MishMashers: Patio Furniture Redo

My outdoor patio furniture was on it's last legs and it was either time to invest in a new set or rehab what I had. Of course I decided to redo what I had! I felt like I had nothing to lose, because the furniture was in such bad shape, so I took some risks.

Before

First, I decided to stain the furniture with a black/ebony stain from Minwax. I haven't ever used a colored stain before, so I had no idea how it would look. One of the couches and the chair's cushions were faded and ripped in places. They were beyond repair! Patio cushions are very expensive to replace and I've found it difficult to find the right sizes. I was very lucky to find this great pattern that fit from Walmart for about $30, I needed five.

After: new stain and cushions

Up close of the beautiful black stain

On the larger couch, I found the cushions to be intact and decided to paint them. They were a light beige, but had stains and discoloration. They needed to be thrown out. Unstead, I used a regular dark grey paint, mixed with water and fabric medium. I found a few tutorials online on how to paint fabric and it turned out beautiful. I painted at least three coats of paint, letting it dry in between. It looks pretty awful after the first coat, but it gets better with each layer.

First coat on left, dirty with midlew on right

After: painted patio cushions

Finally, I recovered all the pillows. Armed with a Joann's Fabric coupon, I picked an orange duck fabric for one side, and a black and white pattern of outdoor fabric for the other side. They look great against the black pattern of the cushions and the grey.

I also tried painting the pillows, but in the end only kept one. This is a silver metallic spray paint with black fleur-de-lis. I like how it turned out.