Balcony Upgrade - Refurbished Bistro Set + Cushions

I think this is the first outdoor project of the season! Redoing the Eric's bistro set has been on the to-do list for, oh, years. For various reasons spray painting the pieces was not a feasible option, which made facing the whole thing unpleasant/daunting.

The motivation straw that broke the project camel's back - that's a thing, right? - was noticing that the outdoor fabric was on sale for 60% off at Jo-Ann a couple months ago. I picked up enough to make seat cushions and it sat in the to-sew pile until last week when I used my coupons to get some special-for-outdoor-use poly cushions of some sort. They're not foam, that much I know.

In our tradition of thriftiness whenever possible policy, I decided to make them copper colored using exterior rated paint I had in my stash. I was also able to use primer and a dark brown base coat I had in my stash - both exterior rated which are unusual things for me to have around. YEY!

The conditions on the balcony for working on these were perfect! Warm enough for paint to cure, shady enough to not be too hot, breezy enough for physical comfort and diminished quantities of flying insects! But when the time came to finally paint the copper layer, the weather forecast got spotty for rain, wind, thunderstorms, etc. so it seems wise to move the project indoors. Sigh.

I set up in the mudroom - kind of the perfect temperature for drying paint, so at least there's that.

As tempting as it was to put the cushions on and get it all set up as soon as it was dry enough to move, I tried to follow at least close-to-best practice and let them cure in the house for several days. [rolls eyes at self]

I have a few more things I'd like to do up here to make it more inviting, but hadn't decided exactly which direction to go or if I would do it this year. And then I did decide! And I will be posting about those things as they come to fruition. Some soon, some later.