It’s officially spring in our back yard.
To celebrate, we invited over our neighbor-friends to make S’mores over the first fire in our firepit. The only problem? We had nothing for them to sit on. Four hours before we were expecting 2 adults and 2 kids to join us for dinner, our patio still looked like this:
The good news is that we work really well under pressure. We drove to Target to scope out what they had going on. We ran to Lowe’s to do a little price comparison, and then back to Target where we walked out with a flatbed full of stuff. We drove back home and assembled everything. And then we died of exhaustion:
OK, not really. We seize any opportunity to ham up a photo.
We started by picking out the loveseat. They had matching side tables and other stuff, but we don’t like things to be too matchy-matchy. Instead, we found coordinated side tables that we liked. After that, we picked out the pillow:
We couldn’t pass on this cute little tealight lantern in the same blue:
To add a punch of color, we went with an umbrella in a bold orange:
We didn’t go into the store with a color scheme in mind, but we walked out with some pretty well-coordinated purchases. This is the beauty of Target. It’s really easy to throw a scheme together. We just picked a main piece that we liked in a neutral tone. Then we found an accessory we liked in a color that coordinated well with that neutral. After that, we just picked a couple more pieces in colors that either matched or contrasted with the first accessory. Easy peasy!
On the other side of the fire, we have the 2 Ariondack chairs that we finished last summer. (We snagged them at Home Depot on sale, then assembled, stained and sealed them ourselves.)
In the middle is a little glass table that we picked up at our local hardware store. And the beverage bucket on top of that was something we found at Lowe’s last summer, but didn’t have a reason to use until now. (It was eventually filled with ice, sodas and brewskies.)
We also picked up a little something-something for our porch.
To celebrate spring, we’re going to eat as many meals outside as we can. So we picked up these two wicker chairs and a table. The chairs barstool height, so every time we sit on them, it feels like we should have a margarita in front of us.
We picked up another tealight holder for the table. And we also added this cute porcelain milk carton vase from CB2. Our friends Zac and Cathy had these vases as centerpieces at their wedding in Florida. We flew back with several of these in our suitcases all the way back to New York. They’re awesome! The flowers, of course, courtesy of thee huge lilac bush in our yard. We’re currently putting them all over our house and loving the natural air freshener.
Soooo…if we were on the reader end of this post, we’d be wondering how much all of this stuff cost. Here’s a tally of (and some links to) everything we purchased:
- Loveseat
- Pillow
- 2 side tables
- Lantern
- Umbrella
- Umbrella base
- Outdoor dining table
- 2 wicker chairs
- Tealight holder
- Kid-friendly plastic dinnerware: 6 plates, 6 bowls, 6 glasses
- Galvanized white round silverware caddy
The grand total: $625
Not bad for the amount of stuff we got! Everything except for the plastic dinnerware and the galvanized caddy were on sale, so we saved about $150 off of the regular price. And we went from having just a couple of Ariondacks to having a full set of patio furniture and a new outdoor dining setup.
What’s next for our patio? We’re considering replacing the two Ariondacks with a couple of matching chaise lounges. We just ordered all of the supplies we need to insulate and drywall the dining room, and we’re about to be suuuuper busy with that. We might need a place to go pass out at the end of each work day! The Ariondacks are really comfortable, so we’re not sure if we’ll splurge on the chaise lounges this year. We’ll keep you posted.
In other news, we’re still stripping the stubborn lacquer and stain from those 1950s chairs we recently scored. Stay tuned for some more updates from the home front coming soon!
Everything looks so good together! Remind me to tell you about the super awesome deal we got at Home Depot a few weeks ago!
Thank you. I’ll remember to ask you about it next time — you know I love hearing about Home Depot bargain buys!
Love that milk carton vase with the lilacs – and the firepit area looks fab! I’ll have salt on my marg! Happy Spring!
Blended, with salt — is there any other kind??
Awesome- looks really good and giving us some ideas too now that we are starting to think of the outside of our house!
The milk carton vase is too cute. I love the plates you picked up a Target. I’m thinking of switching to melamine for all of our dining needs until we’re done being breeders. I hate when my shit gets broken.
The Target plates are great. Can’t recommend them enough. We’ve actually started using them for just the two of us when we grill and eat outside just ‘cuz. Only downside: they’re not microwave safe. They’re dishwasher safe though, so that kinda makes up for it.