February 25th, 2010
finished product
This project had been lingering for a while. When we moved into our town home 2 years ago we acquired a back patio that faced out to nice private woods. Having a little piece of nature was a big selling point for us especially since your privacy is somewhat limited when living in town home communities. Never having any outdoor space before caused us to not have any outdoor furniture. We were given a wonderful hand-me-down dining room set so our little table and two chairs that we used to use as our dining room furniture were suddenly without a need. They sadly sat in our living room for months not knowing their purpose until one day while thinking about how expensive outdoor furniture can get I realized that I could possibly make those over into our much needed patio furniture.
Now my task was to weather proof these pieces. (Unfortunatley my camera broke and I lost all of my “before” pictures of this project) The metal of the chair frames and the table were different colors and were starting to chip away. I took apart the table and chairs and then sanded them down getting all of the old rust chips off. I then spray painted them with a black protective waterproof/rustproof paint. I sanded down and re-stained the top of the table with a weatherproof polyurethane stain. The part that has been hanging this project in limbo for a year are the cushions for the chairs.
The orignal chair was just an inch and a half thick piece of woven wicker which was very uncomfortable. I decided to reapolster the chairs with some padding and nice weatherproof fabric. Those supplies can be expensive at a normal fabric store so I decided to get a pre-made cushion on clearance and tear it apart for the cushion material and fabric. It ended up working perfectly! The only thing I had to purchase was cording that I sewed around the top and bottom.
You don’t have to do the cording but I thought it would put a nice finish to the chairs. I made the first chair almost right away because my motivation was high, but after the first chair it was very hard to get that motivation back. I had never made a cushion like this before and it was pretty difficult. A few weeks ago it was a beautiful weekend and my motivation came back to finally finish this project so we could enjoy our outdoor space this summer. I’m extremely happy and proud of myself and can’t wait to use them! And of course I have another idea to make our back patio even more exciting… more to come on that idea
home decor, re-use, sewing projects
This looks absolutely gorgeous, Brandi! Love the fabric you chose!