Patio Progress

In late April, I wrote this post about our outdoor 'to do' list for the summer.  One of the items had to do with getting some outdoor furniture for our patio:

It's a tricky patio to work with in terms of furniture placement, especially when you consider that 2 of the 4 'sides' of the circular patio have walk paths leading to them (one from the basement door to our house and one from our deck).

We knew we didn't want to spend a great deal of money on patio furniture this year, so when we found this table and chair set for $60 on Craigslist, we jumped on it:

 

We ended up spraying the table black, and we also sanded and resprayed the chairs in a nice flat, black finish:

Then we hunted down an cheap umbrella (see umbrella above) and base set from JCPenney.  That is what Bill and the kids were working on in this picture:

We had a minor issue with the stand:

The support tube was a bit too big to fit in our table.  Our solution was about $2 in PVC piping spray painted black:

Cost Breakdown: The umbrella was on doorbuster sale for $44.99 (down from $140) last Saturday morning and we had a $10 off coupon printed from Retail Me Not.  The umbrella stand was $29.99, but we did a separate transaction for the stand, so we could use a second $10 off coupon. 

Umbrella and stand (including PVC) total cost: $57.

My painting project from this post involved this 99 cent cake pan that I picked up from Goodwill:

I spraypainted it yellow:

And filled it with dirt and flowers:

And placed it through the umbrella on the table:

Mental note: Impatiens do not fair well in full sun.  I put some geraniums in there for now, but they are too tall.  I think I need some low greenery or succulents to fill the planter.  A work in progress, again. 

Total cost for this project was about $8 including the planter $0.99, spray paint $2.88, and $4 in plants (so far).

Finally, I looked at this tutorial from All You Magazine, which is a coupon magazine that I subscribe too, and made some cushion covers for the seats. (I really just used the tutorial for the picture and supply list...I don't know what a 'zipper foot' and other sewing lingo they used just generally confused me...I just figured it out as I went along)  (Also, I should note that the magazine article provided lots of inspiration for my vision for our patio.  I got the umbrella planter idea from this article, and I love the idea of tiling our table top (perhaps a project for next summer).

I cut the outdoor fabric (in two patterns for two-sided cushions) and Nu-Foam (ok for use outdoors) to size using a wax paper template I made of the seat size:

I pinned the wrong sides together, including some white piping and ribbon to tie the seats to the chairs:

I used flexible sewing velcro to velcro the back side of the cushions together for ease in washing (and making new 'slipcovers' for the foam in the future):

And here is the finished product:

Overall, I spent quite a bit of dinero on this portion of the patio project.  I bet I could have found cushions for cheaper on sale somewhere, but I loved the Dwell Studio fabric I found at Hancock's, and I loved that these were the perfect shape for the chairs.  I was not excited at the idea of bringing home lots of cushions and trying them out, then returning them to the store, etc.  Sewing the cushions did not take long either.  I think it was about 30 minutes per cushion.  Okay, the first one took a little longer, because I sewed the ribbons onto the wrong side of the cushion the first time:)!

Also, our JCP umbrella was lacking an umbrella containment device, so I made one using leftover materials from the cushions.  It's two sided as well and was pinned like so:

And now here it is all stretched out:

And here it is hard at work:

Cost Breakdown:

$20 for 2 yards (gasp) of Dwell Studio by Robert Allen outdoor fabric (And it was 50% off even)

Piping was $4 on sale

2 yards of 1 inch Nu-Foam Cushion was $14 on sale
Off White Ribbon was about $2

Total: $41 for 4 cushions


Here is the overall look:

Cost Breakdown for Entire Project Thus Far (I'm still considering adding some loungers or a couple club chairs on the other side of the patio circle.  And I want to use more yellow in planters around the patio as well):

Table and Chair Set: $60

Umbrella and Base: $57

Planter with plants: $8 (planter alone was $4)

Custom cushions: $41

Total: $166

We already had one meal on the patio so far, and it was interesting.  The kids stayed in their chairs for about 5 minutes before heading, full steam to the play set.  It may turn into a dessert patio for the next few years:).  Regardless, we're glad we didn't put too much money into a set that may get limited use for awhile, but we love having it there too!!