The weathered look

Spring has sprung around the pacific northwest, and the spring cleaning bug has kicked in around our house.

Chris started mowing the lawn a few weeks ago, and practically has to mow it every 5 days to keep up with its new growth- it's like the lawn punishes you for mowing it.

While he has been busy mowing, I have been steam cleaning the floors and vacuuming every other day to keep up with the dog hair. STOP THE SHEDDING.

So, when I took Hunter outside to watch Chris mow the lawn the other day, I sat on our front porch bench and realized that I had neglected the bench for far too long.

I basically haven't done anything with the bench since I bought it and recovered it.

When I completed its transformation, I pretty much just left it alone.  

Apparently 2 summers and winters were a bit more than it could handle.  The fabric has faded and, in a more disgusting turn of events, it had begun to mold.

Gross.

I realize now that I didn't use the right kind of fabric. I bought uphostery fabric but not outdoor/ UV upholstery fabric.

Rookie mistake.

I was a bit too excited about my project and didn't fully think through my fabric purchase or the long-term weather proofing.

So, this time around I spent more time thinking it through. 

I don't want to be recovering this bench every other summer.

So, I decided to start from scratch, with  a whole new color palette- which, with any luck will work with the new house color when we paint it in a few months!

I bought new (non-moldy) foam and decided to cover it with water resistant fabric this time as an extra layer of weather protection.

Even though our porch is covered, it gets a fair amount of side-ways wind and rain coming down on it (which I didn't realize the first go round).

I made a pocket out of the water-proof fabric and stuffed the foam inside.  Luckily foam is very flexible, so my pocket didn't have to be perfectly sized.

Then I made a new fabric cover.  This time, instead of stapling the fabric to the backing board (like last time), I made a slipcover of sorts that can be removed and washed.

Ketchum was super helpful in the process.

There was nothing too scientific about the process, I kind of winged it- mostly because it was 9pm, the baby was sleeping, Chris was watching TV and I had about an hour of energy before I crashed- so taking time to make a pattern or a well thought out plan was WAY too much work.  

Clearly, I should have spent a bit more time thinking about my plan, because the cover was WAY too lose.... but lucky for me, right around 10:30pm is when genius usually strikes (that, and when I'm in the shower) so I added some ties along the center and made it much more snug.

 

I made new covers for the pillows while I was at it, threw them all outside and and admired my finished product.

Unfortunaetly, it was 11pm at that time, so I couldn't enjoy it for too long, and because our porch light transformer is broken, I couldn't actually see the bench either (so there are no lovely middle of the night pictures for you).

Luckily I had a few minutes the next morning to admire it as I was running out the door to work.

 

For the record, Chris doesn't like the fabric (except the all blue geometric one).

He tells me this AFTER I've already sewed everything.

What a peach.

I told him he is free to sew a new cover for it at any time.  Until he learns how to thread a needle, it stays.

It feels a bit like a poolside lounge chair to me... too bad it doesn't come with a waiter and a cocktail!