Thursday, June 28, 2012

Before and Progress

We’ve come a long way baby! It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a few short weeks since we took this picture here:


I know what you’re thinking. Way to show progress! We are very excited that things are finally shapeing up and starting to show really what the space had been drawn as several months before. Although I have to be fare when we were putting this little balcony together I did have some pretty crazy moments... the ones where you look at the space and say... oupps... not to worry! They ironed themselves out and everything feel together.... So lets see where we are and where exactly we started

2 months ago:

Then add some pots 1.5 months ago


Vacationing... nothing gets done.

Brings us to 1 week ago

Finally.... Here:

No we are in the process of doing something rather unique... the bad part... so far I don’t like it (and I’ll be honest I’m pretty sure Karen doesn’t either) but I’m a firm believer in order to really know if something doesn’t belong you have to finish the space and then decide, so that’s exactly what I plan on doing. -> what is it? Well I’ll show you all in a few days here once it starts to dry out!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

80% and 20% to go!

This morning after I woke up and took a few pictures, after spending several hours with a dear friend searching for some unique add patio-licious pieces for the space I hit all the hardware stores and shopping malls hard! I was determined to move my 50% completion to almost, if not completely done! The finds? I found a banana fiber rug regular 45$ discounted that came to a tiny 30$ after tax! If that doesn’t excite you like it excites me... I also added some throw pillows and finally started to pot the morning glories that this morning were looking so sad.

So this morning, after adding a few things here and there – we also got some awesome patio furniture from a garage sale! That’s another story.  Ok, ok. So this morning (after sipping my coffee to the lovely Ella Fitzgerald) our patio looked like this:

After some plants and a bit of TLC and some throw cushions it looked like this:

Notice the difference? So what do we have left.... well if you can see on the picture I’ve marked out some wall space with chalk were some picture frames need to go, I also need to spray paint the old chair, find some lanterns and get a pendant light to hang. As well as finish staining the side wall... wash the whole balcony down and drink sufficiently. So how long can that take? Who knows! Only more bargain shops and thrift stores can answer that question.
Let’s bask in the effort of a job well done. For now.


Thursday, June 14, 2012

DIY outdoor sectional!

My favorite word today is progress... why you ask? Because after starting this little adventure to making the best use of our outdoor space a few months ago and coming up with our brilliant budget I feel a strong excited feeling that you only get when you’ve accomplished something great on a thrifty awesome low price!
I started a little project (as all projects starts) to make our own outdoor furnishings because it’s a challenge to optimize every inch of a space when you have to buy pre built awkward sized furniture. So we searched and searched for some examples of modern decor furnishings for outside that were (a) easy and (b) thrifty! And we ran across this!


POW! BAM! BANG! Yes... the floral kind of overpowers even me but underneath? A Simple modern looking sectional for outside and that’s when a dream was born (I had a dream, where brown and purple came together as one to create so much floral patterns). So off we went to the hardware store purchased 80$ of wood and some screws with a tiny saw and off we went in progressive stages... lets follow shall we?
Stage One the first section:



Stage Two the first section meets the second section:


Stage Three introducing the BENCH:

That makes us one step closer to completion! Now to putty the wholes and get our staining on!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Back To Black

After a short absence and a beautiful trip through Europe we are back in action! We are ready to continue the balcony, phase II (notice how I used roman numerals to look more official?) of the massive balcony overhaul – the budget 500$! Can we complete it.... let’s hope so!



Now just before I get all Home and Gardens on you! I’ll just quickly go through some of my favorite parts of our euro extravaganza! We started in Amsterdam, a beautiful and really bustling place our favorite part of that country (not the reefer) was that they used bikes instead of cars! After a few days in Amsterdam we set our way to Paris... which after being there for the 5 days that we were I wanted more than anything to reconsider our balcony and do it French style! We spent the weeks after that travelling to Greece, London and Italy all of which took our breath away. The one place that we recommend everyone go see at least once in their life is Positano which was a revelation of dramatic cliffs and beautiful sea side restaurants!



Ok, ok back to the task at hand Mike. For those of you who know me, even while I was in Europe with my boyfriend I dreamt of amazing ideas for the balcony... and right when I got off the plane the first thing I said to Rhys was “I need to pick up spray paint tomorrow”. Why? So that I could begin the next phase of the patio which meant painting the old grey planter to a hot black!
BEFORE

AFTER



Just coming back from holidays I’m still a little not with the times (seeing as I actually don’t have any before or after pictures) which lead to another fun accident – dropping the paint thinner all over the kitchen floor... nothing like the aroma of paint thinner to really clear out the house. All in all we are on our way! Continuing on with Phase II we are starting to make the balcony sectional, BY HAND! I have a good feeling about it!