$50P: The Daybed

Several months ago, a coworker was in the process of cleaning out her basement and invited me over to peruse her pile of “Items To Discard.” Her rule was simple: if there was anything that I thought was worth keeping, it was leaving with me.

Clearly, I jumped at the chance to do this.

I left with several huge bins of fabric, a few flower pots, some old dishes, a small side table, and this beauty:

That, my friends, is a teak midcentury daybed. It had been severely water stained in a few basement floods, but I could see the beauty waiting to be unleashed. I brought it home and started sanding it down by hand.

And kept sanding.

And sanding.

And finally, after months of sanding with no end in sight, I appealed to a friend for the use of his orbital sander. It was a life saver.

I thought about staining it, but I just adore the natural wood. After some deliberation, I decided on just using some Tung oil to bring the wood back to life. Diana came over and we made quick work of it. Then I placed another order with my old friend, FoamByMail.com, and headed to Satin Moon fabrics to find the perfect cover fabric for my cushion.

This sounds like a fairly expedient process, but it was not. Don’t even begin to assume that it was. I am not speedy. So it goes.

Everything finally came together today, and I went home at lunch to put it all together. I couldn’t wait to show you!

Now. Let me remind you of the $50P rules – the original item must cost less than $50. The full project, however, can exceed the $50 cap if we feel that the project is “worth it.” With that in mind, here’s the breakdown:

Daybed “bones” – free
Sandpaper – $7
Tung oil – $12 (there’s plenty more left, though… enough for probably 100 more projects or so…)
Cushion – $153
Fabric – $86

For a grand total of $258!!!

Admittedly, this is my most expensive project. But oh, Blogdom, I love it. I can’t wait to read a book in this spot, or snuggle up and take a nap. I’m also so very glad to have it out of my work room, because now I can finally create a nice space for smaller crafts.

Many thanks to the myriad lovely friends who helped me in some way with this extensive project: Wendy, for giving me this amazing piece of furniture; Jessica, for driving my ass to and from Petaluma; John, for breaking a personal rule and loaning me his tools; Diana, for a lot of manual labor; the lovely ladies at Satin Moon Fabrics, for giving me an endless number of fabric samples; and, of course, the Horse Whisperer, for allowing me the joy of refurbishing a countless number of items in our house.