From Dog Couch to Dream City, an Easy Outdoor DIY

October 31, 2009 by Danielle
Filed under: crafting, inside, outside, sewing

After almost a whole can of spraypaint.

One of the tasks we decided to tackle this crafternoon was the painting of a some plastic outdoor furniture given to Turby and John by John’s and my parents. While the hunter green is completely suited to what they have going on in their backyard oasis in the middle of nowhere, Turby and John were looking for something a little more cheerful.

Again, after an entire can of spraypaint.

Don't let the funny lighting fool you, those are indeed paint splotches.

Apparently there was a ton of this spraypaint at Dirt Cheap. I’m not sure if it was the fact that we only had one can, of if maybe the can we had came from a bad batch, or we just need to get a better brand of spraypaint next time. But, needless to say, the spraypainting of the chairs didn’t go too well. We’re going to try and find a similar color and finish them the next crafternoon we have.

Next time we'll try a better brand of spraypaint.

The sofa we refurbished was used as a Clementine and Winston’s dog bed for a while, but it had to be moved outside once due to a lack of space at Turby and John’s current residence. Despite it’s sordid history as a dog couch, it was still pretty comfortable–only slightly gross. Thanks to sitting out in the rain until Turby had a chance to build an awning over the back porch, the wood also started looking a little sick. Then again, maybe it was that way to start with? The couch, too, came from Dirt Cheap. Basically, we took the Ty Pennington sheet that John chose to use to cover the cushions with us to Wal Mart, where we picked out this bright green exterior latex paint. We also picked up a couple of rolls of contact paper.

A close up of the Ty Pennington sheet that we used to cover the cushions.

After measuring the cushions and cutting the sheet in appropriately-sized pieces, we stuck the clear contact paper to the right side of the fabric pieces. Then, making sure to use a tea towel or piece of scrap fabric to keep the iron from actually touching the contact paper, we thoroughly ironed the fabric pieces. The heat fuses the contact paper to the fabric, making it both sewable and waterproof. It’s kind of tricky and not much fun to sew this stuff, because it tends to slide around in the machine, but the patience a project like this takes is well worth it. Waterproof fabrics are fairly expensive and don’t come in a ton of varieties, and even then, there isn’t a good fabric store around here that we know of. Plus, refurbishing an old sheet is always preferable to buying something new–especially when the sheet is this pretty!

A closeup of the wood frame after one coat of exterior latex paint.

Because John decided to only use one coat of paint, liking the distressed look it gave the wood, they now have a ton of extra paint to be used for wooden side tables, planters, and other fun things.