Hello, dollies…welcome to this month’s Where Bloggers Live 06.2020. Today I’m sharing my outdoor space. You might remember in last month’s post we shared our blogging workspace, check it out here. And the month before that, in April, we hosted a special corona virus edition because that was everyone’s reality at the time. But I think we are beginning to come out of our cocoons, slowly but surely. Just in time for summer and to enjoy my outdoor space. Newly renovated, I might add!
WHERE BLOGGERS LIVE
This fun series is kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…with bloggers! Who doesn’t like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes and lives? In the coming months, this group of 7 bloggers will be sharing our kitchens, vacations (what vacation, you ask) and closets.
Just a reminder: Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After occasionally uses affiliate links. This means that if you click or make a purchase from a link provided I may receive a very small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for your support.
But today’s theme is my outdoor space. So, let’s head out back.
My Spring Goals
Updating our patio and backyard space was one of my spring goal’s for this year. And then life got really crazy with Covid. But then we got our stimulus check and things looked a little brighter. We decided to use our stimulus check to support local small businesses while getting some things done around the house that we have been wanting to do for awhile. Our check didn’t cover everything but it made it possible to get everything done rather than picking which we would do now, and which things we would hold off on. It was wonderful that we didn’t have to completely depend on our savings account. Thank you, Uncle Sam. By the way, I fulfilled all of my spring goals this year!! Bonus.
Our projects included:
- having Southwest Chimney clean the AC/heating vents and ducts, fireplace and dryer duct
- hiring Fish to clean our windows inside and out
- paying Supreme Clean to steam our carpets and area rugs
AND the fun one…
- buying new patio furniture!!
Window Shopping
Purchasing new patio furniture was actually a goal for spring then summer 2019. But it didn’t happen. When we got down to only one piece of patio furniture whose legs were not rusting through, I think PC realized how dire things were!! I wasn’t being completely frivolous about wanting something new.
I shopped online because Covid. On our rare and fairly essential trips to Lowe’s, I would visit their patio furniture department, too. We had to have something that would withstand our very hot, dry summers and our very hot, dry, gusty winds So, I would lift all of the pieces at Lowe’s to see how heavy they were and note the weight of each piece on the sales tags. Then I would go home and look for the heaviest, sturdiest, cheapest but prettiest sets I could find online.
Also knew I wanted:
- a table so we could eat outside and a seating area near the hot tub.
- and while we’re at it, maybe an umbrella to block the patio from some of the late afternoon sun
- oh, and a chaise lounge to read from
- and indoor-outdoor area rugs, of course
Enter Camrose Farmhouse Outdoor Furniture
After consulting Target, Wayfair, Amazon, Overstock and the aforementioned Lowe’s, I settled on furniture from WALMART! Ha! From their Better Homes & Gardens Camrose Farmhouse Collection. The furniture is described as a mix and match combination of sleek, modern metal with farmhouse wicker and wood.
We already had some faux (as in plastic) wicker pieces – a storage box, trash can and portable outdoor cooler – all in a dark brownish-black color. Wanted to find furniture that would work well with them. And because our pool tile is a combination of several shades of blue, I wanted to go with blues and greens for our color scheme.
Here’s how everything came together.
My Outdoor Space
When we bought our pool, the builder put together this nifty video presentation that opened with our French doors swinging wide onto the pool deck and then panned around the entire ‘imagined’ pool. The effect was jaw-dropping and we couldn’t sign on the dotted line fast enough.
So, here we are today, moving through those same French doors onto my outdoor space. Make that OUR outdoor space.
The Patio
This is the Camrose Farmhouse dining table, with 4 metal slat chairs and 2 wicker chairs – thrones, if you will, for my Prince C. and me. Right now I have the ‘thrones’ on the same side of the table to keep them out of the sun as much as possible. But will move them to either end of the table when we are dining.
To the left of the door is my chaise lounge. Plan to spend a lot of time in it next week when I am ‘off’ from babysitting. The Camrose Farmhouse collection didn’t include a chaise lounge so I purchased this Joyce wicker one in the same black-brown as my older things.
A few years ago, BP=before pool, I surprised PC with a patio face lift that included a built-in BBQ grill. Used money from an inheritance. Thank you, Uncle Howard and Aunt Lucille. I had self-serving intentions in getting a stationary grill. Wanted something that would block the wind and keep the patio furniture from blowing over.
It worked!! Even through last Saturday’s 50 mph gusts, our new furniture stayed put.
Here’s where the color came in. I found these lumbar pillows, also Better Homes & Gardens at our Walmart for $5.00. But they only had 4. Snapped them up to go with the Walmart Mainstay 9′ Market umbrella in a palm print I’d ordered. And the Kailani floral indoor/outdoor area rug from Wayfair. I was a little worried about all the pattern mixing. None of the prints are the same. But hey, pattern mixing is all the rage in the fashion world, right? Why not on the patio!
Under the Pergola
We had the pergola built when we put in the pool. You know all the woe with the pool. The pergola has plenty of issues, too. Almost half of the beams cracked, some practically in two. And other things. Until last week, the only patio furniture we had that could still bear weight was a love seat and chair that we used near the hot tub. I wanted something to replace them.
Ordered the Camrose Farmhouse 3 piece conversation set for this area. Pardon me, make that ‘chat set’. Thinking this will be perfect for enjoying sunsets and glasses of wine, just the 2 of us.
In this pic, you can see 2 of the pieces we already had. The storage box on the left side in which we keep snorkels, flippers, towels and floats – deflated, that is. On the right side is the portable cooler.
Found this area rug at Overstock. It’s the Curated Nomad Wilson Borders indoor/outdoor area rug, whatever all that means. Awful long name for a little rug.
The lavender bush behind this ‘chat set’ is really struggling. I am feeling kind of cocky about my green thumb since I haven’t yet killed my mother’s Phalaenopsis orchid I brought home from Kentucky last trip. Thinking our soil needs to be amended with lime. Thanks, Google.
Other Backyard Plants I Haven’t Killed Yet
Once the pool was in, PC and I put river rock around the perimeter as a border between the remaining yard and the deck. We planted several cactus and succulents in the rocks. On the left of the French doors we have a new Mexican bird of paradise next to our existing magnolia tree and bougainvillea bush. I just cut the bougainvillea back because it never blooms. Hoping maybe having it lower to the ground will keep it in the sun more of the day.
And on the right side we have a butterfly bush and rose bush mixed in with monkey grass from my Tennessee childhood home. There are tiger lilies on both sides and Japanese plum trees.
On the west side of the house, we have what used to be a bunny run for Lauren’s rabbits. When they bit the dust, we tried to grow Moscato grapes to make our own Bunny Run Wine. The grapes bit the dust. So now we have a Texas Ash, an oleander and peach tree on that side. And you know it, we have tried to make peach wine. Which turned out to be more like moonshine!
After snapping this picture I realized how unruly our oleander looks. Contacting the gardening guy to help us get it back under control.
Under the Stars
We bought 3 boxes of solar lights and set them about in the river rocks to light the deck around the pool at night.
And PC hung these old fashioned solar lights above the hot tub. They give the space a magical quality.
Balconies Need Love Too
We moved – very carefully – our decrepit old love seat and chair up to the balcony off our master bedroom. It doesn’t have a shade over it, so that balcony gets really toasty on summer afternoons. But once the sun begins to set, the Chihuahua Desert is pleasantly cool. This balcony is a good place to star gaze and offers a breath-taking view of the Franklin Mountains at sunset.
In the front of the house, we have a tiny balcony off a guest bedroom. I have set a small set of chairs and a table there. It is rarely used but looked so unloved with nothing on it.
PC and I are pretty much homebodies but a few years ago in 2015 we got very brave and invited players on his baseball team and their wives for a BBQ. Talk about stepping outside my comfort zone! Over 40 folks!! But I lived to tell about it. That was the year we put in the grill. Here’s a photo of us with our pre-party jitters.
I figure I might need to agree to another baseball party this year to thank PC for allowing me to revamp the patio and back yard. That is, if he ever gets to play baseball this season.
We just got everything put together this past week so have yet to christen the dining table or the chaise lounge. But here comes the weekend. And look out. We might move outside permanently!
YOUR TURN
Turn-about’s fair play so tell me a little about your outdoor space in a comment below. Do you have a favorite place outside to read? Or nap? Maybe a great spot to enjoy sunrises or sunsets?
Hope you will take a minute to visit the blogs of the other gals in this great group. I am excited to see their outdoors spaces, too.
Bettye at Fashion Schlub
Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks
Em at Dust and Doghair
Iris at Iris’ Original Ramblings
Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style
Julia at When the Girls Rule
Leslie at Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After
Then make plans to join us the second Friday each month for other editions of Where Bloggers Live. Here are the posts we have planned for this series in the coming months. Hope you will mark your calendars and plan to stop by for each.
- July 10: Kitchen
- August 14: Vacation/Staycation
- September 11: Closet Tour
In the next few weeks, I will be posting Wellness Weekend and revealing my summer bucket list, both on 06.21.2020. I have a Spiritual Sunday post floating around in my head that I need to get down on ‘paper’ and a Thinking Out Loud Thursday post planned for next week. Also hoping to sweep out the cobwebs in my fashion haus. It’s been awhile since I’ve been in there!
Thank you for being my buddy! I appreciate your visits and comments. Hope you have the perfect weather to spend time in your favorite outdoor space this weekend.
Hugs and kisses,
What a lovely outdoor area! I have new outdoor furniture arriving today (I hope!) for our deck. It is brutally hot on the deck most of the time but I do use it it the morning for breakfast and sometime in the late afternoon for reading while cooking dinner. We get lots of strong winds gusting off the lake so umbrellas aren’t a good choice for us (plus the last three we had either housed hornets, bees, or bats!). We are looking into adding a solar panel roof over it hopefully in the not so distant future.
Thank you! Can’t wait to see your new furniture. We have terrible winds, too, but this umbrella has a tie around it and has withstood 50 mph so far. Yikes, sounds like you have had terrible luck with your umbrellas!!
I would like to get some curtains for the west side of the pergola so we can enjoy sitting out there in the late afternoons. That’s the next project.
Oh that looks so inviting – I could quite happily sit out there and chat with you under that pergola. I would certainly enjoy a bit of that sunshine! I love your colour scheme, it looks so pretty alongside the pool. I can imagine the temptation to just spend all day out there.
It’s so interesting to see how different your garden space is to what you would find here in the UK. We are all about the lawn and the flowers, a swimming pool would not get much use over here!!!
Your outside looks lovely, Leslie! Wish I could sit out there with you and a glass of wine!
Wow, your pool is beautiful!
Wow, Leslie! Your backyard could be in a magazine! I pretty much love everything about it, but as someone who has trouble choosing things, I ADORE how you brought so many blues into your space. I would have never thought of that. And yet, the way you put everything together looks like THAT is exactly how it was meant to be.
I love how it looks so welcoming and party ready, yet at the same time has nooks and private spots for you and PC to enjoy.
Your landscaping is beautiful, too! So many colors and flowering shrubs. Putting the solar lights in the pots is genius! I may be “borrowing” that idea.
Congrats to you and PC for your lovely, inviting space!
Thank you so much, Em. We are trying very hard to just enjoy the space and the cool water in the pool and no focus on all the problems that still remain with the pool and deck. We have spent much more time out there since getting the furniture. Practically everyday. I think even PC has to agree it was money well spent.
This was so wonderful to see. How funny that we both got our outdoor furniture from the same source!
I remember all of your issues with your pool and when we moved we vacillated about a house with a pool. And we were extremely happy with a recreation center close by instead. Until covid…..it would have been nice to have our own pool at that time.
I love the chat area especially! Perfect for a nightly bottle of wine!
Xoxo
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Thank you, Jodie. It is crazy that in this desert town, there are very few subdivisions with community pools or even city pools. Of course, El Paso is property tax poor, so that has something to do with it. My daughter in Ft. Worth lives in a lovely area that has the nicest community pool and rec area. It’s just too hot in the desert to not have somewhere wet to cool off.
Your outdoor space looks fantastic and so inviting! Fabulous to spend time there.
Thank you, Nancy. We are finally ignoring the problems with the pool and just enjoying being in the water and sitting under our pergola or enjoying a smoothie on our patio.
I love how outdoor furniture has become so comfy lately and yours looks like we could just sink into them! At least after tiring ourselves in the pool! It looks like you have a lovely area to enjoy there in the heat of summer. Take care!
Thank you, Julia. We have been enjoying our outdoor space more this summer than any year previous.
I’m just drooling in jealousy. GORGEOUS
I love a place where outdoor carpets & patio furniture can look so beautiful. Which BTW – how beautiful are some of the outdoor rugs they make now??? Love it!
Ahhh, thank you, sweet friend. We are getting our monies worth spending time out in the pool, backyard and patio. Feels almost like a little vacay.
Everything looks so nice and inviting. I’m glad you got to replace your outdoor furniture. It doesn’t seem like a necessity, but being outside is so important. I think all of your blue colors are just right. Yes, I think you should have another big party!
Thank you! Being outside is important, even more so this year. And we are really enjoying this outdoor space. I think PC would agree it was money well spent.
Love the pool and the pergola. What a dream backyard! The pool is definitely on my someday list!
Thank you! We have had every problem you can think of with the building of our pool. And 3 years later, it still has not passed inspection. It has been a nightmare. But this year we decided to try to turn a blind eye to all the imperfections and just enjoy the water. And from a distance, it looks pretty good.
Looks like a resort! May I book a room, please? With a balcony view overlooking the pool?? That would be nice!
Bunny Run Wine sounds adorable. Sorry that didn’t work out 🙁
Enjoy!
Betty
You cutie, your comment made me smile. Maybe we will give the wine making another go once PC retires. I thought
the name was fun. But our one and only try at wine making was less than stellar!! Thank you for the sweet comment.
Your outdoor space is beautiful. I’m looking up your furniture set now because it looks like what we want for the front porch. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you, Daenel. The Camrose Farmhouse furniture is affordable and sturdy. And the chairs are stackable which is kind
of nice.
Oh Wow, what a lovely back yard. You keep everything so tidy and pretty. Where does your PC play baseball? One of my grandsons played in college and was an aspiring baseball player a few years ago. Enjoyed the tour!
Grace & Peace,Iris
http://www.IrisOriginalsRamblings.com
Thank you, Iris, for coming by. My Prince C. plays for an over 50 city baseball league. He has been playing for 6 years and just loves it. They had just begun their season and played a few games when Covid cropped up. He misses it so much. I get a little tired of going to games every single Saturday from the end of February until mid-October but I am even ready for the season to start this year! Where did your son play baseball?
Thank you for the compliment that everything is tidy and pretty. That’s a biggie to me. Thank you!!
What a beautiful yard, Leslie. It looks like the kind of place you could settle in and enjoy each other’s company or some alone time. Seeing the space you reside in also makes me feel like I know you better. I love it! One of our goals for our new house is to build an outdoor space that will be inviting to friends and family–complete with a pool, a BBQ, patio, and comfortable, durable furniture. Wish us luck!
Your new home is coming along beautifully. Glad you plan to incorporate an outdoor space for family and friends. We can really be outdoors more comfortably in the spring and fall than during the summer, at least until the sun goes down.
Your outdoor spaces looks so lovely! I think the mat underneath is a really nice touch too! 🙂 I’m looking forward to setting up our patio area – right now it’s a bit full of dog things as we are looking after a friend’s dog! once the kennel is gone we want to put a fan in the roof and get some cute new furniture – we just have camping chairs out there at the moment, haha!
Hope you are having a lovely weekend 🙂 It’s a rainy winter day here!
Great idea to get a fan for your outdoor space. I have wondered about doing that too. It is so hot here!
I saw some really cute Adirondack chairs for $19 that were so bright and cheerful. Even something like that
is a great way to start on your patio space.
Your outdoor space is beautiful! I would love to have something like this one day! Love your outdoor furniture and rugs!
Jill – Doused in Pink
Thank you, Jill. This year I promised I would enjoy our pool and turn a blind eye to all the things that are wrong with it. The pool has brought us so much frustration and heartache but this year I am concentrating on the good.
That is a beautiful view of your backyard; I want to dive into your pool! 🙂 I enjoy eating and sitting out on my patio table on my back porch. It is so relaxing.
Take care and enjoy your summer,
Anne
Thank you! We are really enjoying being outside in the yard these days. Having breakfast outside almost every morning. It is a wonderful way to start the day.
Wow! Absolutely stunning. I love the Better Homes and Gardens Modern Farmhouse Collection and I bought two pieces from that collection for my living room/master bedroom suite. We have been working a lot on our garden/outside too. We decided if we can’t travel anymore because of Covid we are going to make our home our playground.
Your yard is just magical. So glad you are enjoying more time out there. I think this will be the summer of no vacations for almost everyone. Glad we have our pretty outdoor spaces to ‘travel’ to.
Your outdoor space looks amazing! Great job! I am going to miss swimming this summer. So far, our local pool club is not opening. And if it did, I still might not renew my family’s membership this summer.
Thank you!! We are really enjoying it this year. I wish El Paso subdivisions would get smart about building community pools. I don’t know of a single area that has a community pool. My daughters little subdivision has the nicest club house and pool in Ft. Worth, my sister in Houston has much the same with an exercise area, too. Hope you can find somewhere to get wet and cool off this summer.
I love peeking into other people’s spaces and LOVE your outdoor space. And that indoor outdoor rug – I thought they were tiles. In Aus we have to have the pool completely enclosed by childproof gates and even any windows that open onto the pool have to have those burgle proof screens so they can’t be pushed out for people to get into the pool area that way either. It looks lovely to see your pool and your back yard as one.
Thank you so much for stopping by. We have self-locking gates on either side of the pool and an alarm on the French doors leading from the house to the pool but we don’t have to fence directly around the water itself. We have to keep an eye on 4 year old Lucia these days because she isn’t afraid of the water at all.