Deck Makeover

Last summer our focus was on the front of the house. We figured that we had ignored the outside for long enough, and that our neighbors would appreciate us improving the curb appeal a bit. So we slaved and toiled all summer long, and into the fall to take the front of our house from drab to fab. All of our efforts paid off, when we ended up with the front looking like this:

But the back of the house received zero attention. :-) We've tried really hard to balance out our life with our renovations, and not allow them to take over completely. With that in mind, last summer we decided to only work on the front. Which meant that the back of the house still looked like this:

Not quite as pleasant, right? So this summer we thought we would tackle at least part of this mess in the back, and at the same time spruce up a fun little deck area that we could enjoy throughout the summer. My other two goals were to mostly tackle projects I could do myself, and to not spend huge amounts of money or time by changing anything. We would simply work with what we had, using paint, new light fixtures and simple accessories to make everything liveable. And here's what we accomplished:

Quite a difference, right? I need to mention here that we ignored the left side of the house entirely. Its time will come, but we need to kill some weeds, get rid of some garbage and take out some planters before we can even think of "sprucing up." So this is two thirds of the back fixed up. :-) We continued with the yellow and green color scheme we started with in the front, and then added in some fun shots of red, blue and colored glass to make it very festive.  As you can see, the difference is drastic.

Painting all of the exposed wood, and caring for the neglected deck wood really changed the overall look. For all of the wood that I painted, I simply sprayed off any dirt, then followed with a coat of Kilz primer, and finally with outdoor paint. I love how sunny and warm the yellow is, with the bright pops of green. Caring for the wood of the deck floor was a little more tedious. It took me several hours to sand it all smooth, then I sprayed a deck cleaning solution on, and scrubbed that off. Finally, after everything was clean and dry, we spent a Saturday afternoon applying an outdoor deck stain to the freshly scrubbed boards.



The color is super similar to the concrete paint color we used on the front porch floor. Although not intended, I love that there is such a continuity from front to back now. The other thing that made a huge difference was painting the storm door that leads into the house and swapping out the old handle for a new black one. It's just a simple plastic door, so it looks much better painted.



The deck isn't large, just 10x11 feet, so there was just enough room to add two chairs by the door, and a table and chairs on the opposite side. We made the table from a table base found on Craigslist, and an old cabinet door screwed on as a top. Eventually, I'd like to make a nicer top, but for now, covered with a red and white gingham cloth, it looks sweet and allows us to eat out here in the summertime.

See how rich the wood looks now? And it is splinter free, which encourages bare feet. :-)

The plants, other than the silk poppies on the table, are mostly clearance finds at the garden centers. Next year I hope to grow some healthy geraniums and petunias to fill up all the pots, but for now, these bargain babies provide some much needed splashes of color.


These last ones, the red petunias, are my favorites. We found the little red pails at Target for $1.00 a piece, and I filled them with a six pack of red petunias from Walmart. They are the perfect scale for the corners of the deep windowsills, and they make me smile every time I see them.

I ordered a new light from Overstock for the funky pole in the middle of the deck. The halogen spotlight that was previously there was broken, and had way too much wattage for the small area. This little wall mount lantern was a much better fit. We purchased a decorative halogen bulb at Lowes for inside, and I love how it looks through the glass of the light.

The aqua colored votive holders on either side were clearanced out to $2.57 at Pier 1. I used some floral wire to string them from the ironwork above, and they are so pretty with the sun shining through them, or with tealights inside at night.

I wanted this area to be slightly reminiscent of the balconies in Spain, so I hunted down some pretty plates to hang on the wall, as they so often do there. Beneath them are some colored glass jars and bottles I thought were cool, and a metal smiling sunflower from Christmas Tree Shops.

Lover also made up a bunch of glass tiki torches. We simply collected some little bottles we liked, and filled them with tiki fluid. The wick is a length of sisal rope, threaded through a hole made in a bottle cap. Once the sisal is saturated, these torches burn super clean and work wonders at keeping the bugs away from the deck. The green torches below were made from cooking wine bottles, and we repurposed their tops to hold the "wick" in place.

We also painted the front of the entryway, and it looks tons better. I'm slowly building up a pretty flower garden for this planter, and already it looks tons better than it did before. My beautiful morning glories from last year naturalized, and I love how they look climbing up either side of the window.

So that's how we transformed our less then stellar deck into a fun, relaxing retreat. I can't decide if my favorite part is the yellow wall color, the happy red geraniums or those cool plates on the wall. What about you?


Linked to Sunday Showcase @ By Stephanie Lynn, Metamorphosis Monday @ BNOTP, DIY Parade @ DIY Showoff

One of a Kind, Original, Singular Art

Back when we moved into Wendhurst Castle, Lover and I made an agreement that we would not display anything other than original art in our castle. Well, art, and photographs of course. Which I guess are a type of art. So, yeah, only original art. :-) We entered this agreement knowing that it would take a while to find stuff we agreed on, and it would take even longer to be able to afford our own original art. But, we made the agreement, and it has thus far stood the test of time, like many of our other agreements. Some other time, ask me about the day I agreed to never bring anything Muppets related into the house, in exchange for being able to watch It's a Wonderful Life every Christmas. :-) Okay, now back to art. For quite a while, the only painting displayed in our home was the one over our mantel, that you've seen before.



I found it for five dollars at a garage sale the first summer in our castle, and I snatched it up faster than you can say "original oil painting" :-) I loved the fact that it was from another couple that had owned it for decades, and that it went perfectly with our color scheme while reminding me of my beloved Spain.  And, so, there it sat, for nearly a year, holding the singular, lonely position of  original painting in our home.

But then, Lover's mother took a trip to Bolivia, which is her beloved homeland, and she gifted us with this beautiful watercolor that she found there.



I absolutely adore watercolors, especially because I can paint something somewhat pretty if I am using watercolors. And I love the way that all the colors blend together into one cohesive picture. I also love the translucent quality that all watercolors have.  So that made Original Art Piece Numero Dos.



Then, while trolling for large frames at Goodwill, I stumbled upon this little beauty. I'm always looking for larger scale pieces for the mantel, because it is so freaking ginormous that it needs bigger pieces to fill it up. I thought this little painting would look pretty in the corner.



Again, it has a somewhat ethereal quality, like a watercolor, but it is oil. It signed simply, just "hugo". And I love the soft colors that it brings to that corner of the mantel.



Then, for our dating anniversary in May, I made over a store bought canvas from Target to create this little canvas to display one of Lover's poems. He had mentioned months ago that he wanted this poem up somewhere in our house, and I had been saving this as an anniversary gift for a while.



Shortly after we started dating we came across the saying "Friends Yesterday, Lovers Today, Soulmates Forever" and loved it, because it summed up our decades long relationship perfectly. We met when we were toddlers, and had been friends for about twenty years before we started dating. :-) We even used the saying on our wedding invitations. So when Lover wrote this poem centered around "our" saying, well you can imagine I was delighted.



In case you can't read the writing, the poem reads:

Friends Yesterday

Friendship is that depth of familiarity that sustains us through life.

Lovers Today

Love is that blessed fairy that when softly landed in our hearts breathes the inspiration of poetry.

Soulmates Forever

Soulmates share that singular blend of friendship and love that does not merely sustain and inspire but truly gives both life and poetry their only free expression.

And yes, I know that I am incredibly blessed to have such a wonderfully romantic husband who writes me poetry. :-) But, because Lover is constantly raising the bar, the following week on my birthday he gave me something even more spectacular.

He commissioned an artist to do a painting of my favorite photo from our wedding. The painting is so beautiful, and I love how it captured the mood of the picture, but has a definite artistic quality to it that was not in the original photo. Is that not the best birthday present ever?

So that's our current lineup of original art. Obviously there are no one of a kind Goyas or Monets in the collection, but they are so much more meaningful to us. Which one is your favorite?

Dressed Up Dining Room, Part Deux

Back in May I showed you what half of our dining room looks like. I'm back to show you another wall that has been finished. The remaining wall looks ok, but I am still not happy with this room. I'll be coming up with an inspiration board in the next few weeks for this room, as it is driving me crazy. I need change. Change is good!

Anyways, on the wall opposite the large window there used to be an odd cabinet above the pass through, and shelves on either side of the cabinet. Below the cabinet there was wood paneling (shocker!) and then below the paneling there was a weird burlap wallpaper stuff. (Like in the entryway) It was hideous, and it felt like the room was closing in on you because of the overhanging cabinet.

Here's the before. Shudder.

We're obviously working on other projects right now (Project Curb Appeal, and the basement) but I couldn't stand looking at this wall any longer. So one morning I grabbed a crowbar and a hammer and went to town on that wall. Doing it by myself was definitely harder and more time consuming than if Lover had been around for me to borrow his muscles, but I am proud of the fact that I did this all myself. Once all the hideousness was off I spent three days spackling holes and sanding, and then brought out the paint.

Here are the before and afters:

There is still a built in desk in this room that needs to be removed, and I am on an eternal search for a corner china cabinet. I know what I want, it looks like this:

but I can't find it anywhere. Any ideas?

Linked to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Dressed Up Dining Room, Part Deux

Back in May I showed you what half of our dining room looks like. I'm back to show you another wall that has been finished. The remaining wall looks ok, but I am still not happy with this room. I'll be coming up with an inspiration board in the next few weeks for this room, as it is driving me crazy. I need change. Change is good!

Anyways, on the wall opposite the large window there used to be an odd cabinet above the pass through, and shelves on either side of the cabinet. Below the cabinet there was wood paneling (shocker!) and then below the paneling there was a weird burlap wallpaper stuff. (Like in the entryway) It was hideous, and it felt like the room was closing in on you because of the overhanging cabinet.

Here's the before. Shudder.

We're obviously working on other projects right now (Project Curb Appeal, and the basement) but I couldn't stand looking at this wall any longer. So one morning I grabbed a crowbar and a hammer and went to town on that wall. Doing it by myself was definitely harder and more time consuming than if Lover had been around for me to borrow his muscles, but I am proud of the fact that I did this all myself. Once all the hideousness was off I spent three days spackling holes and sanding, and then brought out the paint.

Here are the before and afters:

There is still a built in desk in this room that needs to be removed, and I am on an eternal search for a corner china cabinet. I know what I want, it looks like this:

but I can't find it anywhere. Any ideas?

Linked to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Light and Airy Laundry Room

I found this "Deluxe Wooden Coat Rack" at a garage sale last week for one dollar.

I had been trying to find something that would be the missing link for my little laundry room makeover. I needed a row of hooks on the empty wall for hanging delicates and items that couldn't go in the dryer. But every hook I could find at Lowes and the like were at least $2 a piece. Adding a whole row of them would prove costly.

A can of white spray paint made this coat rack fit in nicely with the rest of the items in my fresh and clean laundry room.

Here's what the laundry "nook" looked like when we bought the house. Notice the paneling, the lovely wallpaper on the left wall, and the psychadelic colors of the cabinet on the right.

My father was kind enough to spend a few hours painting this room before we moved the washing machine and dryer into the room. I spent a few months searching for the right fabric to bring some happy color into the now fresh and clean space.

I hung a sheer panel over the doorway where the carpet covered doors had been. I used a blue on white polka dot cotton to make a screen to cover the electrical box. It's hanging from curtain clips on a wire, so it can be easily moved aside when we need to access the panel.

I had the wooden shelf with a heart cutout already, given to me when my parents moved. A couple of coats of white paint helped freshen it up, and I "accessorized" it with some faux blue hydrangeas, a picture of Lover and I, some Oxiclean in a white jar, and a white plastic box holding dryer sheets. I had all of these things, so there was no additional cost.

On the left wall, I took cork panels taken off the walls of the office and covered them in another polka dot print, this one with richer colors. I figure I can use these panels to hold spare buttons, stain remover tips, etc.

Below the cork panels I hung a watercolor I did of some laundry drying in the breeze. Isn't it pretty?

On the left wall, I put some pegboard hooks on the now white cabinet, and the coat rack on the adjacent wall. (Opposite the washer and dryer) Above the rack I freehanded the saying "Life and Laundry, Loads of Fun!"

Doing laundry in this area is much more pleasant now, and I love that I spent about $15 to make it enjoyable. Here's to makeovers on a dime!

Linked to Metamorphosis Monday and Thrifty Treasures. Check out the other tranformations and great finds!