A (Like) New Patio Set

When we first moved into our home seven years ago, my sweet mother gifted us with an outdoor patio set from Ikea. It came with a wooden table, two chairs and a bench. Once we assembled it, it looked very much like this...

For the past seven years, this set has sat (and weathered) on our back porch. It no longer looked like the above picture. At various times over the years, we've attempted to give it an oil treatment but it never looked quite the same. Quite frankly, refinishing the table was just not at the top of our list of things to do...especially after kids came along.

However, since we started our plans to remodel our backyard, we've thought about replacing our patio set. We would love to buy a nice metal set with thick cushions...but with all the other expenses in fixing up the yard, I thought it might be more prudent to try to refinish the set we have. Since Brett was busy tackling the yard, I took on the task of fixing up the patio set on my own.

I started out by using our electric sander to take off the old layers of oil and stain...and dirt. Then I wiped down the furniture to remove the dust. I won't lie to you, it took me a few afternoons while my girlies napped to sand it all down. Because the furniture has wooden slats, I still had to sand some places by hand. I wasn't too fussed with sanding it perfectly because I hoped the stain would help camoflage the places that I missed. After the hard sanding work was done, it was time for the fun work - the staining!

For the stain/sealer, I chose this nifty all-in-one Krylon Exterior Semi-Transparent Wood Stain that I picked up at my local Ace Hardware on sale for $5/can. This stuff is great -- it provides a stain (7 colors available) as well as a water repellent and UV protection all in an easy spray can! I chose "Earthen Brown" hoping it would help camoflage my imperfect sanding job. After I wiped the dust from the furniture, I put on my protective gloves and got spraying. Since I wanted the wood grain to show through, I sprayed a light coat and then used a paper towel to remove the excess spray. I was able to coat the entire set one time with just one spray can. For extra protection, I decided to add an extra coat of spray and needed to start on a second can. The results? Beautiful! Even my husband was surprised at how nice it looks now. (Unfortunately, our backyard is currently a disaster, and I can't move the chair to a better spot for a picture.)
 
 

 
The best part is that our patio almost like new again...and it cost us only $10 to do it. I hope to post better photos of the entire set when our backyard is finished. Hopefully, that will be before the end of summer!

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Dreaming of A New Garden

When we bought our condo nearly seven years ago, one of the things that we loved about the place was the backyard. At the time, we lived in a tiny upstairs apartment in a 1970's-ish complex. It featured a cement walkway and a few bushes on the ground floor. As for the upstairs where we lived, there wasn't any landscaping despite a rather large patio-ish gathering space at the top of the stairs. So, to find a condo that had a small backyard was like a dream come true! It had a patio, a small patch of grass and a huge planter running the length of the yard that was filled with rosebushes. In comparison to other condos that we looked at, this backyard was HUGE at about 42 feet wide and 19 feet deep. The thought of being about to garden and eat on the patio was exciting to us.

The images here show what our backyard looked like when we bought it. Sadly, the years have not been kind. Over the years, some trees on an adjacent property began knocking down the fence and pushing up the patio concrete. The HOA didn't want to replace the fence until a solution had been found for the trees. We didn't want to repaint the fence because the fence was to be replaced. And so, we've had a falling down / "shabby chic" looking fence for some time. At long last, changes are on the horizon. Finally, the neighboring property changed hands and the new owner agreed to remove the trees and share the cost of a new fence. A couple of weeks ago, the trees were removed. Although part of me was sad to see them go, the other part of me was dancing a jig that I wouldn't have to rake it's copious leaves this fall and that we could finally make some landscaping changes to the yard. Rumor has it that the fence should be replaced this week.

With the fence issue finally resolved, Brett and I are talking and dreaming about the changes that we want to make...within a budget. I got a few books from the library for inspiration -- Small Spaces, Beautiful Gardens, Big Ideas for Small Gardens, and Home Landscaping: California Edition. They've really got me dreaming about what we can do. I'm hoping that we can turn our little backyard into a "Magical Garden" that will delight our girls as well as ourselves. It's not really a HUGE space that we have to work with, but we're hoping to make the most of it.

Anyone got ideas on what we can do?