Tuesday, February 28, 2012

TRANSFORMED: Swing Set

This weekend was BUSY! I've got a few more finishing touches on a LOT of projects that I can't wait to share, but today has got to be my fa-brit (that's how Baby Goats says "favorite").


My mother-in-law brought this ollllld, rustyyy swing set for the girls, but it was not pretty. So, obviously, that had to change.

First thing to do was to check the condition of it. This swing had been sitting in front of my mother-in-law's house, outside on the reservation, for at least 3 years....


Some "cool kids" (as I like to call them) tagged on the top of it..


There was rust all over the place.. But everything still seemed in good condition! Just faded, rusty and marked on.


I saw that the mesh fabric was held on with those bars and screws, so I knew it would be easy to switch out. And the rust wasn't corroding the metal... just ugly... So off to the store we went!


This fabric was from JoAnn's, and is a Waverly outdoor canvas. I couldn't find it online, but ask for the outdoor fabrics, and you'll find it. It was $19.99/yard, but we only needed half a yard. So it wasn't THAT bad.. I took the fabric into Lowe's and found perfectly matching spray paint (seriously?! SCORE!). They're Valspar's Exotic Sea (blue) and Tropical Foliage (green).


Took the ugly beast apart and sanded, sanded, sanded.

And primed, primed, primed...

And painted, painted, painted...

Without taking any pictures.

Because I rock.


In between paint coats, I cut the fabric to the size of the mesh and started working on that. The seats needed notches cut so that we could access the safety belts, so I marked where those were and stitched around it. The cut the inside of it out.

I just slowly sewed the fabric to the mesh, so I wouldn't have to do anything remotely "hard" (uhh, how often do I tell you that I'm a lazy bum? ;-)). I didn't even fold the edges under and hem it. Just put some fabric glue on the edges so that they wouldn't fray.


And put it all back together!


Just put the fabric over the mesh.


And we can use the seat belts! :-)


The baby LOVES it (well.. to be honest, I don't think she could care less, either way!)

Do you have an old, rusty, hopeless looking piece of equipment? Did you do any random transformations?

15 comments:

  1. looks gorgeous! you did a fantastic job lady!

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    1. Thanks! What impressed me was that I let the 6 year old pick out the fabric. TOTALLY thought it was gonna be a crap-shoot!

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  2. That is too cute! And 'Baby Goats' is perhaps the greatest kid's name of all time!

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    1. hahaha, THANKS! I thought I was being witty by calling the other one "kid," but I don't think too many people have gotten that one ;-)

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    2. My keyboard isn't happy with you because I just spit my coffee all over it!

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  3. Look at those sweet little baby feet.

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  4. Looks Fab Gina! Great idea. Okay, if you are lazy, how are all of these projects getting done? Just sayin'....... BTW - I had the worst luck w/that Valspar spray paint (regular paint - no issues). Lost a sale because of it (time frame.) Made two child size adirondack chairs from Ana's site and sprayed them (same colors as you used) and they wouldn't dry. Yes, it was a damp week, but that didn't seem to affect the Rustoleum. I won't buy it again. Glad you had no issues!

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    1. Wow, I thought it actually dried faster than the rustoleum... AND it didn't drip! I think it's my new fave! I'm sorry you lost a sale because of it, though :-/ WAY not cool!

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  5. I know! Thankfully I had another order for a green chair in January, so one did eventually sell. Usually when I use Rustoleum you can touch them, I don't know, in an hour? No lie, they sat over night and then when my hubby and I went to assemble (I find prepainting adirondack chairs prior to assembly is easier), we actually left finger prints in them. I wanted to scream. It even said "fast drying" on the can!!! I can't even say it was the one batch because it was two different colors and I had to buy two more cans when I ran out and still had the same results! I was so stressed out! Thankfully the customer didn't care, but I was not a happy camper.

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