My Outdoor Dining Room

My outdoor room was featured on Remodelaholic awhile back, but I'm showing it again because I'm linking it to CSI Outdoor Spaces Link Party.  My husband and I completed this outdoor project a couple of years ago, but it's ever evolving because I am a changeaholic. Unfortunately the majority of this project was completed before I started blogging so my before pictures are limited.

I'm a sucker for succulents and have been growing and "cultivating" them for about 17 years. When I say "cultivating," I mean breaking or cutting off a piece of the mother plant and sticking it in the ground and it grows a whole new plant.  Easy!   

The black metal gazebo is from Costco. The gazebo, fireplace, wall, and the gate were our big splurges for our budget. The rest of the project was completed for very little money because we did most of the work ourselves.

I put the gazebo together by myself (most of it) and disregarded the instructions when it called for "8-10 people needed for assembly."  I found out you really did need 8-10 people when it was time to raise the roof and bolt everything together.  Luckily we have really nice friends and neighbors that came and lifted the assembled roof as I ran around tightening screws and making the final measurements for the proper placement.

We live in San Diego and enjoy year round mild temperatures. Our home sits on a pie shaped piece of property. The biggest part of our yard is the front yard. We live in a house that has a large great room which includes the kitchen, eating area, and family room, but no formal dining room. We love to entertain and have Sunday night dinners with our extended family. This project has enabled us to enjoy our beautiful weather year round with our family and friends.

My landscape taste tends to lean towards drought tolerant, Mediterranean vegetation and limited use of grass. Water rationing is always a real possibility in Southern California so we took that into account when designing our landscape. While our original front yard was beautiful, it was wasted space and not being used to it's full potential. I talked my husband into letting me draw up plans to make this our outdoor dining room. Life is all about compromise so my existing back patio gazebo got turned into a basketball court. We did all the work ourselves except the building of the wall and the gate. My husband and I did all the design, the plant material removal, the drainage, new sprinkler system, new plant installation, and wheel barreling in all the gravel (seven and a half yards!). We hired a contractor to build the six foot high wall, seat wall and the entry gate in our front yard. I haven't mastered masonry, stucco, or welding yet or I would have done it myself. 

This space became our formal dining room. We added a pre-fabricated fireplace, gravel, new planting beds, a covered gazebo, lighting, new plants, a dining table, and furniture. The dining table was free. I found it abandoned in a church parking lot. It sat there for weeks and I finally called the church to see if they wanted to sell it. They said I could have it for free if I would haul it away. My dad helped me build a new top for it and now it comfortably seats 8-10 people. The black metal dining chairs are from Costco and they were under $20 a piece. 

Here is my latest addition to our outdoor room. An Arteriors 6 light Ironwood Louis Chandelier.

I picked it up for $40 at Habitat Humanity Restore. To see how I found it go here.




 I picked up the wicker end chairs on Craig's List for $20 for the both of them.



I think they contrast nicely with the black gazebo and they are very comfortable.



Most of the accessories have been collected from places like Marshal's, Big Lots, Target, and Goodwill. I am a bargain shopper and love finding a treasure on sale. One of my favorite words is "clearance." I don't care what color most of my finds are because I can always paint it. 

The couch, chairs, coffee tables, and ottoman seen in the background are from Costco. I bought them as a set before I had discovered the wonders of Craig's List. They are very comfortable and have held up well over the years but I doubt I will ever buy a matching set of furniture ever again.  I like a more collected look now and the hunt is fun for me.



Here is what our new entry gate looks like.

Here is the view from the front door looking out to the street. It's nice having the privacy. We get zero solicitors now with the installation of the locking gate.

Welcome!

Here is the view from the front gate into the courtyard. To cut down costs I had the gate installed unfinished. I painted it and put our family initial on the center of the gate.

Here's what it looked like before the gazebo.  It looked good, but no escape from the sun.

Here is the before.  The portico at the front of the house created a perfect spot for the gate.

Here is what the front yard looked like before building the wall and gate.

Drought tolerant and beautiful, but not really usable.

Many years ago I painted the gray concrete walkway to look like stone and it still looks great. Painting the concrete was an inexpensive solution to a boring walkway.

To see how I did it go here.

This was our old eating area on the back patio that has since been turned into a basketball court. In this picture it's staged for a garden tour. Shortly after this picture was taken the fabric top of the gazebo ripped in a wind storm. This patio is either really hot or cool and breezy. At night it was frequently not warm enough to use comfortably in the cool San Diego evenings. I wasn't to sad to lose this space for entertaining.

Having a basketball court can create some design challenges when having a party.  Here's how I decorated it for Halloween.  I used sheets to "slip cover" the hoop and added a large pumpkin and a chandelier. I added a little spray paint for the eyes and mouth.  It became a great focal point instead of an eyesore.

I reused the corner supports of the old gazebo to create a partition between the old side yard and new front yard.

Here is the yard when it was newly planted. Small plants are cheaper and acclimate faster than larger plants. I encourage clients to buy the biggest trees they can afford and cut costs by purchasing smaller shrubs. Most shrubs are fully grown in about two years. I built a small interlocking block retaining wall around the perimeter of the gravel to define the space and contain the plants.

Here's what the same plants look like now.

One of my favorite plants is this Pittosporum tennuifolium 'silver sheen.' The leaves shimmer in the breeze.

I made this moss covered mirror for the entry just inside the gate several years ago. I hot glued floral foam onto an old mirror and covered it in moss. Then I wrapped the whole thing in chicken wire and used a staple gun to attach it to the wood frame. I attached tillandsias because they require minimal water.

The mirror reflects the roses in the opposite planter. Drought tolerant planting doesn't mean you can't use plants that have higher water requirements, you just need to group them together to conserve water.

The plant pallet is predominately varying shades of green and white except for two red Mr. Lincoln roses that flank the fireplace.

Who says you can't grow roses and succulents together?

I love the Aeonium arboreum succulents for there vivid apple green color and because they mimic the shape of the roses. They grow like weeds. Just break off a piece and stick it in the ground to make a new plant. They thrive in the filtered sun light.

I picked up the table at a thrift shop and painted it black. It's meant to be used indoors, but I like it paired with the more rustic mirror. I swap many of my home furnishings back and forth from inside to outside. The brass chandelier was a freebie from a client that was throwing it away after a recent remodel. More spray paint and the original can light went bye bye.

We had a humming bird make a nest in the crook of one of the arms this year.

I picked up this little fountain on clearance at Target and attached it to a piece of lattice to make it look bigger. The lattice is from Lowe's and it was natural redwood. I spray painted it black.

I would love to see your outdoor spaces and how you entertain.

Thanks for checking it

out!

I'm linking this to the Outdoor Spaces CSI Project

Goodbye Old Living Room, Hello New Office

Thank you friends for all your condolences about Roscoe.  We are off to New York to visit my husband's family and the timing is a blessing.  The hardest time for our family is when we are at home.  Roscoe was always in the middle of all of our activities and now she isn't around. 
The change of scenery will do the family good.

So while we are gone I wanted to show you how I changed up our living room to make it into a more usuable space.   

Do you have a room designated as an office in your home? 
This has been the dilemma in our house since I let my daughter's have their own room.  Our home has three bedrooms.  When we split the girls up we lost the office/ TV room.  Since then the computer has been in my older daughter Casey's bedroom.  We turned the closet into a computer desk.  This hasn't been a great situation.  I wake her up if I'm on the computer really early in the morning or late at night.  If she needs to do homework and I need to work on the computer she has to move to her bed.

Here is the solution.  We made the living room into the office.  Not the best situation, but you got to work with what you have and  we rarely use this room.  Last Thanksgiving I coverted the living room into a dining room for the day.  We don't have a formal dining room either.  We were hosting dinner for our family and the weather wasn't cooperate for an outdoor event.   To see more Thanksgiving pictures go here.

On a day to day basis this room mostly functions as a passage way.  Going in and out of the front door and to get to the kid's bedrooms, but not much else.
 This is what it looked like before.  Brown, brown, and more brown.  I'm slowly getting rid of it.  There's Roscoe in the bottom right hand corner directing the photo session.  She always liked to help with whatever project I was into at the moment.

Here is how it's set up now.

  The concrete floors will stay this color, but everything else is slowely getting a face lift.

Most recently it looked like this while I was redoing Cami's room. 
Scary!

I just painted this table white.  It was brown and it matched the wood detail on the couch.  Next to get a makeover are the mirrors on the wall behind the couch.  I want to slip cover the couch too when I get the sewing bug again. 

I painted and made the pillow a few years ago.  It's just acrylic paint on duck cloth.

I added two wicker chairs across from the couch.  I found them on Craig's List for $20 for the pair.

 I pull them out the front door when we entertain in our outdoor room.

This is the view when you walk in the front door.

More shells, faux coral, and an orchid.

I moved the desk from my family room to this room and placed in front of the window.

It's difficult to photograph this room during the day because of the South facing windows.  I love looking out into the garden and seeing the humming birds visiting my flowers, but it doesn't make for good photos.

The only other new bought piece in the room is the new swagged light over the desk.  I purchased it for $20.  Sorry I didn't take a before picture.  I thought I did, but I can't find them?  It's another Restore find.  It had dated seventies etched glass panes covering each side of the fixture. 

 

I removed the glass and spray painted the light gold.

It needed some dimension so I gold leafed the whole thing. 

I'm a messy leafer.

I added some beads and faux pearls to each hole left from removing the glass.

Me trying to be artsy.



It's on a dimmer but again I'm not a great photographer.  Here's the desk before my husband helped me move the computer.  I lived with it like this for a while to make sure I would like it before taking the time and effort to move the computer out to this room.

Here you can see where I attached the beading wire into the holes left from removing the dated etched glass.

While having the computer in my living room isn't ideal, it's working out great so far.  Because the computer desk is dark and the computer is black they kind of blend into one another.  Your eyes are drawn to the white round table in the middle of the room first.  At least that's what I tell myself.

Where is your computer?  Do you have a gorgeous office to work in?  Or are you like me, gratefully making due with the space you have.

I would love to hear about it.

Thanks for checking it out.