Summer Patio-House Tour Part III

YaY! The time has finally come to show you my deck and patio. As you all know by now I am VERY frugal and don't spend a lot of $$$ on NEW stuff for the house. I would much rather buy used or thrifted items to deorate my house in order to save money AND to add charater.

So for starters, I have to mention the deck itself. As you may remember from my earlier post, this spring we stripped the deck, powerwashed it, and restained it. Here is a before picture of the deck. It is a cedar wood deck and the stain was a dark, semi transparent, matte type of stain. The coverage was NOT very good as it was peeling and scraping off and it always looked dirty, so earlier this spring/summer Mr.Chaos and I, along with help from his parents, restained our deck, and I am VERY pleased with it. I don't have any after pics to show you yet but when I do I will post a before and after of the deck for everyone.

(sorry bout such a weird angle....this picture was all I could find at the moment).

As I stated above, I prefer refinishing furniture or buying used, versus brand new, so most everything on the patio is on its second life. The adirondack chairs were purchased about 4 years ago from my friend who was moving and needing to sell some things. They were a matt red color which did not go with the beachy/coastal look that I was aiming for so I sanded them down and painted them this aqua blue color/Tiffany blue as I like to call it, and I am so glad I did.

And the table was a thriftstore find with unfinished wood and black iron legs. I painted the top to match the chairs then gave the legs a coat of my favorite OIL RUBBED BRONZE spraypaint which added a slight sheen and kept it nice and clean looking.

Here is a before picture of the table when I had it turned upside down to tape it off for painting. I think it looks MUCH better in turquoise!!!

Old basket filled with hot pink impatients.

Of course a coastal inspired porch would not be complete without some ferns. The big one behind the chairs is a Boston fern and the smaller one in the black iron holder is an Asparagus fern. I like the texture and color that these plants provide.

This is my newest planter...it has a shabby chich look. The plant is a double impatient which ends up looking like a little rose buds. I had never heard of them until this spring so I thought I would try one, and I really like it. I even hope to pick up a few more next summer!

Brand new outdoor pillows I found off season at the thrift store. I was going to break out my sewing machine and make pillows this year but when I found these I couldn't resist! The red and hot pink colors were EXACTLY what I was looking for....and I really like the paisley pattern too.

Say hello to Mr. Turtle! His home is on the deep turquoise side table. This little side table was from Hob Lob and I've had it for about 10 years now. I just let it age so there is a little rust on it.....and we will just refer to this said rust as "patina", ookkkkk??? LOL, and then I painted the tiled top a deeper aqua color...and see the endging on the tile??? It reminds me of ocean waves!

(this watering can was another one of my spraypaint transformations....it was a dull and dirty red color that was brought back to life with hot pink)

(ahh, much cleaner and prettier!)

The table is a Hampton Bay set that I bought new from HD about 6 years ago. It has held up nicely considering it was blown across the yard in a tornado a few years back. NO I AM NOT KIDDING. We really DO have tornados here in the mid-west and this set lived through one! Minus a little scraping on the legs it held up quite well too!

So there ya have it! My coastal inspired patio. I really enjoy relaxing out here on weekend afternoons with a magazine and some lemonade (aka beer) LOL It is my favorite summer spot! I hope you like what you see and remember that good design does not always have to come with a big price tag! That's right.....a little bit of spray paint and some creativity can transform the most gawdy, ugly duckling, into a beautiful swan! ....so get out there peeps and make it BE-U-TIFUL! :)

Have a wonderful week everyone! Thanks for stopping by!

Jennifer