Outdoor couch transformation (part 1)

I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July! The first night of our long weekend was spent at my mom's, visiting, eating and sewing. Yep, I was sewing- haven't done that since my high school Home Ec class! (ahh, Mrs. Phillips would be so proud) You see, for as long as I can remember, there has been this old, heavy iron couch at my parents' house. I can remember us using it years ago but it had kinda disappeared and was forgotten about.

That is until I took a recent trip home and discovered it out by my dad's workshop. Turns out this old couch once belonged to his mother, I'm guessing around 30- 40 years ago, maybe even longer. When I saw it, I thought I could probably work with it and maybe make it into a comfy lounger. I've wanted a couch on our screened porch for years but they are pretty expensive. I had to get the hubby's help to free it from the vines growing throughout and to load it so that we could bring it home. Here's how she looked when I got her home.

It was rusted almost all over and had a lot of red paint- I know that was probably from when my dad painted his tractor :) So first things first, I cleaned it, scrubbed it a little, and sprayed a coat of Rust-oleum primer all over.

Instant improvement, huh?

I thought for several days about what color I wanted to paint our new couch. I couldn't decide which route I wanted to go, so I got impatient and painted it a teal color I already owned.

So this is how it has looked for the past month or so- just sitting on our screened porch, uncomfortable and cushion-less. :( I looked everywhere for outdoor cushions to fit this couch, but I guess since it's an old piece of furniture, it doesn't really have the same measurements as new ones. The sitting area measures 64" x 22".  When I did find something that might work, it was going to cost over $100 for the cushions. So I kept trying to think of an alternative.

I found a roll of foam at Hancock Fabrics, but quickly discovered that it would be pretty pricey for a 64" piece. Like $90 pricey, and I would still need to buy fabric. :( Also, I was afraid to use foam since this is on the screened porch- I don't want to have any mildew/ mold issues. I was about to leave when I saw this:

It's called Nu Foam and it's densified batting that is meant to be used as an alternative to foam. And it's mold/ mildew resistant, perfect for outdoor cushions- score! This was MUCH cheaper than foam and I got the 22" x 36" x 4" size. The 22" depth was perfect because the couch is 22" deep and the 4" thickness makes it plenty comfy. Since it's 36" long, and I needed 64", I needed to buy 2 of these. I don't remember exactly how much these were, but they were 40% off. I think I paid around $35 for both! I was pretty pleased with that!

A few days after I bought the seat cushions, I finally cut them down to size. I wanted each cushion to be the same size so I had to cut off 4 inches of length from each. This was pretty easy, just measure 4" from one end, mark it a few places, and then use the yard stick to draw an even line.

Next, it was on to the cutting part. I will say that this is a pretty messy step so expect a lot of white fuzz on the floor if you try this. First I tried cutting these with my good "fabric" scissors:

 but they just didn't seem to do the trick as well as the trusty old Henckels kitchen scissors:

Once I had both cushions cut, I carried them outside to make sure they fit. Yay for correct measurements- it would've been a little embarrassing if I had messed those up!

Now, all I needed to find were some back cushions.

We have some euro pillows on our bed so I brought out 2 to see how they fit. It looked like 3 euro pillows would fit perfectly, and they would be comfy! Luckily, I had some coupons for JC Penny ($10 off a $10 purchase). I found these Serta euro pillows on sale for $14.99 each, and since I had 3 coupons, I got each of them for 5 bucks! (Yes, I was that person in line who had to pay for each pillow separately so that I could use all 3 coupons) haha :)

I got them home and found that 3 euro pillows did indeed fit the space perfectly.

So now, I just need to find some fabric to cover all of these pillows! Then I will finally have a comfy couch on my screened porch:) Stay tuned...