Upcycling to Create a New Boho Daybed

Before: the old couch summerhouseart.com

Ah, Before and After. This is the story of an old hide-a-bed couch being replaced with an up-cycled Daybed very thriftily made and done up in Boho style.

After: New Daybed summerhouseart.com

 The old couch, with its unbleached cotton cover hiding stains, old age, many, many years of wear, not to mention large shreddy bits made by long gone cats, just had to go! It just so happened that we had most of the components for a new daybed, stored in the basement, waiting to be transformed. Something much more comfy and better looking than a lumpy, old hide-a-bed. We’d just been waiting for a little time to tackle it.

First, had to get the old couch hauled away by a company that would make sure it all got recycled. We had the rails of an old Ikea single bed, missing the slats. Not sure, but I think they may have been used for some other project. We had a couple of substantial wooden chair or couch arms that one of our sons had found years ago and brought home.

Will, stapling the slats made from pallets, summerhouseart.com

We had saved the two foam seat cushions from the old couch to make new back cushions from. We cut those in half with an old electric carving knife and made four cushions from them.

Old foam seats now backs for new daybed, summerhouseart.com

Will, in the mean time had ingeniously figured out a way to attach the arms of the chair to the rails of the bed. And like so many people these days…. he recycled some pallets into slats for the bed. The only new thing we ended up getting was the actual foam mattress. An Eco foam mattress, so no off-gassing etc.

The aforementioned unbleached cotton cover was sewn into “new” covers for the foam. And the material from a thrift shop duvet cover became new covers for the cushions.

And finally, a chance to get creative with all my fabric stash, collected from garage sales and thrift shops. Chaos while deciding on the fabrics I’d use.

Fabric chaos, deciding on fabrics for new pillows, summerhouseart.com

Lovely new pillows, in the Boho Style.

2 new Pillows for the Boho Daybed, summerhouseart.com

Love how the fabric looks with an iris.

Iris with new pillow fabric, summerhouseart.com

And tah dah! New daybed! We love it! Finally a place for napping where you can actually stretch right out and really relax. Makes a nice couch too.

New Daybed, summerhouseart.com

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We’ve Got a NEW Shop on Etsy called FoundMadeArt!

Beach necklaces by Will Bushell, summerhouseart.com

We’re a couple of artists who are always open to new ideas, new avenues even. In the last few years we’ve been exploring some new ways of selling our work online. We’ve got lots of work up in some Print on Demand Online shops like our Summerhouse Art on Society 6, Summerhouse art on Zazzle and Red Bubble. It’s been a bit of learning curve but lots of fun too.

Which brings me to our latest venture….FoundMadeArt

So, a little lead in….  We’ve always been in love with beach combing. I’m one for watching tide charts and finding just the right day to head out to Sidney to look for beach pottery and beach glass.

Sailboat in Sidney BC summerhouseart.com

And we’ve made a few things like Bird baths

New Mosaic Birdbath by summerhouseart.com

and mirror frames with it.

Beach Pottery Mirror by Helen Bushell, summerhouseart.com

One day Will started playing with the idea of making jewelry from driftwood and beach glass. Off he went researching and learning everything he could about wire wrapping online and at the library.  Honestly, there is nothing that hasn’t got a tutorial about it somewhere. We love that generosity. And with his natural sense of design he was soon creating some really lovely necklaces.

Beachcombing treasure summerhouseart.com

 Which brought us to where to sell it all? He’d made quite a few. So we looked into Etsy. This time though, we couldn’t use our usual name of Summerhouseart since it had already been used in one form or another. But Will soon came up with the perfect new name. So, drum roll…… our new shop is called FoundMadeArt.

I love the new name since its all about finding things, like beach glass and driftwood and making something artful with it. And it leaves a lot of scope for other things that we like to work in too, like collage, assemblage and mosaics. The plan is to start with jewelry now and add a variety of other “found art” as we go along.

Here is a little introduction to what he’s been creating lately. We like to think of it as Surfer, beach jewelry. You can just link to the Etsy shop by touching the pic. BTW, you may notice in the photo of us, we look kinda young. But never mind, we decided to use it anyway since that’s how we still feel as long as we stay away from mirrors. Young at heart, that’s us.

 SOLD Pink Sea Glass Pendant by Will Bushell, FoundMadeArt Etsy shopDriftwood pendant by Will Bushell, FoundMadeArt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sea Pottery Pendant by Will Bushell, FoundMadeArtSea Glass Pendant by Will Bushell, FoundMadeArt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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