"Sprucing Up the Patio"

Every Spring I spend one whole day gardening.  You can read about this year's Gardening Day HERE and last year's gardening day HERE.  It's typically the day when I clean things up and officially begin the gardening season.  This year, I actually didn't complete the process so I was on a mission to do so while I was on vacation last week.
 
First on my list was an outdoor rug.  I had purchased these black and white pillows earlier this year and really wanted to incorporate them on my patio.  I had hoped to find a graphic black and white stripe outdoor rug, but to no avail.  Outdoor rugs can get pretty pricey, especially when you need an 8' X 10'.  Then one day after viewing the options on Ikea's website, I realized that I could put together four rugs to create one larger one.  Genius!  (I'm not the first to do this, fyi.)

My original plan was to sew them together with twine, but after getting two stitches complete in about ten minutes, I shifted to Plan B.

 

 

Did you know they make outdoor duck tape?  Yep, they do. 

 

Duck Brand- website HERE

I didn't use this, but I may actually go back and redo it with this specialty tape.  I simply taped the 2'6" X 6'7" runners together, careful to align the stripes.  In a few minutes, I had a huge cost-effective graphic black and white stripe outdoor rug.  Yes!

 

Next order of business, an outdoor mirror.  I've been pinning them lately.  You can check out my board on Pinterest HERE.  I loved the look of those indoor/outdoor options, but as usual wanted a cost effective option.

I found this lightweight large circular one at Tuesday Morning for $19.99.  Yes please.  It wasn't the color I wanted, but I knew we could fix that.

 

I had recently read about this new 2X the coverage spray paint, so this project gave me a chance to use it.  It really does cover in half the application amount/time.  Love it!

 

 

Ready to see the results?

 

 

 

The addition of a few summer plants and some staging and I'm feeling much better about how my patio looks. 

 

 

 

        

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

And just so you know that I live in the real world with you, I got home tonight after a series of severe storms blew through our area and THIS is what it all looked like. 

 

 

No worries!  I fixed it.  Happy Friday!