What We're Up To This Weekend

Around this time last year, I was drooling over deck furniture. It's just this time of year, with the promise of warm weather around the corner, I can't help but think about spending lots of time outside. And since we never got deck furniture last year, I'm again asking for it for my birthday.

Between the last two weekends we have visited exactly 11 different stores looking for deck furniture. But we've been having a tough time finding exactly what we want, between my color and aesthetic preferences, my husband's comfort and function requirements, balanced with what we're willing to spend.

Sunbrella outdoor fabric samples

All of the sets of furniture we found that were more reasonably priced at places like Home Depot or Sears either didn't have one of my husband's requirements (a glider lounge chair), or they weren't very comfortable, or they were made of wicker, which isn't a great material for on a deck where you occasionally have to brush off spider webs.


And then we went to several fancier outdoor furniture stores, and while we did find some non-wicker sets, with gliders, the prices were just way more than we wanted to spend.

 Yeah, $739.95 for one chair....even at 30% off that's just too much

All of the furniture at these more expensive stores started to blend together, with big price tags for basically the same sets in different finishes, non of which I was blown away by in the looks department. But they did glide at least.

So since we haven't been able to find that magical unicorn of patio furniture, that we both like the looks of, has a glider feature, and won't break the bank, we have a new plan. We're going to try to build the furniture ourselves!

Ana White has plans for the Belvedere chair from Restoration Hardware on her site, and although we're going to make a few tweaks to the design to accommodate more standard sized cushions, we think it will be a great starting place for our DIY furniture. I love the profile and clean lines of the chair, and my husband likes that he will be able to hide glider hardware under the boxy base. And it doesn't hurt that while these chairs retail for over $1k each, we'll be able to make them with around $50 in wood and materials.

Restoration Hardware

So this weekend we're going to be building a prototype out of cheaper lumber first, just to work out any kinks/practice, and to get a feel for the sturdiness of the design plans with our tweaks. I've been wanting to learn how to build furniture for a while now, so can't wait to dive in!

What are you up to this weekend? Is anyone else itching for the weather to warm up so you can enjoy some time outdoors?