DIY Outdoor Cushions – Add a Splash of Colour

Its time to make some diy outdoor cushions! I love my outdoor space. Before we bought our house, I had a pretty nice deck on my condo, which you can see here

When I did the six week yard transformation challenge, I bought this patio furniture, This set is from Lowe’s (Canada). Here is a similar set

It’s nice but it’s very grey. I wanted to match it to the house, so it wouldn’t look out of place. But…man it’s a lot of grey!

I also took my DIY outdoor daybed and repurposed it for this space. I removed the canopy portion, and painted it to match the door colour on the house.  Here is what it looked like after it was painted.

The sad little stool is so tiny miss Sage can get up on the daybed. It will be getting a recovering, as part of an upcoming project.

What this whole space needs is a a splash of colour!!  When I found this fabric, I knew I had found what I needed for my DIY outdoor cushions. Now that’s a splash of colour!!

I couldn’t find this same fabric online, but here is a similar one. I needed 5m (5.5 yds) to cover the daybed, and an additional 1.2m (1.3) to cover cushions for the chairs.

Daybed

Have I told you how much I love my daybed?? I think maybe I have 🙂 One of the best parts about it is the mattress. It is an 11″ deep Twin Memory Foam Mattress. And it is soooooo comfortable. The mistake that I made the last time I covered it, was that I didn’t use outdoor fabric and it faded so badly. Although it seemed like a good buy at the time, in the end it wasn’t because it only lasted one season. Although next time maybe I will just buy this awesome Daybed,

So this time, I made sure I bought outdoor fabric, which is UV & mold resistant and water repellant. The fabric was $32/m. But I got it on sale for 50% off. The cost of the fabric for the daybed cover came to about $80.  For the cover, I cut two pieces of fabric that equaled the width 100cm (39″) of the mattress plus the depth 30cm (11″) which formed a big tube, to slip over the mattress. Then I added a square end on one end. I attached another rectangular piece on the other end, and hand stitched it closed.  I LOVE how this looks!!!! and the feel of it too. It is nice and heavy. Next step pillows

Daybed pillows

To make the pillows, I started with Walmart Blue whale pillows, they are $5 each, so not a huge investment. I cut a piece of fabric for each one at 104cm (41″) x 70cm (28″) and then folded it in half so it was 20.5″ x 28″. I  did a .5″ seam allowance around 3 sides. No rounded corners for these ones. Then tuck in the pillow, and sew up the opening by hand. I don’t really intend to wash these. The plan is more to wipe them down if they get dirty. The fabric should be pretty stain resistant. If they do need washing, I will just pick the seam and re-sew it. I did put zippers in the last ones I made, and I never took the covers off. So it’s a bit of extra work that wasn’t needed.

The beauty of making your own accent cushions is that you can pull different pieces together so that they look cohesive. I did the cover for the daybed, and the accent cushions for the conversation set in the same teal fabric.

Diy Outdoor Cushions

Here is how I did the accent cushions. I bought these foam cushions from Wal-mart they are 16″x24″x2″ Here are some similar ones.  I opted to go with 12″ x 24″ for these cushions. So I cut the foam into 12″x 24″ rectangles. It’s easiest to just cut it with scissors. I tried using a box cutter type blade, but scissors did a better job. Just draw a straight line on the foam with a sharpieand then cut with sharp scissors.

I cut the fabric into 24.5″ x 24.5″ squares, and then just folded it right sides together to make the covers. I didn’t love the square shape of the cushion, so I whip-stitched the edges, so that they were less square. I used waxed button thread to give these a better shape. I love this stuff:)

I rounded the corners of the pillow-cases, by just using a glass to draw a circle. Otherwise, you end up with little ears, which I didn’t want on these. And then just hand-stitched the opening closed.

And here they are on the chairs.

I still need to add some decor pieces, but it looks so much nicer with that pop of colour!!

Click here to check out my deck decor tips

And see how nicely it ties together these two pieces, which are made from completely different materials. Yay!

I’m not quite finished, so stayed tuned. I’m adding some bolster pillows to the daybed and still need to add a few more decor pieces. Since this is the first year at the new house it has taken a bit of time to pull all the pieces together. Hopefully next year, I will have all the pieces, and the deck will be ready to go on May long weekend!!

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