Outdoor Dining Ideas

When I found out I would be one of the bloggers participating in the Patio Style Challenge, I was extremely stoked to create an outdoor dining space that was fun, comfy and functional.

I personally don’t have a patio, or any outdoor space where I live, so I opted to transform my mom’s backyard.

As you can see above, my mom’s backyard needed lots of work. The air conditioning unit and swing weren’t functioning, so we had them removed. We also picked up the deck, moved it to the back of the yard where the swing was, and gave it a nice coat of gray paint.

And, by “picked up the deck”, I mean we literally picked it up…

I helped, too, but I sure wish I hadn’t. My back IS NOT built for deck moving.

It all starts with a great table…

I’ll show some close-up photos of the deck in place later, but I NEEDED to show you this Vichy Springs 7-piece patio dining set that Home Depot sent me.

It is BEAUTIFUL!! I recovered the pillows that came with the table with a new green and white fabric and replaced the pillows on the head chairs with these really cute bee outdoor pillows.

The outdoor dining table and chairs are made of powder-coated steel in a cool dark brown color and are great for any color scheme (for people like me who like to change things up often) and any design style. The high boy chairs are extremely comfortable. I love that the chairs rotate, making it easy to get in and out of them.

We actually opted to put the table and chairs in the grass, as opposed to grounding them on the deck or with stone pavers, to be able to move them easily. My brothers use the yard for working out, so it was essential for the yard to still be functional for them.

I am most in love with the Vichy Springs table’s built-in beverage bin to hold our drinks (and crawfish – we LOVE crawfish here in New Orleans). It has a canvas liner for durability and to prevent dripping. There’s a drain inside to release standing water once the ice melts and a lid to go over the beverage bin when it’s not in use.

Burgers, anyone?

Home Depot also sent me the Weber Q 1200 portable gas grill and I got to choose the color. The green is so bright and pretty!

I love how, even though the grill isn’t large, we were still able to get a bunch of burgers and wieners on it.

Home Depot sent me the stand, too, and it makes transporting the grill even easier.

This thing was so fun (and easy) to pull around that I may or may not have done a mile of laps around my mom’s yard. This photo was taken before we moved the deck to the back of the yard.

Workbench Becomes an Outdoor Buffet

Now, with a table, chairs and grill, we needed a place to put our food and other stuff that we’d bring outdoors when we’re entertaining. I let my mom convince me that we could build some sort of buffet, and off to Home Depot we went. Once we got there, my primary mission was to go straight to the lumber department and beg someone there to show me exactly how it would need to get done, but before I could get to the lumber department, I saw this wooden fold-out workbench. On the box were the words, “assembles in five minutes”.

Ummmm… YEAH!!! Give me two please. Well, I didn’t have use for two then (or the room in my truck), so I only picked up one. And, like the box mentioned, it literally took us less than five minutes to set it up. Installation was so quick and easy that I didn’t have enough time to take a photo. It’s fully assembled, we just needed to unfold the legs and place in the shelf.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – “Whitney… it’s not very pretty…”.

I know, I know… but, it’s meant to be worked on… with ugly tools, and glues, and paints, and stuff like that.

So we also picked up metallic pewter stain and some white ceramic tiles.

Here’s what it looks like now.

Here’s a closeup of the tiling on the workbench.

And, because it was so easy to put up, it’s also really easy to take down and move around the yard or transport to my mom’s garage if she wants to use it for another purpose.

The Backyard Deck

Okay, now on to the newly positioned deck.

Notice the new paint job on the deck. But can we talk about this table real quick?

This table cost $15 at a store that I can’t remember. I planned on spray painting the entire table with a glossy white paint… then wanted to do the legs with jute cording instead of paint… then remembered that I had a bunch of paracord that I didn’t have any use for.

All we did was use a glue gun and wrap the legs of the chair with the paracord, use a Behr white paint sample for the top, and voila!

This elephant from my latest thrifting trip! The large luminary is from The Home Depot!!!

OMG!! I love them both!!

Moss Letters

For the moss-covered letters, I simply stapled the moss on each letter.

I also used inexpensive straw hats and poked fake flowers through them.

I am in love with how everything has turned out and have enjoyed going to my mom’s house so much more!! The backyard is so much fun to be in, and we look forward to using it for our family barbecues!

Thanks Home Depot for choosing me to be apart of the Patio Style Challenge. And, thanks to you guys for being interested in my reveal. I’d love to know what you guys think!