Lately I've been drawn to pictures of outdoor spaces.
Light, bright and cheerful spaces such as these:
{Click on photos to follow links to available sources}
Aren't they wonderful???
It's no wonder I'm pining for some sunny outdoor time.
After such an extended period of short, gray, rainy days that are the norm around the Pacific Northwest ~ It takes it's toll on my level of cheerfulness. I'm not joking when I say I prefer summer months. I am lucky that in my job I'm able to spend a decent amount of time outside even in winter, so I can get as much Vitamin D as possible. I also lean towards Cottage and Scandinavian design due to their use of light, white and bright colors. It may be dark outside more often, but I have some control over the evironment inside my home!
A lack of daylight hours combined with cold and rain for extended periods of time can take it's toll on all of us. Mother Nature seems to understand this and starts throwing in beautiful, crisp, sunny days here and there this time of year. Just enough to keep me satisfied! It's sunny days like these that cause me to start dreaming of those long, warm, lazy summer days. I thought I would work on a project that would help get me into a breezy, summertime mood.
One of Scott's Craigslist runs a few months ago scored us a couple of free benches. There were two benches, one about 4 feet long and the other about 6 feet. They had a pizza parlor label underneath. I don't know why, but that seems kind of funny to me...how we ended up with these pizza parlor cast offs. They weren't very pretty...painted a dark brown and covered in brown vinyl. The vinyl upholstery had numerous cracks and repairs in it also.
We were in need of some more furniture suitable for our back deck area for the warmer spring and summer months. I thought it would be fun to make these benches over with some paint and outdoor fabric. I was able to work on the smaller 4 foot bench this weekend. Here is what I was able to accomplish:
 |
| The metal piece was painted silver to freshen it up, then the wood was painted a pale green with a touch of grey in it and distressed. |
 |
| The seat was reupholstered in an indoor/outdoor fabric in a beachy, tropical pattern |
 |
| Fun metal hardware was just an easy spray paint fix. |
 |
| Bright Shiny Silver on this fabulous feature of the bench. |
 |
| Colors that bring long, hot, relaxing summer days to mind. (And it doesn't clash with the pool either, that's a bonus!) |
 |
| New life given to a discarded piece. The fabric was attached to the underside of the seat with a manual staple gun. |
 |
| A place to sit and sip lemonade!!! |
 |
| Just in case you forgot how bad it was ~ ANOTHER BEFORE. |
 |
| And again the AFTER shot! ;) |
 |
| This might be the perfect spot for a tiny nap... |
I have a whole bunch of thrift store stuff to show you that I'll be using to finish jazzing up this back deck. This little project took maybe two hours time and $10 in fabric. The paint used we had on hand. I purchased $20 total in outdoor fabric so I would have plenty to do some other back deck projects. Can't wait to show you!!!
Here's hoping that your week is filled with fun projects, little naps, sun breaks and happiness!
xoxo,
Sherry
