Caroline Thornborough, co-founder of Thorndown Paint, on how a great paint job using the right paint, can transform tired garden fixtures.

Garden accessories have a lot to contend with; not only do they have to stand up to everything the Great British weather has to throw at them, but every day use can take its toll over time.

And while wooden fixtures might look beyond their best, a specially formulated exterior paint, a decent paint brush and a little TLC could be all you need to give them a new lease of life.

Thorndown's Wood Paint is specifically engineered for exterior use. Its high performing acrylic resin creates a durable water-repellent coating, while its VOC-free exterior grade colour pigments are made to stay strong and true for many years.

Caroline said: "This Hutton Log Store was really mucky but the timber and structure were still in perfect condition. Our transformation shows how something can seem incredibly worn yet easily look brand new again with some fresh paint."

Here Caroline talks through her transformation of the tired timber log store.

1. Our log store had been neglected for years. The old oil-based coating had worn and faded a lot, and there was a heavy build-up of dirt and algae. Our first job was to give it a really good clean. You can use a soapy water solution and scrubbing brush to do this, but as the build-up was so thick, we used a pressure washer.

2. After power washing we left it to dry then checked it over. There was still some old loose coating and stubborn dirt and algae so we used a power sander to strip those elements off. Then a final dust off to remove sand dust and any loose elements, then it was ready to paint.

3. I chose Mercury Grey as it’s a lovely strong grey and would work perfectly with the grey colour palette of our decking area.

4. The first coat always takes a lot more paint and with a slatted product, is more time-consuming as you have lots of area to cover and gaps, nooks and crannies that you need to make sure to get the paint into, especially on the roof.

5. Although Thorndown Wood Paint is a lovely consistency and easy to paint with, holding to the brush and flowing well onto the surface so drips are rare, it’s always good practice to check over your area once painted to tidy up any drips.

6. Leave to dry. Drying time is really quick and on a nice fine dry day it can be ready to overcoat within 30 to 60 minutes. On cooler days leave for one to two hours.

7. Once dry, I painted on a second coat starting with the roof so that by the time I’d finished the second coat on the rest of the log store, the roof was dry enough for me to paint on a final booster third coat. Horizontal surfaces, including roofs, suffer from a lot more wear and tear and exposure to the sun, rain, freezing ice and snow, so coatings will degrade a lot quicker than on vertical surfaces. Hence a third coat making the surface even more durable and extending the time between maintenance coats.

8. Leave to dry for 24 hours allowing the coating to properly fix and cure.