The Swing

(This post is LONG overdue...)

Our front porch was a bit bare, so I decided to bring my porch swing from my old house. All was going well, it was a bit annoying to get the screws into the wood, but I managed it.

The old swing (already slightly sanded and hanging on my new front porch)

SUPPLIES-- 2 large wood screws with an eye
-- 2 S hooks
-- 2 long pieces of sturdy chain (make sure it is long enough!)
-- Swing
-- Tools (screwdriver, nail, hammer, a drill if possible)

PAINTING THE SWING
I attempted to sand down the swing completely to stain it, but I couldn't find an electric sander and didn't want to invest in one, so I did a rough sand and re-painted it. I actually hung the swing before I painted it so that I could get underneath it easily.
-- Make sure you put down some kind of tarp or something (I used a $2 shower curtain liner from Wal-Mart.)
-- Have a large brush to get the big areas and a smaller one to get in the cracks and small spaces.
-- On the first coat, it is okay if it is streaky. The more you try to paint it, the more you're just going to push around the paint, actually taking paint off. The first coat is NOT supposed to be perfect. That's what the second coat is for.
-- Be sure you read the directions on the paint as far as drying time between first and second coat! All paints are different.

PUTTING UP THE SWING
1. Decide where you want to hang it. I actually put it up once and then decided I didn't like it, so I re-did it. Try to avoid this by placing the swing below wherever you choose to hang it to make sure it is where you want it.
2. Mark the spots where you are going to put the hooks in the ceiling or wherever you are hanging it from. Make sure they are even and centered.
3. Make a hole using a hammer and nail (or drill) on the mark. It took me a while to figure out the best process for this.
-- You need the hole to be big enough to be able to start the screwing.
-- I ended up using an old, stripped phillips head screwdriver and hammered that into the wood to make the hole bigger. You can make this much easier by using a larger nail or a drill (but us poor college kids have to make do with what we have!)
4. Insert the screw into the hole and start twisting it. You should feel it catch and see it going into the wood.
-- Make sure it is straight!
5. Use a screwdriver to continue screwing once it starts getting to hard with your bare hands. To do this...
-- Insert the screwdriver through the eye of the screw. The screwdriver should be perpendicular to the straight part of the screw and parallel to the ceiling.
-- Use the leverage of the screwdriver to turn the screw. It can still be difficult (trust me, my arms were sore the next day), but it is much easier than doing it just with your bare hands.
6. Hang the S hooks and chain once your screws are in all the way. One side of the S hook hangs from the eye of the screw, the other holds the chain.
7. Connect the swing to the hanging chains, and you're done!

All finished! Such a nice little front porch getaway.

I then made pillows for my swing because I decided it needed a bit of comfort and something to spruce it up. I made a simple envelope pillow case and used some small pillows that I had on my bed that I didn't really want anyway. (Someday when I get a chance, I will write a tutorial on making envelope pillow cases).

-Soo Coco