Making Futons Rain-Ready

Two Beddinge futons for very little scratch--check! Pallets lined up and ready for use as a sectional--check! Now, making it so that the futons would survive the outdoors...a little trickier. 

There are sources for futon covers made in water resitant fabrics. The cheapest I found was the Futon Shop, at $215 for a queen size. (Beddinge is slightly longer than a regular full.) That's way over budget BEFORE I times it by two. 

Plus, my CL futon finds had each come with covers. It made sense to try to reuse those. I crossed ideas such as fashioning cushion covers from picnic blankets, drop cloths or duck cloth off my list. Now it was all about waterproofing what I had. Time to get creative, do some research and keep my fingers crossed.

I orded two vinyl, zipped queen mattress covers on Amazon for a total of $25 (from Shop Bedding). This was a little more than the cost of the plastic ones, but from what I read would last longer and was less likely to tear. I looked for covers that claimed to block allergens, under the theory that they'd block my mattresses from mildew. We will see. 

When it came to waterproofing the fabric, the search was a little more daunting. Ever heard of fluorpolymer? Nope? Neither did the thousands of people who sustained respitory injuries by inhaling it when they used waterproofing sprays. I'm sure there are safe useage guidlines, but I'd like to pass on the poison.

And now the questions. There are a number of 100% wax solutions, DIY and premade. But, will wax leave the fabric to stiff? And how long would it take to wax two big futons??? Nikwax offers a non-fluorpolymer spray, but how many buckets of that will I need? A friend suggested just using fitted sheets and pulling off when it rains, but it seems a shame to not use the covers which of course will fit perfectly and look much more put together. Ok, back to the blogosphere to look for a solution.

The Great (Outdoors) Cushion Search

Getting pallets to create an outdoor sectional was easy and free. A local farmer posts an ad on Craigslist every time he has some to be picked up, about once a week. The tricky part was deciding what to do for cushions. If you've looked into it, than you know that outdoor foam is super expensive. I would have spent over $300 for two bottom cushions the size I needed, and still needed to come up with covering.

Thus began an OCD CL search, along with research into how other people handled the outdoor cushion on a budget dilemma. (I know...first world problems.) Daily I looked for foam mattresses or mattress covers, twin mattresses, futons. Anything I could possibly convert for my uses. 

I was excited to find a Beddinge futon for $35 just up the street from me. At 55" x 79", it was near perfect. I told the seller I'd pay full price for just the mattress and he agreed. I thought maybe I'd cut the mattress in half and use it for my bottom cushions, figuring out the backs later, or perhaps forgoing them.

Of course, this plan didn't stop me for searching for another Beddinge; how much cooler would it be to have two futons for lazing around on outside? I lucked into somebody giving one away for FREE. He even loaded it in my car and everything. I <3 craigslist.="" nbsp="" p="">

Both came with covers, so that's another item off the list. They don't match, one is a gray/black cotton cover with a quilted look to it (pictured below, right). The other is a charcoal gray tweed-look fabric. I'm pretty sure we can make it look intentional though and make use of both.

Now, to figure out how to water proof them...

When Life Gives You Snow, Make New Furniture

Once upon a time, we had a patio canopy that looked like this: 

We entertained there often, it got a lot of use. However, the canvas roof was just as hard to take on and off as you might imagine. So, two winters in a row, we rationalized leaving it on. Until the day came that it looked this:

Kind of defeats the whole purpose of living in Virginia. Oh, and in case you're wondering what happend to the glass table underneath of it...

We went round and round on how to best replace our patio set-up. Build a pergola from scratch? Find another canopy? It crossed our minds to get a "conversational set," but the price tag scared us off. Plus, the table base and chairs had survived, so it seemed silly to spend $1,000+ when we could surely work with what was left.

Eventually, we decided to go the low budget--I mean upcycle--route. Presenting....drum roll....the table made from leftover pantry doors and a strip of wood from our old deck (it rests on base from old table):

To fill the door knob holes, I just used votive holders left over from our wedding.  **Note, I may be a border line hoarder. But stuff just keeps coming in handy, so it seems justified thus far.** 

The hinge is an experiment; if we like how it looks, we may make it so one side can fold up when we have a smaller group. The deck strip was added from necessity, it was needed for width, but it became our favorite part of the whole design. Adds some contrast and depth. 

I added a coat of paint to the doors and stained the raw edge of the wood. A few coats of poly will go on this week. It took my husband about 30 minutes to put together, and I've spent about the same amount of time with painting so far. 

It's already passed the "Cook Out and Cards Against Humanity" test: 

For seating, we are doing a hybrid of a DIY pallet sectional and some of the chairs from the old table. It's not blog-ready yet, but I'll post once it is. Anybody else furnishing their outdoor space? Any secrets for doing it on a budget? 

Ikea Kitchen Budget Breakdown

Once upon a time, I naively thought we could remodel our 1970s kitchen for about $10,000. Then I did some research on material costs, talked to some contractors and took an honest look at our scope of work. This scope included:

• Removing load bearing wall (see how we made that budget-breaking discovery!) between kitchen and living room
• Widening the doorway to the dining room
• Closing off an entry to the kitchen, extending foyer
• Moving the stove, sink and fridge
• Relocating the garage door

My revised, more realistic estimate was closer to $15,000, with a contingecy of $2,500. Eventually, we landed in the middle of those two numbers, spending a little over $12,000 (scroll for spending breakdown). The bulk of that came in construction costs (thanks load bearing beam!) and cabinets. Even with the Ikea 20% sale, we bought a LOT of cabinets, and splurged on getting mostly drawers for the base cabinets, a few glass uppers and extra organization, like lazy susans for corner cabinets. 

There are also some areas we haven't spent on yet. We put off the backsplash initially due to exhaustion; once the construction was done, my husband and I (along with some incredible friends) were the labor. Now, it just hasn't bothered us to not have backsplash, but I'm sure I'll get remotivated at some point and tackle that project. 

"The Help," AKA, husband and family friend

Also, our floor started as a mishmash of tile and wood. It remains that way. We used extra pieces of wood floor that we had on hand to fill in the gaps left by the remodel. It really doesn't bother me, but I imagine we'll make it either all tile or all wood before selling. Which means we have a few years to worry about it. 

My guestimate is that if we'd bought everything at full price and paid for somebody to do everything; design, construction, install cabinets, etc, we'd have spent closer to $25,000. I'll know for sure when we get our house appraised for refi this spring. Fingers crossed!!

Later I'll post where we saved, and where we spent a little more, often out of necessity. But for now, here's how it all played out:

Item/Task	Budget	Notes
Move Door, Fridge
Move stove
Hood Vent
Hood Vent Labor
Move wall, add beam
Add'l wiring
Total Construction	6432	Contractor
Floor wood, pro	-	(perm floor, pending)
Floor (vinyl click, us)	20
Cabinets + wood counter	5167.62
Lighting (use existing wiring)	220
paint (us)	80
knobs (Ebay)	79
Backsplash		(pending)
Install cabinets (us)
Supplies (us)	145
Counter removal	225
Sink	69
Stove	750
storage bench, foyer	70
bar stools	50
Subtotal	13307.62
Subtotal	13307.62
Recoup		Returns, sold
Cabinets	300
Counters & sink	400
Stove	350
Return cabinets
Return supplies	50
Recoup total	1100
Net Total	12207.62