Tag: outdoors

Modern Outdoor Dining Furniture for the Victorian

The furniture in this post was provided by Stori Modern.

I have a fantasy version of our backyard in my head that the reality does not match. Not yet, at least. One big step in the right direction is outdoor dining furniture that complements the Victorian, without going for spot-on wrought iron pieces.

Stori Modern makes outdoor furniture in various modern styles (as you might gather from their name), but some of the collections have a nice wink and nod to the past. I chose their Memoir Collection for our outdoor dining area.

The collection comes in red, white, or black. Red isn’t for me, but I do like white dining chairs. So fresh! So cute! I’m feeling darker colors for this house though, so I chose black chairs, plus black cushions.

The details make these really special, but the set is made with synthetic wicker so it should hold up nicely to the elements. We can store everything over the winter as we’ve likely had the last of our warm weather, but we do leave our outdoor furniture in the yard spring through fall and I appreciate a good durable material.

(Obviously the peacock is not left out year-round, or even overnight. He was a special guest for the photos.)

I liked the Journal collection a lot for our old home too, but in the end, the modern detailing of the Memoir dining furniture swayed me. I’m looking forward to sprucing up the dining area next spring, and plenty of meals outside again!

November 21, 2017
A Porch for Cozy Outdoor Entertaining

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I don’t think I’ve shown this porch much since we moved in. Come on out! It’s a small but comfortably cozy area. It fits our family of five perfectly, and after the kids go to sleep, me and Brandon can hang out back here with a few friends.

It looked like this before. Squished!

It’s a tiny space, but it felt even tinier with that little gap to squeeze through between the loveseat and the chair. Those big pieces came out right away after we moved in. We replaced them with a few things we brought with us from our first house, but did little else until now. I spent the weekend cleaning it up a bit. It looks pretty good outside for a 125-year-old house and I may try gently scrubbing the siding (I know you’re not supposed to pressure wash it), but I’m worried it may hasten a paint job.

Avoiding opening that can of worms, I stuck to sweeping out the dust and dirt, and turned my attention to maximizing the space. I added a wooden bistro table to a pair of metal chairs we already had. The small size of the table is better suited to the space, making it feel larger, and a bistro set is more useful than another armchair.

The color scheme is a little kooky with the stained glass. It’s an odd addition that doesn’t really go with the rest of the house, but the privacy is nice. I didn’t want to add a lot of competing colors, so I kept the furniture and accessories mostly neutral, and brought in some natural textures, wood tones, and brass accents to warm things up.

The lounge seating was on the porch at our first house. Half of it was reused here on the front porch, and the other half here. I got that pink polka dot pillow maybe five years ago, and the woven pillow is new.

I got a matching outdoor pouf too because the kids were super into it. It’s too bad I only had room for one because they’re kind of fighting over who gets to sit there.

We weren’t using this spot much at night because it was too dark, but it will be a whole lot nicer now that I hung string lights. I used removable hooks to test out the placement because I wasn’t sure if I’d like them to be swagged (as they are now) or pulled taut. What do you think?

I popped back out at night to take a few shots of them all aglow.

Candles help with the ambiance too. We have a hanging candle holder with open sides out there (came with the house), and you never realize how breezy it is until you try to keep an unsheltered candle lit! I bought a set of LED votives for the first time (along wtih a few perforated gold votive holders), and they are so much easier to deal with. No worries with kids around, I can put them anywhere without risking a fire hazard, and they don’t blow out with the slightest wind.

The table is just the right size for two people. I brought out our patterned plates, gold flatware, and our everyday pressed glass tumblers, and added cute polka dot napkins to tie in with the pink pillow. And of course, there’s the brass Nate Berkus vase that has been all over Blogland. It’s the perfect tall vase for big floofy flowers (hydrangeas, peonies, dahlias, you get the idea).

This little porch looks and feels so much better now. Having breakfast out here, late night drinks, coffee and a newspaper… I can’t wait. It’s such a special part of the house, and we’ve already been enjoying the spruced up space!

May 24, 2016
Looking Ahead to the Backyard

I’ve been paying attention to outdoor seating areas, looking for ideas and thinking about what we’re going to do with the porches and small patio at our new house. My little orbit chairs are still going strong (thanks, plastic!), and of course the egg chair is coming with. I don’t think that the table we bought last year will fit though, and I don’t want us to move it, store it, and move it again, only to end up selling it in a few months. I’m fairly certain the table needs a new home, and I’m trying to decide if we want to sell any or all of the chairs at the same time. I still have all of this extra seating in the garage too, and it’s probably time to let some of it go.

Anyway, I noticed a ton of inspiring ideas in this home tour, but I was particularly drawn to the following two outdoor lounge areas.

So good, right? I recognized the white chairs immediately, but quickly realized that I could source the other chairs too — it’s all IKEA. (Just like the majority of our outdoor furniture.)

Here’s another great use of that white chair. I spot the same Ammerö benches we have too, with a blanket over top.

So good! I’m looking forward to putting our stuff together in new ways.

June 26, 2013
New Outdoor Dining Table

Our outdoor dining table went kaput this year. It was cheap, but we thought it would last longer than four years. The wood went rotten, and one of the extensions wobbled right off. There’s a reason you’ve been seeing an increase in tablecloth usage outdoors lately.

Yesterday, I convinced a hesitant husband to pack up the kids with me and head to IKEA for a replacement. We were successful, as evidenced by the car being partitioned by a very large box.

I chose this table. It’s slightly smaller than our previous table, but there are no moving parts on it and I’m hopeful that it will hold up better. It already has a gray stain so it looks a smidge weathered, but I don’t want the dang thing to actually weather and fall apart the way the other did. Perhaps a winter storage cover is in order. Or a coat of paint. Or some sort of actual maintenance from us. (To be fair, the other table did call for restaining/sealing, and we never did it.)

I’ll have more photos later this week. We had some company for lunch and I put together a very red, white, and blue table setting. (Here’s a little sneak peek!)

The new table is solid pine. What do you think? Any tips on helping it survive Chicago’s weather? Stain it? Seal it? Find some place to store it in the winter? The legs do fold down.

June 25, 2012
Social Space Makeover Contest Winners

Thank you all for voting for your favorite finalist in the Social Space Makeover Contest! After a lot of drama in the end, and a lot of data crunching this weekend, I can officially announce Heather as the first place winner. Today, I’ll be sharing the custom design board that she has won. And after resolving some issues with the voting data, the second place actually goes to two winners: Lisa and Mary Sue. They were only six votes apart out of thousands, and in my book that’s close enough to call it a tie. They will each receive a $100 gift card to The Home Depot, courtesy of the American Express Membership Rewards program. Congratulations to all three winners!

Heather’s Winning Entry:

Help! We’ve been remodeling the inside of our home for the past 2 1/2 years but have totally neglected the outside of our home – including our front patio that has a lot of potential but is just barren and boring! When we had our daughter Zoey 10 months ago we really stopped all work on our home and now that she is getting close to walking we want to spend more time outside with her and entertaining friends and family but have no place suitable to do so (our backyard is even worse than this, with a death trap back porch!) […]

• Heather’s blog post
• Heather’s original entry

Here’s how I’d use Heather’s 150,000 Membership Rewards points to redo her front patio.

Heather and her husband, Mike, are handy and they’d like to build a custom bench for their space. They may also replace their existing firepit with something custom, but I included a ready-to-go option in case they want to go that route. They’d like to change the exterior of their house to be yellow and gray, but Heather tells me that they’re saving up for a big siding replacement job. When they’re ready, I think they should go for it and paint their door a cheery yellow, like my friend Erin Loechner did. I’d set aside $400 to use at The Home Depot for materials and paint.

I would add a sleek table out there with six colorful chairs (in a green/yellow color that isn’t a perfect match for a yellow door, but that goes well). Tubtrugs are inexpensive and perfect for corralling toys, holding drinks for a party, or even as big planters. The solar lights are the only thing in the design plan not available through points, but they’re so good for the patio that I had to include them, and then cute accessories from west elm finish off the space. And plants! I can’t advise as to what’s good for the area, but I’d be sure to use some of that Home Depot money to add some greenery out there too.

Heather is free to use her points as she wishes, and I’m looking forward to seeing what she does with her space. Congratulations again to Heather, and also to Mary Sue and Lisa! Thank you, everyone, for following along with the contest. I hope you’ve enjoyed it!

June 22, 2011
Pom Pom Peony Support

I have a million peony bushes in the backyard (well, twelve or so), but I think the one nearest the egg chair might qualify for special treatment with this support cage from Terrain.

May 16, 2011