A Winning Project

This idea had been floating around in my head for a year.  There I sat on the deck every day in an old chair wishing for some pretty furniture.  Click HERE to see the project of building the deck.

This space is usually cluttered with pool toys and various floatation devices.  At five feet off of the ground, it feels a bit like being up in the trees.  But it definitely needed some furniture!  James and I went to Pottery Barn to get inspired and wowsa!  It was fabulous stuff but way out of our price range.  So we decided we could build our own.

We rummaged through the pile of old wood behind the barn and started measuring and adding numbers in our heads.

Figuring out angles and measurements is not my strong suit, so I’m glad to have a CPA smart guy husband to do the heavy thinking.

Since I was planning to add cushions and a skirt, it didn’t matter too much if the wood was rotten looking.

While the guys built the frame for a bench, Patience and I searched through our junk to find a something we could use as a base for a small coffee table.  We settled on this metal basket that I bought at Round Top last spring.

We found bits of beadboard leftover from the ceiling of our front porch.  I painted the beadboard with the paint left from my bathroom floor and left the rest of the bench natural.

The slats in the seat are bits we cut off the end of the deck floor when we built the deck.  Keeping every little scrap has come in handy.  But don’t tell my husband I said so.

I spent a whole day sewing the cushions and pillows.  Making cushions is not my favorite kind of sewing, but I am always glad that I did it after it’s finished.  There are lots of great tutorials on You Tube for learning to sew cushions.  You can do it!

The only purchase was the foam for the cushions and all of the outdoor fabric (all at 50% off!).  My friend Stacy gave me the old burlap sacks that I used around the middle of the cushion.  Thanks Stacy!

I used whatever old pillows I could find and recovered them for the back of the bench.

This one says, “Be Kind,  Ephesians 4:32″.

Confucius say: Many pillows make much happiness

Now I have a lovely spot to lounge with a magazine and pretend to be watching the children swim.

The view from behind the magazine….

Won’t it be nice when the weather cools down?  Once it’s too cold to swim I will be able to hide out there with a book and a blanket.

Year ’round usefulness.

Linking to: Perfectly Imperfect Furniture Party, Transformation Thursday, Furniture Friday