Now that we’ve moved to northern Colorado we spend quite a bit more time outdoors.  Summers in Texas were usually spent hibernating inside to avoid the 100+ degree heat (although we hit 100 here yesterday – what’s up with that?) or at the local pool trying to stay cool.  Our back deck stayed vacant most of that time due to the combination of crazy heat and the  bajillion mosquitoes attacking the moment you stepped outside.  But now that we usually have more reasonable temperatures during the day and pleasant evenings paired with no mosquitoes, we spend significantly more time on the back deck.  This means our portable, fold up canvas chairs just won’t cut it anymore.

The first chair I put together was for the boyfriend because he spends more time than anyone else just relaxing on the back deck.  It’s his favorite spot to chill out after a long day at work.

The plan I based it off of was the Simple Outdoor Chair from Ana-White.com.  Instead of going with 1×4 lumber it was beefed up to use 2×4 and 2×6 lumber.  I also increased the width and height to create something more comfortable for the big & tall boyfriend.

The seat cushion was a bargain to create by purchasing a couple of outdoor cushions at the local goodwill for $4 a pop.  They were the perfect size.  I couldn’t believe my luck.    I simply took them apart and used the foam from two of them to create a nice fat seat cushion.  The fabric isn’t indoor/outdoor because I just couldn’t find anything that I really liked in that section.  This fabric should do fine in the rain, but will probably fade sooner than a treated fabric.  I do have some Scotchgard on hand, so maybe when I’m feeling ambitious I’ll spray it down.

The plan was to also sew a back cushion, but the boyfriend preferred to go without one.  This works because it leaves me enough fabric to sew another cushion when I get around to building my own chair.  Which will hopefully happen before the end of summer, because something tells me we’ll be spending a lot more time indoors during the winter months than we ever did in Texas.