Guys, I don’t have an eye for good junk. It stinks.
I love seeing the fun finds some of my friends like Mandi, KariAnne and Brooke seem to come up with on their trips out. You better believe after seeing Ariean’s bathtub to sofa project, I will be stalking her finds as well!
In the meantime, she’s here with her bathtub to sofa tutorial…
Sofa to Bathtub Tutorial
Hello, SYTYC Readers! Still in shock I won the UpCycle challenge, but so excited to share how I created a fun Outdoor Sofa from an old Cast Iron Bathtub! Are you ready?!
Here’s what I started with…An old Cast Iron Bathtub with peeling paint, but in very good condition! No rust, beautiful porcelain interior and all four original claw feet.
How did I do it? Honestly, not alone. Cast Iron Bathtubs are VERY heavy and the porcelain can chip easily. I was lucky to have the assistance of my husband on this one!
1 & 2. : Measure and mark where you would like the cut out for the sofa. We found it was best to keep the lines straight to make the cutting step easier.
3: Using a Quickie Saw, cut along the lines. Make sure to wear safety glasses and pants. The tiny shards of bathtub are very sharp! My husband cut the majority of this while I kept our little boys away. During the last cut, I held the cut piece to ensure it did not fall down on the inside of the bathtub and chip the porcelain.
4: Smooth the edges using an angle grinder. This creates a nice smooth edge and makes it safe for use.
5: All done! Ready to prep for paint!
1 & 3: Using a hand held scraper, I scraped as much of the old paint as I could. Yes, I wore a mask! Just not in this picture. You also want to find as many little helpers as you can find. In my case, three.
2: After scraping as much as I could, I used Laquer Thinner to remove even more paint. Clearly, all the paint did not come off, but that’s okay! I love the old, already loved look. If this bothers you, you can continue with the paint removal step until all paint is removed.
4: I used Press and Seal (similar to Saran Wrap) to seal down the bottom edge of the tub. It covered the area perfectly and stayed in place during the paint step.
5. I removed the drain. This can be left in place, too.
Yay! We’re getting closer…Time to paint!
1: First, I sprayed the tub with two coats of spray paint primer.
2: I cleaned the claw feet and sprayed them with primer as well.
3: The feet received a few coats of ivory spray paint.
4: I painted the exterior of the tub with Valspar Ultra Paint + Primer in River Mist (exterior paint in a satin finish.) This only took one coat, but brands of paint may vary. I had this paint left over from our Poolhouse and it just happened to match my fabric perfectly!
Bathtub is finished…Woo-hoo! Now to make it pretty…and comfortable!
To make a comfy place to kick back and relax, I started with a trip to Joann’s to purchase foam and fabric…I did not plan this excursion well, because I went on Labor Day with three small boys. There was light at the end of the trip, though…Lucky for me, the foam and outdoor fabric was on sale 50% off that day! I had NO IDEA foam was so expensive, so make sure to plan that into the cost of re-purposing a bathtub if you ever choose to.
Measure the interior width and length of the bathtub and add a couple inches to the length. It can always be trimmed back later. I wish I would have left mine a little longer so the cushion would have a tighter fit at each end.
Wrap cushion in quilt batting and cover with outdoor fabric. I could have made a slipcover for this, but chose not to. Why? Because I live in a house of boys. We live in the country. There is a lot of dirt. Those three combined means I will be washing this a lot. So, I simply serged around the edges of the fabric (not shown), sprayed it with a couple coats of scotch guard and tucked it around the edges of the foam.
For the pillows, I created simple covers for some extra pillows I had around the house. I measured the existing pillow and added seam allowance, then stitched them up.
For the backing, I used an old slipcover from my sofa in a cream twill. This way, if the color is too bold, I can tone it down with a more neutral look. I may even stencil on a couple of them!
Whew! That was a lot, but all that hard work turned into a beautiful, comfortable and unique piece of furniture for my back patio. Now if I can just get my kids off of it long enough to enjoy it myself!
Thank you all so very much for your votes and giving me the chance to share this tutorial! Have a Happy Week!
This is amazing. SO creative!! I pinned it 🙂
xoxo