Patio Furniture Makeover

We were fortunate enough to be handed down this patio furniture before we moved. It didn't really fit with our old casa, but I am glad we held onto it; the bar height is perfect for seeing over the fence and enjoying the views from the backyard. The only problem was the speckled beige paint that totally blended in with our tan exterior. Boring and blah!

So after looking at outdoor furniture finishes at the big box stores, and hearing YHL rant and rave about oil rubbed bronze spray paint, I decided to bite to bullet and get three cans of Rust-oleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.

I had been worried about how light seats would look with a dark base, but then I remembered this chair Janice transformed.

Image via Life Begins at Thirty, Right?

I figured with a fun pillow (that I will make down the road with some outdoor fabric I already have on hand), the contrast might look chic, like Janice's chair, instead of hey-I-was-spray-painted.

But before I could start spraying away, I needed to prep. I hosed down the dirty furniture and scrubbed everything down with a sponge and let it dry in the sun. While everything was drying, I removed the vinyl protectant wrapped around the base of the chairs to protect them from being scuffed by shoes (since they are bar height).

Then I built a spray painting corner in the unused side yard so I could spray outside (for ventilation), without spraying the fence or concrete. Here she is. What a beaut.

I carefully sprayed the table first according to the directions on the can, let it dry for an hour, and turned it so I could spray the opposite side and touch up any spots I missed. While the table dried for another hour I prepped the chairs by taping off the seats. I tell ya, this took longer and was more tedious than the actual painting.

Another can of spray paint per chair, and they looked like this.

One hour later, the paper came off and revealed chairs that looked like this:

(You can see where I missed a spot on the base of the chair in the second picture. I will touch it up, but I was relieved that it just looked a little bit dirty. No one seemed to notice.)

I let everything dry for 24 hours before putting the glass tabletop back on the table and accessorizing with some sand and votive filled mason jars.

The oil rubbed bronze ties into the door and window frames, and the seats tie into the exterior paint. (We hope to paint and install new windows and doors down the road, but at least for now, the furniture looks like it was chosen to complement the house.) Not bad for a set of free furniture and $21.00 for spray paint.

I will share another spray paint project I took on later in the week. Suffice it to say that I am fully addicted. If you come over, I might just spray paint you! I can't believe it took me this long to embrace the aerosol.

Front Door Mini Makeover

Do you ever feel like the universe is conspiring against you? I have felt this way since Thursday. It all began when Blogger was not cooperating and refused to publish my post. After being cussed out by a student and staying late to see our school's (phenomenal) production of Urinetown, I thought I would let the universe have its way with the blog for the rest of the week. (Sorry guys!) Then Saturday I spent 8 hours at a CPR training. (This was not the universe, but BTSA conspiring against me.) Sunday our master shower pluming decided to snap in twain when the hubs tried to snake it. (I have a lot of long hair.) Then our toilet in the second bath shut down. Plumbing problems not withstanding, there have been some highs in between the parade of lows, but I am definitely ready to turn things around and start fresh this week.

Enter a front porch - if you can even call it that - mini makeover.

We *finally* changed the deadbolt (since we weren't sure who exactly had the keys to our pad), and we got doormats for all the exterior doors to the house. I love this fun striped doormat by Smith and Hawken for Target that I scored for $24.99. (We got one for the double slider in the living room too, since it's extra long and the colors tie in.) Doesn't it scream summer?

You have to see the carpet remnants that we were using before to really appreciate how those punchy stripes improved things.

And here's a close up of the new deadbolt for those interested.

It's not a perfect match to the door handle by any means, but it is much better than the brass deadbolt that was there for the first 6 weeks of living here. (Of course, I didn't snap a before pic. The hubs surprised me with this upgrade while I was fixing dinner.) And let's be honest, who cares what it looks like when you have peace of mind that random strangers are not running around with the key to your kingdom.

Let's zoom out of a second so you can get a sense of how claustrophobic the porch is:

I had hoped to place some plants on either side of the door on the porch itself, but it looks like we will have to get some larger planters to go where my sad little stand in pots currently are. I am not sure what I want to plant yet, but I am thinking something vertical surrounded by succulents. That will be next Sunday's project after we jackhammer out some backyard concrete on Saturday.

Beyond the potted plants on either side of the entry, we still have to get some lighting that works, house numbers, and figure out what to do with the door. I want to paint it, Ryan wants to stain it. Ah, the age old debate in this house: to paint or to stain? Either way, we both agree that the stained glass has got.to.go! We are thinking some seeded glass down the line, but there are bigger curb appeal projects to tackle first... Like the whole front yard!

Creating Boundaries

It's inevitable, we all have boundary issues. I am just counting my blessing that the boundary in question is fixable! It's the back fence: the wood is soft, it moves when you lean against it, and it's too short for our large and athletic dogs.

They'll jump that thing in a heartbeat, especially devil dog! So our first order of business once we move is to make the fence doggy proof. It's got to be high enough that the pups can't clear it, but we don't want to block our awesome view from the backyard.

So we are thinking 4 feet of solid fencing, and then something airier and more open for the last 2 feet. Here's what we are leaning towards so far.

Oh, did I mention that I like fences with horizontal planks instead of vertical? Surprisingly, Ryan is right there with me.

I like the variation in plank height in this one above. And in the one below we both like the open caging at the top. Only we would get rid of the geometric pattern and just leave it open, but not so open that a 100 pound Ridgeback can worm her way through.

Check out these fence accessories that I found as I was trolling through pininterest.com, where all the above pics hail from.

I swear the doggies need that lookout bubble! Too cute. Azlan especially would be entertained all day with the neighborhood watch. And I love the idea of pots that can sit right on the fence. It's like a modern planter box, but much cooler, and it would be so easy to change up what gets planted where. The fun colors and reasonable cost ($28 bucks a pop) help too. 

So now it's your turn to weigh in on the great fence debate. How do you feel about horizontal planks? What should be do for the last 2 feet of the fence?