[How to Paint Iron Furniture] Diy Outdoor Sofa

 

Want to design your own outdoor living space in your backyard oasis? Excellent objective! Then, when you go shopping for outdoor furniture and sofas, you get severe sticker shock. I'm with you all the way. 

Here's a fix: you can do it yourself with a little creativity and work. Find a cheap outdoor-compatible sofa or daybed, then transform it into a chic conversation piece for far less money. 

Want to know my secret? Continue reading as I walk you through the steps I took to make my own outdoor sofa.

DIY Couch History

A year ago, I fully redone my landscaping (you can see my garden here). Finally, I was ready to put together my "outdoor living room," and I couldn't wait to go shopping and find something amazing. 

Even while I did locate a lot of beautiful sofas, the costs weren't great. I'm a girl who would rather use her lopper-pruners (or fall on her sword) than pay full price or overspend. Finding a "deal" is, in my opinion, half the joy. And let me tell you, last year there were none to be obtained. 

As a landscape designer, I've only ever spent money on outdoor furniture for clients, and those clients weren't price-conscious, so perhaps it's always been that way. 

To make a long story even longer, I discovered a lovely outdoor sofa with cream Sunbrella cushions and a black iron metal base. Because that's all I could see for what I liked/needed, I had gradually come around to the concept that I would have to pay a high price. 

I finally decided to bite the bullet and click the Buy button. It wasn't going to ship for a very long time, according to an email I received a day or two later (also typical of last year, right?). 

I canceled the order since I came to the conclusion that it wouldn't work, especially at that price (why bother if it won't come until the end of summer). 

Well I still wanted a patio sofa. After all, I had plans for lounging about while sipping Aperol Spritzes, or so I envisioned. Now I needed to get creative (and this is where I get excited). And so I began perusing Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist in earnest. I already had my travertine and iron table, also a thrifted eBay find circa 2003, so I knew the sofa had to work with that along with my French-Mediterranean garden. Meaning it needed to a black iron frame with classical lines, and I’d finish it with off-white and black cushions of some sort.

World Market's iron Sevilla chairs and cushions were combined with my thrifted travertine table and iron base. Greenhouse Studio, the image

It's hardly surprising that I discovered something there given that eBay, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace account for furnishing half of my home. An iron daybed was being given away by a woman in San Francisco. Score!

We drove an hour into San Francisco to get it because my son wanted to practice driving and I needed the extra strength. We then carried it home and put it back together. By the way, reassembling was not fun!

The outdoor daybed is shown built and with its ends primed. Do not, as I initially did, use the same color primer and topcoat. Since everything is the same color, it is impossible to see if you have painted everything with the topcoat. 

Sneak Peek: Despite the fact that the table, chairs, and daybed come from various sources, the lines, materials, and colours all go well together. This is the "secret" to designing a dynamic room that comes together beautifully without being an exact match.  Greenhouse Studio, the image

How to paint outdoor furniture made of iron

equipment needed to paint iron

• 3M metal finishing pad with a wire brush
• Tying cloth
• tarps and painter's tape
• Grey Rustoleum primer (use a different primer shade than the finished paint colour!
• Rustoleum protective enamel in flat black
• gloves for protection

My daybed had minor rust, especially on one side, and appeared to be made of unpainted iron. I assume that side was exposed to the infamous San Francisco fog and was closest to a window. 

Here is how I prepared and painted:

Take off the rust. On the worst areas, I used a rough wire brush, and for mild rust, I used a metal finishing pad. The finishing pad's flexibility makes it simpler to hit curved portions, which is a nice thing. 

Utilizing tack cloth, carefully clean the frame. Tack cloth is designed for picking off residue since it is, well, tacky. The frame was never pressure washed by me. Washing iron appeared to go against what I had been doing in preparation, which was eliminating rust.  

Under your furniture, lay a dropcloth, and tape off anything that requires it. 

You are now prepared for primer. Make sure the color of your primer contrasts with the color of your main paint. Since I started with black priming, I made the mistake of not being able to tell which was the final paint or not. According to the paint's instructions, let it dry. 

Your metal topcoat paint should be applied over the primer. I applied two layers. In order to save yourself from making repeated journeys to the hardware store, buy more primer + topcoat paint than you anticipate using.

outdoor cushions and pillows for sofas

Sofa versus daybed

What precisely is a daybed? A twin-sized mattress is placed on a 3-sided frame to resemble a sofa in a daybed. This indicates that it is deeper than a typical couch, but I thought it would be fine if I added more pillows for back support. 

But I made sure my daybed was the same height as a typical sofa. I was on the verge of purchasing another from World Market, but I opted against it because it was so inexpensive despite being lovely. 

My main point is that you should always double-check your measurements before spending a lot of money or time on anything, even the inside measurements of your automobile if you're traveling an hour each way to San Francisco! (For more on this, read about measurement and room layout in How To Design A Room).

setting up the daybed

At home, I already had a spare twin mattress. To protect the mattress, I purchased a nylon waterproof cover that totally encloses it. (Twin mattresses can be found for incredibly little money or even for free.)

I was looking for a top cover made of Sunbrella or another outdoor fabric because I required one. But since they were all more over $200, I chose to get a daybed cover from World Market instead.

However, I regret it and will probably invest in a Sunbrella twin mattress cover the next season. The World Market cover has a fabric feel and color that I really enjoy, but it wasn't designed for outside use. It is robust and thick, and while it would be excellent if protected since it isn't covered, it doesn't remain clean.

The majority of dirt can be quickly brushed off with Sunbrella's ultra tight weave, and when it does become dirty, it can easily be cleaned with a hose. Sunbrella is somewhat of an outdoor miracle fabric.

I purchased a set of cushions in both Sunbrella and outdoor fabric.

Sunbrella cloth from Overstock is used for plain black and off-white ones.

Some of the patterned ones are for use outside and some aren't; they are from TJ Maxx and World Market. I was interested to see how indoor pillows would do. Since this is California, the only thing that has rained on them thus far is ash. Nevertheless, they are holding up nicely so far.

Outdoor Couch Winterization

Again, since it's California and all, I only moved the pillows and the mattress top cover into the garage, not the daybed itself. In a perfect world, I would have, especially to safeguard the mattress, but the entire iron and mattress assembly is incredibly heavy!

In its place, I ordered a patio furniture cover from Amazon. Since the daybed is larger than a conventional patio sofa, finding this required some considerable searching.

I quickly discovered that if there isn't a high point under the cover, it will fill with rain. If anyone has a spare, I'm thinking a traffic cone placed in the middle of the mattress underneath the cover would work well.

paint touch-up

Only the finial knobs, where the patio furniture cover rubbed the paint off, required repair this season. To get rid of the rust, they need to be sanded down once more, and then painted. Am I finished? No, and don't hope for much with it either.

This cover was placed on earlier this week because to wildfire ash, but come winter, I'll need to add something to make a high point so I won't have to bail water from the middle as I did last year.

Cost of a DIY patio daybed

When all was said and done, I had spent close to $500. Again, excluding gas and the bridge toll to San Francisco, the daybed was free. The mattress cover and cushions accounted for the majority of the expense. plus my time, which is also something that should be considered. 

It wasn't cheap, to be sure, but it cost $1,100 less than the one I first planned to buy but decided against. In addition, the price of that identical sofa has increased by $300 since I last checked. 

That is the tale of my homemade outdoor daybed. It was satisfying to do the project on my own rather than following the initial idea to purchase the pricey but lovely outdoor sofa. I enjoyed working on the project, which I hadn't completed in a while, and I was pleased with how it ended out. 

What do you think of DIY projects? Do you adore them or do you not find them appealing? Have you been constructing your personal outdoor haven? Post your comment below.