The Couch
This one was a real cleaner upper, if you know what I mean. I discovered it on a walk around my neighborhood with the boys and couldn't get it out of my mind. It was just sitting there on the curb only half a block down: grungy, rusty, disgusting cushions. And when I say disgusting, I mean disgusting. I felt like I needed to put gloves on just to remove the cushions and leave them on the side of the road for trash collection. But the frame was solid, everything intact and absolutely no rot. I thought about it and the next day decided to go pick up this wooden framed couch to make it into a patio set. In all honesty I forgot that I needed to go pick it up before the trash collection that morning, so when I heard the garbage truck rolling down the street I rushed out of the house still wearing my pajamas to go get it before it was picked up. Luckily my mom was watching the boys, so I didn't have to worry about the car seats staying in the car, woo hoo! I definitely thought this would be a five minute pick up, so as I was trying to haul this solid wood couch frame into the car I was slightly regretful that I hadn't changed out of my pajamas. Once I somehow managed to squash the couch into the car, I realized I had forgotten about the arm chair frame and really, who wants to make two trips? 20 minutes later my mother opened the door for her sweat drenched daughter who magically got BOTH the couch and the arm chair into the car in order to make it in just ONE trip- can you tell that I'm proud? You should see me haul in the groceries!
This is how the couch looked before:
As I said, pretty bad. Don't even get me started on the mildewy- cat pee smell. Anyways, I digress. The first thing I did was spray it down with the hose, then rinse it with soapy water, then I bleached it, rinsed it with soapy water again, and finally hosed it down one more time. I typically do this with all my "curbside treasures", even though I end up sanding them.
Sand It Down:
The first thing I truly did was sand everything I could with an electric sander, using hand held sand paper to get into the cracks that the machine couldn't reach.
Spray Paint the Metal:
Since the springs and wires under the cushions were rusty I took out my Rust-Oleum silver spray paint and sprayed all the wires. I wasn't careful about how I sprayed them at all except to get everything covered because I knew I'd be painting all the wood white in the end. I find it important to spray anything rusty, or anything that could become rusty, with spray paint to keep the item as safe for the future as possible. That and I really just love to spray paint...
Paint
It's amazing what paint can do, it really is the cheapest way to make anything outdated look better. I put on three coats of exterior semi-gloss white paint and wow did it completely change this couch!!
Padding Under the Cushion
So this is what the couch looked like after the padding was put on, but it took a little work to get it like this. I started with a thin layer of cushion I found at Hobby Lobby and made sure it was the right width and length before buying it.
The padding was both a little too wide and a little too long, so I measured from the edges with a ruler and measuring tape to make sure I would cut the same amount everywhere. I connected the dots I had measured from the sides with a ruler for a straight line across the cushion and then cut the excess cushion off. I made it a little on the larger side to make sure it fit snugly around the frame.
I had also bought some fabric that was on sale at the same time I bought the thin cushion so that the padding would last longer. It's actually table cloth fabric so it's water resistant on the top side and nice and soft underneath where it will be touching the padding. And it was only $5 a yard- perfect!
I laid it on the wire, put the padding on top of it and then folded the fabric over the top of the padding. I measured and cut around the fabric, making sure I left enough fabric to overlap on the sides.
Honestly, I just used a hot glue gun to adhere all the fabric together. I thought about using my sewing machine to make a slip cover, but it wasn't going to be seen by anyone since it goes under the actual cushions and I wasn't planning on ever washing it sooo, the glue gun won out.
So here's the final product again, waterproof and padded, ready for the cushions!
Cushions
I got my own rolled up cushion off of Amazon and decided to make my own slip cover. In actuality this was mostly because patio cushions are now out of season and I couldn't find any I liked anywhere! Again, I got all my fabric on sale and decided to make one large slip cover for the bottom cushion and three large pillows for the back, plus two accent pillows to tie in all the colors.
I had never made a slip cover in my life, so here are my two suggestions:
1. Triple check all your measurements to make sure they are perfect
2. Don't get all fancy and use a zipper, stick with Velcro (thanks for the suggestion, Mom!)
Since I triple checked all my measurements and used Velcro, the slip cover actually fit my cushion nicely and the foam didn't get stuck on the teeth of the zipper!
The pillows were pretty straight forward, again I just made sure to the fabric correctly, BUT after I got done stuffing them I realized I needed a whole additional pillow because the 3 I allotted for just weren't enough! That really surprised me. All in all, I think everything turned out A-Ok for my first time sewing it all! I'll post some links for pillow and slip cover tutorials below:
How to Sew a Cushion Cover (it comes with a zipper, but you can do Velcro as well)
Amazing Vacuum Cushion Trick (this would've saved me so much time!)
The Final Product:
I have to say, it is my favorite finished project so far, but also that cushion cover was the most challenging! I finished putting it together late at night, but that just made it feel all the more comfortable to sit on.
True Confessions:
A week ago the same neighborhood house put a creaky coffee table on the curb; I made my husband go and shove it into the back seat of his car because I didn't want to be seen curbside picking the same house. It will make a lovely addition to the patio furniture.
