Our Outdoor Oasis

It's in my nature to be thrifty.  

When Jimmy and I were branching out and buying our home and estate purchase, I started frequenting estate auctions.  Auction Zip was my 'Facebook' for a few months and almost every Saturday for two months straight, I was waving my buyer number and finding unique, vintage, budget-concious pieces to decorate our home with.  

I found this 6-seater patio table online, but wasn't able to attend the auction, so the auctioneer allowed me to bid over the phone.  I was able to score this table with 6 king-sized chairs for $100.00.  The only issue was that the cushions weren't really what I was wanting for our outdoor patio, so with my moms help, we recovered them!

JoAnn Fabrics had some killer outdoor fabric this year and my mom and I scored these complimentary, unique patterns at their Memorial Day Sale for 60% off your entire purchase!

Then, it came to sew-day!

I just used my mom's Brother sewing machine and a clear fishing-wire-type thread for the entire project.  

She was such a help!  Mom cut out the patterns, faced the fabric together, pinned it, and I sewed it.  Yes, she had the harder job, but the patio looks perfect because of all her help!

The original coverings had piping around the entire cushion and the padding was in excellent condition, so I just ripped off the original fabric covering and used the padding in the new covering.  

If you're not very familiar with sewing, you always sew the fabrics facing each other.  That way when you are finished, the seam is on the inside of whatever you're making and it looks perfect on the outside.  Always put your pins in a horizontal pattern so your sewing machine can just run right over them and you don't have to mess up your pattern.  No, it should not hurt your sewing machine, or break a needle, if you run over any straight pins while sewing.  

With the extra fabric that we had left over, I made a table runner, napkins, and throw pillows for the futon.  

12 cushions (6 backs and seats), 3 pillows, 6 napkins, and a long table runner were made.  The thread pictured above is what was left after this entire project was complete!  Shew, we cut it close!

Along with my thrifty patio table find, I found this futon on a local yard sale site for $40.00.  As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be perfect on our back patio and would be so nice to take a nap on outside with a cool breeze floating in the air.  

Because the futon had a slick coating on the outside, I had to prime it before I could paint it.

After three cans of primer were used, the futon was covered and ready for grey paint.  

The futon cover was pretty dingy, so I decided to bleach it and then teabag die it.  I used about 15 tea bags, along with about a gallon of water.  Placed both the tea and water into a 5 gallon bucket and secured the fabric from floating to the top with a glass bowl.  

I left it in there for about three hours, took it out, and washed it in the washer with just a small amount of fabric, dried it in the dryer, and once it was tinted with the dye, it was perfect!

My mother gave me these potted plant stools and all they needed was a little paint.  Well, what I didn't know was the paint that I chose - that just happened to match perfectly with the fabric - would only do about one leg on each stool and I had five to paint.  

This is how many cans of paint I had to use to fully cover the five potted plant stools.  

As I said, if it wasn't for the perfect color, I would have never used this brand of pray paint again!  It didn't spray the paint like normal can would, it almost like spit the paint onto the object you were painting and lots of paint was left unused.  Not a happy camper, because the cost of this paint almost matched the cost spent on recovering the chair cushions, but it looked amazing after it was all done!

Check out our complete new Outdoor Heaven!

When it was all said and done, I spent about $420.00 on creating our Outdoor Oasis. 

$49.00 - rug from Big Lots

$10.00 - plastic plates $1.00 x 10

$9.00 - blue placemats $3.00 x 3

$4.00 - cups $1.00 x 4

$40.00 - futon

$1.00 - tea bags for tea dying

$20.00 - flowers from Food Fair (local grocery store)

$20.00 - end tables $10.00 x 2 from Big Lots

$50.00 - spray paint cans $3.88 x 11

$125.00 - fabric from JoAnn's

$100.00 - patio table

Even though we weren't home much this spring and summer, we were able to throw three different parties!  One party was with my very best girl friends.  The second time, Jimmy and I wanted to get to know our neighbors, so we threw a party.  And thirdly, we threw a get together for both Jimmy and mine's families after church one afternoon.  

You don't have to be able to sew to recreate this outdoor oasis.  

You just have to have a vision and be willing to do a little creative work yourself, or give your vision to someone who may have the skill of sewing and recreating unique items!  

Writing this post, makes me long for spring days and mornings spent reading my bible and praising my Lord out on our Outdoor Oasis!  

Soon enough....soon enough.  

Winter please wrap it up, thank you :)