The Story
Anyone that knew my mom, knows that she saved everything with the plans to repair or recycle them someday. Which, “someday” usually never came because she had so many other projects going. Kinda like me, come to think of it.
She used to enjoy her yard swing back in the day, but of course with the outside elements, after a few years, it was completely messed up. For awhile, she had me trying to find replacement cushions, which was impossible, so I think she finally gave up on the idea. But, one day, trying to get her to let us clean some stuff out of her yard, I promised her I’d rebuild her swing for her, so she agreed to let me take it home. I had in mind an idea to add wooden slats to the frame like the park benches, but I could find very little on the internet about instructions for doing that.
So, the swing sat behind my garage over a year, during which time Mom got sick and passed away. I still wanted to make over the swing as I had promised her, so early this summer, I set out to do it. Well, it was a little more work that I thought it would be.
How To:
It was easy enough to cut off the old fabric, wash the frame real good and spray paint it matte black. But the wooden slats were another story. I finally settled on the cheap grade stud lumber – about 1/2″x3″ I think. 
I cut them to length, sanded, primed and painted them exterior white satin.
I had researched and found I needed to use a special screw to drill into metal. So I got these self-drilling screws at Lowes. Turns out they should have been a little longer to go through the wood and far enough into the metal. But my solution – while not easy- was to first drill a hole in the slat and countersink it. Then, I marked the spot on the metal frame where I wanted to screw it, and used the self-drilling screw to drill into the metal. Then I used longer regular screws to screw the slat into the metal.
I think it was over 100 degrees the day I did it – and I was sick with a fever, so it almost killed me. But I finally finished. Needless to say, the swing was very heavy now, with all that wood, but the two of us managed to hang it with a couple S hooks. We put it on the patio, so it would be in the shade.
I’m a little nervous sitting in it, with all my weight on top of the weight of the swing, but it seems to be holding up ok. I enjoy sitting in it everyday and remembering my Mom. She would have been so happy with it.
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