Patio lights

When we first moved out here in 2010, we went for a walk along the canals in Venice, and we came upon this house that had all these vintage pendant lamps hanging from a huge tree, over their patio.

 

The lamps they had were all amber glass, which was beautiful, but not my favorite color of glass.  Anyway, we started picking up random 70s pendant lamps for a few bucks here and there, thinking I'd put them in a tree in our yard.  We were thinking of putting them in the avocado tree, but I decided I'd really like them closer to the house.  So this week I put them up, and this afternoon we finished running the electric.

We have 6 lights, all wired so they are all on one plug.  The wires are tacked up on the back side of the pergola, and will be painted in the spring when we paint the pergola top.  We installed electrical boxes along the back joist, and then ran the electric along the back of the house.  We also added an outlet down low for any kind of power we might need, then the outlet for the hanging lights is up high, where it will eventually be hidden a little by the bougainvillea.

With 6 lights, we can get plenty of light for sitting out and reading or talking.  Along with the light on the garage, we have the backyard pretty well lit for now.  I woudln't mind picking up a few more pendants if I see something that looks fun!

Coffee table for patio

We made our patio furniture a while back, but one thing we kept looking for was a table that we could use to set drinks on, put our feet upon, etc.  We really liked this vintage cart look:

But we couldn't find a good source for the wheels - and all those we did find looked kind of cheap.  So I found some other ideas on Pinterest, and ended up liking this:
(except for the white legs).  I know I see  lot of "farm tables" on free Craigslist, so I just waited for one of them to show up -- and this weekend, there it was.  In fact, it wasn't a kitchen table, but a coffee table already!  It did, however, have a terrible shiny "maple" top with a country style edge.






So I bought a few 1 x 4s and made a new top.  Stained it, put a coat of poly and a coat of wax on it, repainted the base black and now we have a nice little outdoor coffee table for the patio.

I think it needs some plants on it, and I want to get a tray to put them on.  So that'll give me something to shop for. 



Also, we put up a light fixture on the garage.  We did have a motion sensor light out there that was useless, I took that down last week and yesterday, we installed one of the two lights that my sister-in-law gave us.  It's great--









and we hooked it up with a remote on/off switch -- I got this on amazon.com, and I'm really happy with how well it works.  You basically plug any light in to an outlet, program the remote, and it works up to 100 feet away (even through multiple walls).  It came with two outlet units, and we're going to hook up the electric for the patio this afternoon.  I've got a bunch of lights I want to hang there --

So, hopefully, those will be done for my next post!

Refreshing the patio furniture

Last year we made a 3 piece seating set for our patio.  You can see that process here.  After having guests out all summer, we never got around to painting or finishing the wood in some way, which of course, was something we needed to do to help preserve the wood.  So this weekend (while Dale's back is STILL keeping him from doing kitchen electrical), I went out and sanded it all down and gave it a coat of paint.  Here's what they were looking like:

Along with the wood getting weathered, the cushions were really faded from a year in the hot SoCal sun.  So I went out and bought some fun fabric and made new covers.  here's what the faded fabric looked like (You can see where this one had a pillow lying on top of it!):

Although I could buy sun-resistant fabric, I know that I like to change things up, and whipping up new covers with inexpensive fabric is a nice way to update the furniture each year.  That, and a quart of exterior semi-gloss paint and I can get a whole new look.  Last year, I thought I wanted them to be a dark red (well, that never happened!), but this year, I was thinking a nice black background with a blue batik style fabric would look cheery:

One thing I'm not sure about is the configuration - it's supposed to be set up as a U shape -- but I found that a little bulky.  I've got it set up as two independent pieces this time:  an L shape and a stand alone sofa.  I'm thinking of taking off one or more sides of the last piece -- still up in the air about that, but I'm not afraid to grab the sawz-all and lop the arms off if I think it'll work out better!

I have to recover some of these toss pillows, too - they worked great with the background of the cushions last year, but they clash a little with the blue. 

We really need a coffee table here, too -- so we could sit out here and eat out, now that spring is here!

patio furniture cushions

Getting the furniture built was only part of the whole plan - finding an affordable way to make the seats comfortable was another problem.  The plan is built on a standard 24 x 24 inch cushion, but even at Costco or Lowe's, the cushions were about 25 dollars each - and we needed 8 of them, so that would be 200 dollars for the cushions.  What to do?

When we moved from Indiana, we had a queen sized bed that we sold, but we'd also bought a foam topper because the old mattress was so uncomfortable.  We had that out in the garage, and when we got it out, we realized it was thicker than we remembered -- 4" thick.  I would prefer 6" thick cushions, but cutting this topper down was free!  We marked it out into 24" squares, and it was just about perfect.  We had to piece some of the last 2 cushions, but we got it all done.  Yesterday, I went out and picked up some fabric for the covers.

 

After making Leslie's owl purse, I realized I really liked the look of the fabric with the gold outlines, and I found some that was a similar print.  This one had a green background and a fun all=over print.  It was 2.49 a yard, and I bought 10 yards, for a little more than 25 dollars with tax. It's not a fabric specifically made for outdoors, so I know that it's going to fade and wear - but I also want to get another layer of foam on these, so I plan on recovering them again next summer.  It didn't take me long to whip up some simple covers - I didn't do the full box seaming, just took a piece of fabric, folded it in half, sewed around, leaving one side open, wedged the foam inside, then hand-stitched the back closed.  

I still have more wood filler to work on, hoping to finish that up tonight, then a final sanding, prime and paint.  While I was thinking of a deep red, now I've decided perhaps an ivory would work best. 
I do have lots of fun pillows so that's where the gypsy look can come in.  I think leaving them ivory might allow me to change the seat fabric a little more easily without having to match the color of the frames.

In other yard-related news, I saw another agave for free on craigslist, this one I had to dig up.  It didn't look all that big when I looked at the ad:

But it was pretty big!  And it was the hottest day this week, and Dale had to work, so I was on my own.  I dug and dug, and bled and bled (those points are sharp!), but I got it out.  The homeowner helped me pick it up and put it in my trunk, which I couldn't have done alone!  Here it is in the trunk:

"Feed me, Seymour!"

And here it is in the backyard.  It's beautiful!

Patio Furniture progress

Dale and I worked on our patio furniture today - he got home early and so we made a lot of progress!

We got all excited when they started taking shape!

 

Pretty soon, we were overrun!

By the end of the evening, we had the frames all finished, and I've gotten one of them almost done with the wood filler/sanding step.  We ran out of wood filler and I needed more sandpaper.  

This was before we got the slats glued/nailed down:

 

And here's what they look like on the patio!

I am so ready to get them sanded/painted.  I've decided they are going to be a dark red after all - Dale and I were sitting out there brainstorming our ideas for the cushions - and I have about a zillion toss pillows, and I think I might stencil something across the front bottom bands.  Dale was afraid that a "barn red" might make them look too "farmer-ish" but with the eclectic assortment of pillows I have, I think it's going to look more gypsy.

And now, we want to make a coffee table for the group - so that will be our next project for the patio.

In about an hour, I leave to pick my daughter up from the airport - looking forward to the fun!