Making it Lovely

Tag: Outside

  • New Outdoor Dining Table

    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.

  • First Barbecue of the Summer

    First Barbecue of the Summer

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    Yesterday for lunch, we barbecued for the first time this year. It was so good we grilled again for dinner! This was the scene.

    Ah, those leaf plates. I’ve had them for years and I still love them. It was Brandon’s idea to add them to the table, and a good one at that, though somewhat surprising (because he hates them!).

    We need to get out there and clean up the garden. I ignored it last year (excuse: I had a baby and a toddler), and this year things are bad out there. It is, however, much easier to overlook the garden being overgrown and overtaken by weeds if your peonies are in bloom.

    A patterned tablecloth probably helps too. This is the same one I used for Eleanor’s birthday party, but I think I like it outside even better.

    My family always used paper plates and plastic cups and cutlery outside, but I like to use our regular dishware. We do use plastic/melamine plates and cups sometimes (we did for dinner yesterday), but I still like those better than disposables. Plus the wind doesn’t toss a real plate like it does a paper one.

    How do you set the table outside? I like to set out stacks of plates too, and let everyone help themselves, buffet-style.

    Eleanor was so excited about being able to eat outside. I think we all were.

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  • Hold on to Summer

    Hold on to Summer

    October in Chicago is funny. The temperature is in the high seventies this week but we could just as easily be thirty degrees colder, so we’re spending some time outside and enjoying the warm weather while we can. Wouldn’t one of these rattan chairs be cute on a porch or patio (like Jaime’s below), or in a sunroom?

    Such a sweet chair.

    • Photo by Raya Carlisle for Prudent Baby. Rattan chairs from Anthropologie and IKEA.

  • Social Space Makeover Contest Winners

    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!

  • Peonies

    Peonies

    I haven’t done much to the garden since my initial effort in 2008, but it has rewarded my neglect by growing with wild abandon. It’s really not such a bad thing.

    The Backyard, September 2008
    The Backyard, June 2011

    The peonies used to be out front. There were four of them when we moved in, but they weren’t getting enough sun so I decided to move them to the back. In the process, the four peonies accidentally became 12, but forging ahead, we planted all 12. Now, for about five days each June, my garden bursts with peonies. My favorite flower.

    I would love to make some changes and additions to the yard, but that’s pretty low in my priorities right now. Enjoying the garden though, that ranks quite a bit higher.

  • Our Eastern Redbud is Dying

    Our Eastern Redbud is Dying

    Only a third of the tree has leaves. It was a birthday present from Brandon in 2008, and I wanted to see it grow to full-size. So sad!

    Brandon thinks it can be saved, but I’m less hopeful. There are deep fissures on the trunk in several places. The neighbor said that I should just chop off the dead parts and keep the rest of the tree, but I think that would look awful. No more awful than the jungle of weeds beneath the tree, but theoretically I can get rid of those. You know, if I actually had time these days to garden.

    Maybe it caught some sort of tree disease from my other neighbor’s dying redbud? She has one against the fence that used to shade my egg chair.

    The Backyard, 2008

    It hasn’t been doing very well for the last couple of years. (The bush next to the egg chair however, that is thriving. Along with more weeds.)

    The Backyard, 2011 (The egg chair’s cushions are in the wash.)

    Do you think we can save it? I want to replace it with a different tree as soon as possible if it’s a lost cause.