BRINGING THE INSIDE...OUT by Stacy McSpadden

It's that time of year.  Everything is blooming and turning green.  The nurseries and garden shops are buzzing.  And I am sneezing my head off.  When I bought my house a few years ago, I had a huge misconception that a beautiful yard was not a lot of work.  I mean, how hard is it to plant a bunch of flowers in beds and pots?  Ok...so who am I fooling?  IT IS SO MUCH WORK!!!  The grass cutting  and edging are not such a big deal, maybe because I don't do those things, but the flower bed weeding and pruning are a pain!  Nevertheless, I still want it to look nice.  This will be my eighth summer in my house, and I am finally getting the hang of this yard stuff.

I decided this season to focus on my back patio.  Since I am a color girl, I really wanted to bring some bright and vivid color back there.  My friend, Lana, lives in a Mid-Century apartment building in Midtown, and her porch has been a great motivator to me.  She has introduced some fun color on her balcony with not only her flowers, but her furniture.

I recently inherited some iron patio furniture from a friend.  It is the typical black iron that most of you either have or know someone who does.  Well, this furniture needed a paint job and I decided that I would go for some bright color instead of the same boring black.  I painted two of the chairs a turquoise and two a bright red.  It was so easy.  Lowes has all kinds of fun colors in their spray paint, and it works great on this kind of furniture.  My next plan is to add some fun outdoor fabrics in pillows for the chairs.  A lot of the fabric companies now have lines of whimsical fabrics that are treated to use outside.  They will resist sun damage and water for a few years.  The following are a few patterns I recently found in one of our lines at the store.

You will notice the similarities to the styles that I have written about in the past weeks.  These are just a fun way to pull those inside styles to our back porches and patios.

Other fun things that add some texture and accessories to your patio are sculptures, lanterns, bird baths, etc.  Lots of us have those Tiki Torches sitting around, but I like the addition of different planters, baskets, and other wooden pieces.

              
And everyone wishes that they had a Mouse with Cheese sculpture in a planter.  I gave a friend this one, and I loved it so much that I had to have one, too!

               

My friend Lana wanted a mouse with cheese for her balcony, but she waited too long to get one.  So she improvised and made her own.

Except this Mouse with Cheese sculpture doesn't do well in extreme heat :)

But I digress...the point is, don't be afraid to bring some of your fun inside textures and colors to your outdoor space.  Spice it up a bit and make it really fun!


Happy Decorating, 


Stacy


Stacy McSpadden
Manager of Interior Design Services
Chestnut Hall Interiors
3075 Forest Hill Irene Road
Germantown, Tennessee 38138
901.753.8515

stacy@chestnuthall.com