Decorating Project.

Patio reveal and a giveaway.

When Summer hits we spend the majority of our time outside. We play, lounge, color and eat outside. Unfortunately, our patio suffers as a result. I’ve been wanting to spruce it up for some time now and make it an outdoor room so when the Home Depot approached me about cleaning up with P&G products I was all game.

It was just the motivation I needed to clean up my patio’s act!

Armed with some Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, Mr. Clean Outdoor Pro and some Bounty Paper Towels I got to scrubbing.

Chemistry wasn’t my fave in high school so I won’t even attempt to figure out what in the heck those Magic Eraser sponges are made of but they have become my all time favorite cleaning tool. They cut through dirt, grease and grime like no other product I’ve ever used.

My 3 year old cushions were pretty dirty. Feeling like they were almost beyond their life I decided to douse them with the Mr. Clean Outdoor Pro spray cleaner. The label didn’t say not to use on fabric (and feeling like if I ruined them…oh well) so I went for it. I let drenched those babies, let it sit for about 10 minutes, scrubbed them down, then rinsed them with water. They smelled of chemical when they dried so I re-rinsed them, as in completely soaked them to get all the spray out and voila…all clean.

The neighbor’s cat showed his approval by making himself right at home for a cat nap.

The inspiration for the color scheme of my patio makeover was this old Coca-cola crate. Remember I posted about this yesterday? I got it from the cool new online store Cabootle which sells also kinds of antique and vintage pieces. Not only does it serve as my color scheme inspiration but it’s also a functional drink tray. I’ll share what I did with my other piece from Cabootle soon!

Kudos to my brother-in-law Randy for saving this old chandelier from the dumpster at a home he was remodeling a while back.
My hubs tried to throw it away on several occasions. Some men, right?!
I had to do some real sweet-talking to get him to install it. I know he likes it but he’s trying hard not to show it.

Cleaning can be dangerous. Once you make something look pretty you can’t just stop there. Next thing you know you’re looking for new throw pillows. And that looks so nice that you have to build your own table made from plumbing pipes and wood planks. Full tutorial and instructions to come!

I’m in love with my new outdoor patio space. Using a good majority of furnishings and decor I already had plus a few new things this space works perfectly for our family. Not only is it clean but it’s functional…and pretty (can’t forget the pretty).

So here’s the fun part! I can’t just keep all the clean and pretty to myself.

I want you to have your own outdoor space where you’ll want to spend your entire summer lounging. To do that I’ve teamed up with the Home Depot and P&G to giveaway some Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, Mr. Clean Outdoor Pro cleaning spray, a roll of Bounty Paper Towels and a $200. gift card! To enter fill out the form below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

19 Comments

Dining Room Makeover.

30 May 13 Comments

Today’s post comes from 4men1lady’s contributor Kimberly Dekker of Days Of Dawn. She recently did a makeover on her apartment dining room. It’s amazing how a few small and inexpensive changes add up to a dramatic space. Take it away Kimberly!

There are many ups and downs to apartment living. One of the “not-so-fun” parts of renting an apartment is not having many options to upgrade a space, such as our tiny little breakfast nook. While expanding the room or changing out the cheap (and ugly) linoleum floors might not be options, I finally decided to do what I could with the space and give it a “face lift” after an entire year of living with it as it was. I have never felt inspired by the space, nor have I found the time to freshen it up until now. I also didn’t have a very big budget for the project, so I had to be as frugal as possible, to include a couple DIY projects along the way!

I have been wanting to re-cover my dining table chairs for years! Since they weren’t terrible to begin with, I never made time for them and always assumed the project would be a LOT harder than it was. With the help of a screwdriver, scissors, and a staple gun I easily replaced the worn and bland fabric with this fun and durable striped fabric! I think it brings a lot of life to the room and compliments the bold rug nicely!

Now let’s talk about the “elephant in the room” or should I say, the light fixture that was in there before! It felt very outdated and dark, and I couldn’t wait to replace it! When I began shopping for a new fixture, I really loved pendant lighting. I felt like since the space was so small, it needed something minimal and less bulky. I am especially drawn to drum shades, but pretty much every one I found that I liked was more than I was willing to spend. I decided to do it myself!

I purchased a mini pendant light kit and a drum shade for a table lamp on clearance. It was plain white, and I knew I wanted to add some color and pattern to it, so I decided to cover it with fabric! I chose a pretty lace fabric (also plain white) and decided to spray paint the lace to get the pop of color I wanted! After it dried, I used some craft paper to cut a pattern of the drum shade, so the lace would be cut-to-size. Then, with a little fabric glue, just attached the lace to the inner rim of the shade and VOILA! A brand new light fixture for less than $30.

Since I am not very “handy” and am no electrician, I am very blessed with a husband that not only knows his way around a breaker box, but was willing to spend the time to hook up to the new light kit and remove the old one.

Although the room is still small, I feel like with just a few simple changes, it feels so much bigger, brighter and a lot more inviting!

Fab makeover Kimberly! I’m LOVING the new lamp shade chandelier! To see more of Kimberly’s projects check out her blog at Days of Dawn.

13 Comments

Never leave your kids alone with a hose.

28 May 2 Comments

I believe I may have mentioned this but when I was a wee young lad of a child I took a hose and sprayed everything in the backyard…including the patio ceiling. Not out of spite or revenge or rebellion, just a kid having fun with the hose. And when I say say “sprayed it”, I mean soaked that baby down. A few hours later the ceiling started to form funny shapes and stuff starting making cool bubbles.

20 something years later and my little backyard water party has come back to bite me. Every single little piece of pealing paint had to scraped down. I decided to hire someone to do it just in case there might have been a change of it being lead based paint. Chances were highly unlikely but just in case…
Next, the ceiling was re-mudded with a very light texture.