DIY: Pottery Barn Patio Furniture Refresh

I'd been wanting a couch or sectional for our back patio for a while now; our toddler loves spending time in the back yard, so we spend tons of time out there with him.  We have a dining table and a couple of wicker chairs on the patio, but a couch seems so much more comfortable!  I started shopping around online and realized that patio furniture is NOT cheap - especially couches and sectionals since the cushions really add up in addition to the cost of the furniture itself!  On the low end, IKEA outdoor couches and sectionals start at $400-500, and more mid-priced options are well over $1,000-1,500.

Enter a secondhand sectional!  I LOVE Facebook garage sale/resale pages - the one in our neighborhood is especially active and great deals can be scored on there all the time!  I like that our page is local (meaning we won't have to drive too far to pick up), and it feels less shady than buying off Craigslist (since you have to know someone personally to get into the group and I can check out our mutual friends before buying).  

One of my friends from the neighborhood bunco group posted her Pottery Barn Chatham sectional for only $50 - it was in good shape but they're changing their patio setup to accommodate a dining table and needed it gone!  It's still sold at Pottery Barn - for the configuration she was selling (including coffee table and cushions), it costs a whopping $2,381 new (plus over $500 in shipping and taxes).  Although it needed some TLC, I was willing to risk $50 on a $3,000 outdoor sectional!  

The cushions were a natural "canvas" color but had some mildew/mold from being left outside in the elements all winter.  The sectional and coffee table themselves are wood (mahogany) but had some slight fading from the sun (the coffee table worse than the sectional).  Overall, though, the cushions were still firm, there were no holes or rips in the fabric, and the wood was very sturdy.  My father-in-law came over last weekend with his pickup truck to help us pick it up, and then we went to town giving it a little refresh!

Luckily, the cushion covers zip off!  I ran them through the washer with a hefty dose of Oxiclean, which got rid of many of the stains.  For the tougher mold/mildew stains, I tried Oxiclean spray, soaking in Oxiclean and hot water, and borax, which all helped some but didn't do the job completely.  Finally (I wish I had started here), I mixed up a solution of 1 part bleach to 8 parts water in a spray bottle.  The fabric care instructions say not to use non-chlorine bleach, but I tested the colorfastness on a hidden part of the fabric and it didn't change the color, so I decided to go ahead.  

The bleach spray worked great and got rid of EVERY trace of mold or mildew that was on the covers!  They look brand new!  I was thrilled with this since new cushions alone run over $500 (before shipping or tax!)  Since the inserts were in good shape, once the covers were clean, they were good to go!  We plan to bring them inside (or store in a deck box) when not in use to keep them from getting so mildew-y again, since I am not sure what the effects of continued bleaching might be (plus they are a hassle to zip on and off).

As for the sectional and coffee table wood, the stain was still in pretty good shape, but there was some sun bleaching and the wood was looking a little dry.  Since the Pottery Barn website says they are made from mahogany and the wood wasn't heavily varnished, we refreshed the wood using this teak oil.  We applied a couple of coats using rags (my husband's old hole-y undershirts).  It took less than an hour for the two of us to do the entire sectional plus the coffee table.  The sectional looks SO much better!  The coffee table was in worse shape so it looks better but still not perfect (it probably needs to be sanded and restained but we didn't want to hassle with trying to match the stain on the sectional right now).  We let the wood dry outside for a couple of days before putting the cushions back on.

Overall, we are thrilled with how it turned out - especially considering it was only a $60 investment ($50 for the furniture and $10 for the teak oil).

Baby and Toddler-Friendly Sunscreen

Note: this is not a sponsored post.  I have no affiliation with ThinkSport/ThinkBaby....this is purely my personal opinion and experience!

It's summer in Texas again, which means we are slathering C in sunscreen daily!  We send him to school with sunscreen pre-applied in the morning, and they re-apply in the afternoon before going out on the playground after nap. 

Given that C is wearing sunscreen twice a day, every day, I started looking more closely at the ingredients in sunscreen, as well as the different types of sunscreen. I will admit this is not something I had done before - I stood by my trusty Coppertone Sport (and still do, for Blair and I, since it has worked well for us in the past and, both working in office environments, we are only exposed to the sun and wearing sunscreen once or twice a week, rather than once or twice a day).

It turns out that there are 2 types of sunscreen: chemical sunscreens and physical sunscreens.  Most of your well-known sunscreen brands (Coppertone, Banana Boat, etc.) are chemical sunscreens. These sunscreens work by using one or more of a variety of chemicals to absorb the UV rays and release their energy in harmless ways.  It typically takes about 20 minutes after application for chemical sunscreens to be effective to allow the chemicals time to soak into your skin and form a protective layer. 

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In contrast, physical sunscreens work by using minerals (titanium dioxide or zinc oxide) to actually deflect or block the sun's UV rays.  Physical sunscreens work immediately after application because they actually form a physical barrier from the UV rays (no chemical reaction/absorption is necessary).  Generally, zinc oxide-based physical sunscreens provide better protection against UVA and UVB rays than titanium dioxide-based physical sunscreens, which provide good coverage against UVB but not UVA rays.  The main complaint with physical sunscreens is their texture - they tend to be thicker and more pasty, and therefore appear whiter on the skin and harder to "rub in" fully.

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I used the Environmental Working Group's 2016 sunscreen guide to sort through the myriad of sunscreen options. EWG evaluates different sunscreens based on their quality of UVA/UVB protection, as well as the health concerns posed by the ingredients, and gives each product a score between 1 (best) and 10 (worst).  As convenient as they are, spray sunscreens get a bad review from EWG.  They pose an inhalation risk (do you want your kids breathing in all those chemicals?!) and their effectiveness is questionable.  I have experienced this firsthand by one too many sunburns when the spray sunscreen seemed to just wash off my skin the second I enter the water!

Another thing to note is not to be fooled by the SPF rating!  The FDA considers SPF higher than 50 to be "inherently misleading" and may consider banning SPFs over 50 in the future.  In fact, Australia, Europe, Japan, and Canada cap SPF ratings at 30 to 50 SPF.  Why?  People typically place a false sense of security on high-SPF products, re-applying infrequently and actually exposing themselves to more UV rays than if they had properly used lower-SPF products.  The additional protection over SPF 50 is negligible.  Although SPF 100 seems (logically) like it is twice as effective as SPF 50, SPF 50 effectively blocks 98% of UV rays, and SPF 100 blocks 99% -- minimal difference.

Also keep in mind that the SPF rating relates to the effectiveness of blocking UVB rays (which cause sunburn and non-cancerous melanoma); it does not rate the sunscreen's effectiveness against UVA rays (which cause aging, suppress the immune system, cause free radicals to develop, and are linked to cancerous melanomas).  Higher SPF products may provide marginal incremental protection against UVB-caused sunburn, but generally do not provide incremental protection against UVA rays, and come at a cost of increased chemical exposure.

After reviewing EWG's sunscreen guide and reading WAY too many reviews on Amazon, I settled on ThinkBaby/ThinkSport sunscreen.  (Note that the products are exactly the same -- only the packaging is different, so I buy whichever is least expensive!)  ThinkSport is rated a "1" (best) by EWG for its effectiveness and its ingredients.  

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It is a physical sunscreen that uses zinc oxide as the active ingredient.  While it is thicker in consistency than typical drugstore (chemical) sunscreen brands, I do not find it difficult to rub in, and it does not leave a white cast on the skin like many physical sunscreens can.  It has a very faint, pleasant smell too (grapefruit maybe?) - not the typical strong sunscreen smell!  We have been using this on C for the last year, and I've recently decided to switch to ThinkSport for the sunscreen that Blair and I use as well. 

C has sensitive skin and eczema, and has not had any reaction to the ThinkSport sunscreen.  I do make sure to bathe every night after he wears sunscreen to minimize the time that it spends on his skin -- even though the ThinkSport sunscreen contains "safe" ingredients and is free of harmful chemicals, it is still just one more thing on his skin!  It does sting his eyes if he sweats and rubs the sunscreen into his eyes, so we sometimes use a stick sunscreen on his face instead (as it is both easier to apply and less runny/more waxy).  I used the Aveeno stick sunscreen last summer but switched to the BabyGanics SPF 50 Pure Mineral Sunscreen Stick this year because it is more highly rated by the EWG.

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Of course, sunscreen is the last defense against the sun!  We keep C in the shade as much as possible and try to avoid being outdoors in the middle of the day entirely.  When he's playing outside, both at school and at home, he wears a bucket hat to protect his face from the sun, and when he's swimming, he also wears a long-sleeve rash guard.  Sun avoidance is the best protection!

At the end of the day, applying ANY sunscreen (chemical or physical) regularly and appropriately is better than nothing!  I just wanted to share our family's experience with making the switch to a physical sunscreen!  Know better, do better, right?  :)