Thursday, March 15, 2012

The Multi Way Patio Lounger

What a beautiful day it is here today! Kurt and I have been working on a project for several weekends that I have wanted finished so bad. Not only to utitlize it on these sun filled days, but to share it with all of you.

Without further adeau.... The Multi Way Patio Lounger!!


I searched and searched online for the perfect chair.

Here's what I learned:

We could buy one of those cheap white plastic chairs for $50 at Lowes or Home Depot or even for $25 I could ge the metal hinged foldable chairs in several colors {I was tempted when we first arrived!}

But what I really wanted was this chair: $480 for the chair, add $189 for the pad oh and if you want the side table, which duh where am I going to put my homemade pina colada?! An additional $120!
Grand Total for 2 chairs $1,578

I can see it now, "Oh babe guess what I found the lounge set I want so I can get tan while you work." Ha that would have gone over well! (To clarify I go back to work on Monday.)

Ok here's the scoop I found this chair through Shanty2Chic's blog. I thought we can so build that and do it together--we love building projects {we get to be outside and productive}! The catch I {of course} wanted to alter the original plans. 'How cool would it be if the chair could be a chair and a chaise lounge!' To Lowes I went with our plans {the new ones I drew up, since I was supposed to wait for Kurt to build} in hand. I bypassed 2 not so helpful guys and got "the master", he and I clicked! He knew exactly what I wanted to do and verified that it was possible and I had the correct bolts and wing nuts! Thank you Lowe's Master!

All cut ready for assembly...

Several hiccoughs along the way, but nothing we couldn't work through! The measurements in Ana's plans did not match up with our wood, so for the first chair I did lots of sanding, the next one we built in a different order than the plans suggest and that proved much easier! Oh and that part about me being a nurse and attempting to draw up my own plans…about 90% accurate ;)

I stained the chairs and applied a final polyurethane coat--Note to others check every portion of the chair before you assume its dry and throw your brand new cushion on it ;) I'm sure only I can tell what happened!

Now for why its a Multi-Way…
         You can see the line in the above photo. We built that end portion as its own piece. You can set it at the end for a chaise or move it next to the chair to use it as a table. If you have a small yard and this is just too much furniture to have two chairs and two side tables, the tables legs fold inside and you can set the "table" flat under your chair! The only catch we found in this is the adjustable back doesn't sit upright enough for it to really be a chair and the seat portion for the "chair" is a bit long for us short folk…eh that's why I sewed up some fancy pillows!


Estimated Chair Cost for Two: About $80 the other blog said they got all the wood for $25 not sure what kind of wood they used!

To make the cushions we popped into Joann's, bought 4.5 yards of outdoor fabric and one egg crate mattress foam. Estimated Cost: $50 with coupons!



Since taking these pictures I've played around with that chair pad on the left if you fold the extra down the back it helps the chair sit taller or leave it like I have it pictured so the chair doesn't intent into your legs :)


There are purposely no arm rests-- Three Reasons: We can hold up our own arms, they would get WAY too hot in this Az sun to use anyhow and armrest tan lines--enough said. 

Four pillows (one not pictured) Estimated cost: $25

They could also be a bench if you're having a backyard shindig and need more seating!


In total: We built these chairs with our own 4 hands, 3 weekend days, 2 week days, lots of ball throwing for Coop, a few chewed up pieces of wood for ignoring him, 3 trips to Lowe's, 2 to Joann's, 4 coupons, about $155 {on the upper end of estimating} and countless memories!

Hope you enjoy! If you want the details on any of these pieces leave a comment!



Enjoy the sun, Melissa Delight
<3 ZZB

4 comments:

  1. Will you share your plans??

    ReplyDelete
  2. I link to the plans I followed in the post, but yes I hope to get my changes in writing here soon! I totally failed at being a step by step photographer. My suggestion if you don't want to wait for me, decide how big you want the table/chair proportions to be and then simply cut the long seat portion into the divided dimensions. Be patient you can make it work! If you're a perfectionist this project may drive you crazy!! Stay tuned and thanks so much for reading my blog!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You did a great job - thanks for the insight! I'm with ya on the AZ heat and armchair tan lines...coming from a girl in Gilbert, AZ. myself. :-) These are my next project!

    Amanda in AZ

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amanda since finishing these they started sapping like crazy! So just yesterday we chemically cleaned them and sanded them. We previously had cleaned them with paint thinner and reapplied an outdoor high heat polyurethane but they sapped more. We're now going to let them sit, see if they sap and then paint them with an outdoor primer paint in one! I'll post an update when that process is done...good luck! Thanks for reading :)

    ReplyDelete

Would love to see your projects and hear your thoughts!!