I moved here from Fla last Oct. My house there was built in 1982 with R B& B siding, which is mainly a SYP Pine plywood. It was stained originally. That lasted about a year. After paying professionals to paint it every four years with the $21 gal lifetime paint, and having it peel badly, I finally took a sidewinder sander and took it down to bare wood. (84 eight" 35 grit sanding discs later) I primed it with waterbased primer, and topcoated with two coats of Lowe's Signature series semi-gloss. That was in 1999. Before I sold the house in 2005, I pressure cleaned it and put one more coat of paint on it, no chipping or peeling. In the areas under the eaves and where the sun didn't hit it, it still looked as good as the fresh coat I put on it (I didn't paint under the eaves because I didn't need to).
Lessons I think I learned:
1. Don't use oil-based paint. The moisture will get under it and it will peel.
2. Semi-gloss lasts better than flat, and high gloss is best
3. For out door use, use latex on wood, because it "breathes", letting the moisture out after the wood absorbs it.
3. If the furniture will be in the shade most of the time, a quality semi- or high gloss latex will probably meet your needs, altho you probably will need to pressure clean it occasionally.
4. The lighter the color, the better the UV resistance (I had painted the trim white, while the rest of the house was gray. The white trim, even tho it was in the sun, did not require repainting).
My $.02 :lol:
P.S> The paint may have needed pressure cleaning earlier, but we had several hurricanes that took care of that for me!!:rolf: