Please be seated.

I was getting the mail last night and the gentleman that was cutting my neighbor's yard greeted me (we have a very friendly neighborhood) and I greeted him back.  He then proceeded to tell me that he used to take care of my yard and that it would get a ton of leaves.  Now, I know he is just looking for me to hire him-but, God blessed me with an able body and I plan on maintaining my yard myself.  Thank you, I will save money and do it myself. 

On the same note, I find that often DIY project can save money - as with the windows treatments I did.  So lets move to my favorite part of the house - my screened in back porch.  It is a small area, but one that I wanted to highly utilize - but didn't want to break the bank in making it that way.

So, I started looking at outdoor furniture.  Oh boy that stuff is expensive - or huge - or really small or really uncomfortable looking or boring.  Nothing seemed to fit my porch - I mean, how hard is it too find a rectangular table and chairs?  Finally, at Ikea I found a table I liked.  It seemed pretty sturdy and it was white - I have an issue with clashing wood colors my porch is 90% natural wood already.  So I got it - worse comes to worse - I could always paint it a color I wanted or return it - right?

Now, I have my table.  Great - so buying piece by piece has the potential to be cheaper - but a much bigger hassle.  I found a rug randomly online that I LOVED - so of course, I bought it.  It is a Turkish print with blues, greens, yellows and some purple.  I liked how bright it was.  Okay - table and rug check...


All that is missing now were the chairs - which are crazy expense (I am STILL trying to find something I like for my dining room).  Randomly, my parents have 4 straight back small chairs that they are getting rid of - did I mention that they were old and faded?


Not a problem for me - I just sanded them down and spray painted them in the back yard.  They look perfect with the rug and table!  I got creative and blew all of the dust from the sanding away with my new blower - quick and easy (very opposite from the sanding).


One lesson learned: when sanding - wear a dust mask or something over your nose - just trust me on that.

Below are the before of the chairs and the after with my porch - and all for under $100!