When I am an Old Lady, I will Wear...I Mean Paint a Chair...Purple

I don’t know what has come over me this spring. I am normally a very conservative, white-shirt-khaki-pants-wearing kind of gal. I do like color, and have painted rooms in my house in shades of color beyond tan and white. But, I am still very traditional.

But…this spring, I have painted my Cracker Barrel rocking chairs apple green and added black and white polka dot cushions. They started out looking like this:



After a coat of primer, they looked like this:



And, tada! This is what they look like now! I LOVE them...every time I drive up to my house and see them, they make me smile.



I found this cute little mosaic table


and this fun, colorful mat


at Target.




And then, I took on my biggest make over…my rusted, ugly 16 year old fake wrought iron deck furniture. I know you can't see rust in this picture, but trust me, it's there! This furniture was once hunter green, and before it underwent it's much-needed makeover, it was somewhere between faded green and rust brown. I was ready to throw it away, but I decided to paint it instead. It looked like this last weekend:



After many coats of spray paint and a sore arm/hand/wrist, Lauren Tony and I painted it all




A few years ago, we bought a gazebo for our deck, and I loved it. It not only shaded our deck, but it helped keep the kitchen a bit cooler too. The next summer, the top was blown off in a storm and ripped to shreds where the Velcro attached it to the metal frame. Tony saved the metal frame for some reason…and just last week, he was at Target and found a replacement top. So, we put it back together, and after adding some plants, our deck now looks like this: (click on the pictures to make them bigger so you can it all better!)






I LOVE it. I love the colorful chairs. I love the cushions (that were only $16 each at Gordman’s!). I was worried that the kids and Tony would hate it, but they love it, too. The kids keep telling their friends to go out on the deck and look at our awesome table and chairs.

I know the plants look pretty darn wimpy right now, but I just planted them today. I used Miracle Gro potting soil, like I do every summer, so I am sure that within a week or two, the pots will be overflowing with flowers. My pictures aren’t that great, but I planted white impatiens, purple New Guinea impatiens, burgundy star wave petunias and sweet potato vine.





I really love how everything turned out, and I can’t wait to spend lots of time on the deck having coffee in the morning and dinner in the evening. Although that won’t be happening tonight because it’s about 180 degrees outside.

The only thing I still want to do is find some tiny white lights to put on the inside of the awning. Oh, and a few citronella candles to ward off the mosquitos!