I’ve been doing a few projects around our house the past month or so to get ready for the warm weather. When we first moved into our house a little over a year ago I hated our backyard because it was pretty much just ugly. So this year I promised myself (and I made Kevin promise too) that I’d/we’d really try and fix it up. Another incentive is that we’re throwing a pre-4th of July BBQ on the 26th, so we need to make sure it’s looking good for our guests!
A few weeks ago I spent a lot of time sprucing up two rock beds in the backyard. They were filled with old rocks and weeds, and they were such an eyesore. So in one of the beds I removed all the rocks (and transplanted them to the front yard in a different rock bed) and planted this ground cover. It has tiny purple flowers. I’ve never planted ground cover before, so I’m hoping this ground cover will spread out and blend into one another over time and just fill this entire bed up with pretty purple flowers.
Can you see that patch of grass near the bottom of the photo that is dead? That’s where Kahlua likes to do her “business.” Ugh!
This is the other rock bed on the other side of the backyard. It had a ton of weeds in it and drove me crazy!
Here it is before. Isn’t it ugly? Just imagine the other rock bed looking like this before I planted the ground cover (forgot to take a before of the other one).
Here it is after! I think it looks much improved. It took me a good four hours to de-weed this thing.
I lined this rock bed with these river rocks that we had in our backyard. Last year I was digging up a random, dead tree we had back there and there was all this river rock buried in the ground. I didn’t know what to do with it at the time so I just let them be for about a year, but I sure am glad I kept it all because they make for a great border around this rock bed and cost $0!
Another project was refinishing a patio set that Kevin’s mom gave us. Let me just say that I’ve never really spray painted anything, so I didn’t really know what I was getting myself in to. This patio set had six chairs and a glass table. I started at 9am last Sunday and I did not finish until 7:30pm that night! I was absolutely exhausted and I will not be doing that again. Ha!
Here’s a pic of the chairs before. Just imagine the table being this tani-sh color too (I had already disassembled the table at this point and didn’t get a before pic of it).
Here are a couple of the chairs after I finished spray painting them. I went with a dark brown color called Mocha. The paint I used covered so well!
Here’s one of the finished chairs with the cushion and pillow.
Kahlua wanted in on the action too! Squinting in the sun :)
Here’s a close-up of the fabric of the cushion that I took in Home Depot with my phone. I love, love, love it!!!
The finished product! The umbrella is new. I couldn’t decide between a brown umbrella or this tan one, but I ultimately decided on the tan because the brown would fade over time and they aren’t cheap!
I love out it turned out. The chairs at each end of the table rock and they are so comfy! You can take a nice little nap in those. I only got two little pillows at the time, but I’m getting four more so each chair has one because they offer good lower back support :)
A third project was finding something to fill a space in our living room. I found a plant at Home Depot that included the pot for $20! I’ve been pricing some at other places that included a pot and they usually run for about $40, so I thought it was a good deal.
Area before. See how bare and empty it is behind the lamp?
Here it is after with the new plant! I think it fills the space just perfectly and gives the living room a good vibe. Kahlua had to make her debut as well, of course ;)
So those are projects for now. I’m sure I’ll have more coming up within the next couple weeks because my family is visiting in two weeks and our BBQ is in three weeks!
