We Made a Couch

So when the Stay at Home order was announced back in March due to the virus, my family and I decided to make over our back patio. It started out as a muddy back yard space, but we did a major overhaul on it and we are completely in love. More about that later. Right now, I wanted to share the couch we made. Yes….You read that right! WE MADE A COUCH!!!! From scratch might I add.

INSPIRATION

So this write-up isn’t necessarily telling you step by step how I made mine, but I wanted to share some tips and tricks I learned along the way to help you if you ever decided to tackle a project of this size. Before we go there, let’s talk about the inspiration. I found this couch online and it retailed at $1600. We could not see ourselves spending that amount of money on an outdoor couch so, my husband suggested that we make our own.

LETS GO SHOPPING

Let me start off by saying, when I go into Joann Stores, I never walk out with just what I had on my list. The sales ALWAYS traps me so I just give in. LOL! The outdoor decor selection this year surprisingly matched my outdoor aesthetic, so I bought just about all of it. LOL! You’ll see it all come together in a future post. For now, I wanted to share what I purchased for my couch.

For the Cushion:

• Outdoor Fabric in the color Solar Eggshell

• 2” Nufoam

• 36” Zippers for Couch

• 30” Separating Zipper for Pillow

• Scotch Guard

• Polyester Batting

For the Frame:

• 2 x 4 Wood

• 2 x 6 Wood

• 2 x 10 Wood

• Craig Jig aka pockethole jig

• Pocket hole screws

• Wood Screws

• Wood glue

• 80 grit and 120 grit sandpaper

• Wood Filler

• Valspar exterior stain and sealer

• Nail-on furniture glides

NOTES

• The thought of making a couch can be overwhelming. I’d highly recommend, breaking down the project in parts and tackle it in small increments.

• Let’s talk about the Nufoam Cushion. This material is meant for outdoors. Its waterproof and mildew resistant. As for the construction, It is 2” thick, so we stacked 5 layers to get the thickness that we needed for the seating. It holds our weight extremely well and it looks just like our inspiration

• For the batting, its important that you get the 100% polyester material because it is also mildew resistant and it’s most commonly used for outdoor furniture. The batting is used to wrap around the cushion. It not only adds an extra softness to the cushion, but most importantly, it cleans up the uneven edges of the foam inside. The batting gives it a nice, clean finish.

• I used two zippers. The two zippers met in the middle at the center back. I love the detail finish of the zipper and I made a flap at the back to allow for easy insertion of the cushion.

• One everything is assembled, spray your cushions with scotch guard for an extra safety measure. Allow it to dry.