C's Room Part 2- Pallet Couch

C likes books. At bedtime every night we read a story together. After we hung his bed I would climb up there to read with him. I know the bed is secure but I'm a lot heavier than he is and didn't want to keep testing the strength of the bed by getting on it every night.  Inspired by the pallet furniture pins on Pinterest we created a reading couch for C's room.

We found free pallets in the classified ads and my carpenter (husband) came up with the plan to put it together. We wanted a couch that also included storage for some of C's little toys.

The white (they were black but spray painted white to better match his room) casters on the bottom of the legs are off the bottom of an old sofa. I don't know why my husband saved them but they did come in handy. They increased the height of the couch enough that our plastic drawers from Wal-mart fit perfectly underneath making a nice toy storage area.

We left the wood natural. To protect it we brushed on the same varnish that was used on the hanging bed.

I bought foam and fabric for the cushion at JoAnn's Fabrics. JoAnn's cut the foam to size and I sewed the cover for it.

I wanted big striped pillows for the couch back but couldn't find any pillows the right size. Then I looked for fabric to make the pillows but again couldn't find any gray and white fabric with big stripes. Finally I decided to make the striped fabric.
 
First I bought two standard sized white pillowcases. I used blue painter's tape to cover the area I wanted to stay white. To make this easier I bought the two-inch tape and let the width of the tape be the width of the stripes.

Since I knew I wouldn't be able to make stripes evenly without a guide, I used Photoshop to create a page of white and light gray two-inch stripes. After printing several copies of this guide I taped them together to make a sheet about the same dimensions as the pillowcase and slid it inside the case attached to a piece of cardboard. The cardboard helped stabilize the project, kept the guide sheet from moving around and the paint from bleeding through the fabric to the back side.

I found fabric spray paint at Auto Zone and bought 2 cans. I used it to paint stripes on both pillowcases, front and back. This paint covered the white fabric well. It dries a little stiff but that was no problem since these pillows are used as a backrest.

I filled the pillowcases with standard sized pillows and sewed button holes and three large gray buttons on the ends of each pillow case to hold them closed.

We have been really happy with C's reading couch. We use it every night. It's strong, comfortable and was a cheap addition to his room.

I do have a couple more pictures of this process but cannot find them now. When they're found I will add them to this post.

-Joanne