Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 4442 March Home&Garden Matters 2017 A Our Lawn Furniture Escapade More than just cushions BY ELISSA CATERFINO MANDEL A few years ago, without knowing what we were doing, my husband and I purchased lawn furniture at an estate sale. An estate sale is just a fancy garage sale that allows potential buyers to spend money inside and outside a house. When we went to the sale, we didn’t even realize we were looking for lawn furniture. Maybe that makes us the best kind of buyers. We could be talked into anything. When we saw the price of the furniture – $1,000 for a table, six chairs, two ottomans, two club chairs and a chaise longue – we were hooked. We had paged through and thrown away enough Frontgate catalogs to know that we were getting a good deal. Only later would someone tell us we had lucked into the Cadillac of lawn furniture. One summer my husband went wild with the power washer and leached all of the color from the cushions. How difficult could cushion replacement be? Discontinued, was what the message on the furniture website said. Desperation required ingenuity. If we couldn’t go to the original dealer, we would find great cushions on an alternative site. But for every 21 inches of depth we measured, there was only a 20½-inch cushion for sale. For five years without knowing it, we’d been sitting on premium but irregular cushions. My husband had a brilliant idea. We’d live in the land of close enough. So what if the cushion we ordered was off by a quarter inch? We’d manage. This was outdoor furniture, after all. We could be a little flexible. “Order one cushion,” my husband suggested. “See if it works.” The savior singleton cushion came in a week and when I opened the package, it looked like a contender…until I laid the cushion in place. Imagine my surprise when it covered only about three quarters of the chair seat. This didn’t call for more flexibility. It called for a chiropractor. My husband decided to turn himself into an exterior designer. He sent the measurements to a site that promised it could conjure up cushions to fit. We’d get the results – a price for the cushions we wanted in a pattern we loved in less than 24 hours. The price came: for the 13 cushions we’d pay close to $10,000, as much as a share in a summer beach house. “Re-cover them,” someone suggested, and ultimately that’s what we did. I used to think lawn cushions were fungible. But the cushions we had were, in the end, more than a collection of ice-pop drippings and sunblock stains from our sons’ summer parties. They provided memories of a time when my family was expanding, four boys at home with two dogs. Now the boys are mostly gone, and the dog is different. But the re-covered cushions are still in the backyard, though a smaller one than the yard they were purchased for. Somehow, because of all we went through with them, they still fit. Maisie gives her approval of the new cushions.