Project Patio: P.S.

I know, I know, I said that our patio project was finished.  But you know how it is, things are never REALLY finished, at least around here (I'll admit it- we still have one or two pieces of molding to put up and a little bit of painting to do in order to "finish" our kitchen, you know, the one we renovated more than three years ago, and my sewing room still needs a drop ceiling installed!). 

Since we finished all the patio grunt work though we've been spending some time spiffying the space up a bit so I wanted to share how it's looking these days along with some details.

First, we picked up this great little conversation set of 2 chairs, 2 ottomans, and a table at Kohls (love those 30% off coupons!).  Then I snagged the adorable blue and cream outdoor pillows on deep clearance at Target. 

Once I bought those great pillows I decided that our color scheme for the patio would be dark blue, cherry red, and neutrals.  We already have a whole set of red, white and blue outdoor dishes that we were given when we got married so I wanted those to blend in as well.  I love those blue pillows but only bought 2, figuring I could come up with a way to recover 2 outdoor pillows we already owned (they were a lovely orange, blue, red, and yellow striped material).

And so I busted out my trusty sidekick, my Silhouette SD.  I used the software it came with to pick out a pattern and then cut that pattern out of freezer paper so that I could stencil it on to some fabric and make my own pillows.  I bought a large canvas dropcloth at Lowes (you can get a lot more yardage for a lot less than you'd pay at a fabric store) and cut it into the size I'd need for the pillows.  Then I started ironing my freezerpaper pattern in place:

Once I got the pattern all ironed on I used a spray on fabric paint (I needed one bottle per pillow and had to run back to the store for more!). 



Instead of doing both pillows the same I used the "inside" pieces of the pattern for the other pillow.  Just ironed them in place and sprayed away.



Then while the paint was still a little damp I peeled off the freezer paper. 



My fabric:



I stitched the fabric into simple envelope style pillows and slipped them over the existing cushions.  Don't they look great??

To jazz things up a little more I took an old lampshade that we weren't using any more and ripped the fabric off of it.  Then I cut strips of coordinating fabrics and wrapped them around the lampshade frame with my glue gun (I was inspired by a post on the blog "Living with Punks").  I had Paul help me hang it over the patio table with a length of chain like a chandelier. 

Here's a somewhat closer look:

We have a raised planting bed right next to the conversation area of our patio so I ripped out the crazy mess of plants growing in there and made a more "structured" garden to look at.  I used some of the patio pavers that were broken in the installation process as a little path and added the adorable solar light globe that a dear friend gave us as a "patio warming present."

I'm still working on recovering some seat cushions for the chairs with the rest of the canvas drop cloth (and a little more fabric paint) and will share the final final final update when they're done. 

Come on by though- the patio is open and ready for lounging!