

Finally! We’ve completed a month of learning about fearless gardening for climate action! Enjoy the healthy soils, appropriate plants, beneficial insect hotels and new-looking wooden garden furniture for the remaining outdoor season. What a sense of accomplishment. Congratulations!

We can now use our climate-action gardens as a gateway to horticultural therapy and for a deeper appreciation of the natural beauty and environment.