Project for Me

Ryan always asks me "When are you going to make something for us?"  And he's right, I spend so much time making things for other people and I almost never make anything for myself or our home.  So, I've decided that from now on I will try to alternate: One project for a customer or friend/family member and then one project for us.  I have a lot of projects to do for gifts or customers this summer so I will probably have to do mostly small projects for myself in between them but I want to start thinking about one project that I am determined to accomplish this year.  Recovering our patio furniture and making furniture covers.  

Our patio furniture is in great shape but the cushions could use a little help.  I never ended up getting patio covers to protect them and I didn't spray them with any protectant or anything.  Considering they have been outside with no protection from sun or rain for almost 4 years, I'd say they've done pretty well.  But i bet if I recover them and make covers to protect them when we aren't using them, they would probably stay looking great for as long as we have them!

Here's why i want to recover them, you can see how the fabric is starting to rip as it is just disintegrating:

In addition to the damage from sun exposure and water/rain, I think patio furniture covers would really help keep them cleaner too.  

There is also one more reason I want to make furniture covers: we really need a custom fit boat cover for the boat and I want some practice.  I've never made a custom fit cover and the sunbrella marine fabric used for boat covers is over $20/yd so I'd rather get a little practice in first.  My plan is to maybe even use some cheap goodwill bed sheets or something to learn how to make a custom cover for the patio furniture and then once i've got it fitting well, take it apart and use it as a pattern to remake the covers out of sunbrella fabric.  But for the fun part, I need your help picking out what fabrics I'm going to use for the cushions, pillows and covers.

I really like this article I read on the LiveLoveDIY blog about how to combine colors and patterns (click the pic to go to the article):

I actually really like the fabrics shown in that picture and if they were sunbrella choices I would be all about it :)  But anyways, I need to recover cushions for a 3 person sofa and 2 chairs that have ottomans.  I think it would be best to cover the sofa cushions with a solid color and then use patterned pillows to add interest (or it might be way too busy).  Here's the color I was thinking for the sofa cushions:

It's kind of a medium blue by Sunbrella Outdoor Fabrics (doesn't need to be the marine version I don't think).  This one is from www.Fabric.com but I am open to other suggestions for colors.  For the pillows, I don't think it has to be Sunbrella, any outdoor fabric would probably be fine since they don't seem to take the same beating as the cushions (and they'll be under the covers too).  I definitely want this pattern for one of the pillows and I was thinking about the solid green on the back of the pillows so they are reversible.

But I'm really struggling to choose a pattern for the other pillows, what do you guys think?  Do you think any of these fabrics would go well with the floral one I picked above and my solid blue cushions?

After we choose the sofa and pillow covers, I need to choose how to cover the cushions on the chair (they have pillows too).

I was thinking maybe we could do the chairs and ottomans in the green (above) that i was thinking about putting on the back of the floral pillows.  Or maybe we could even cover either the chair cushions or the ottoman cushions in one of the patterned fabrics and then do solid color pillows?  Help help help!

And last but not least, I will need to choose a color of Sunbrella Marine fabric to make the covers.  You can buy it at www.sailrite.com and there are lots of different colors.  I'm thinking maybe something bright and cheery that matches whatever we choose for the sofa and chairs.