How is the weather this week in your neck of the woods? We had a picture-perfect weekend here in Central New York, so we did the spring garden clean up and pulled out our deck and patio furniture over the weekend – whooo-hooooooo!
I’m sure it will snow at least one more time – Syracuse routinely sets records for the snowiest city in the country – and we’re definitely a few weeks away from putting out flowers, but it was heavenly being able to have dinner on the deck.
Since my entire backyard is deck and flagstone patio (no turf!), I have a ton of stuff that comes out of the garage every spring, but my favorite by far is this pallet table.
The table was my first build-from-scratch DIY furniture project. I have painted and refurbished tons of second hand furniture, but this was the first time I set out to build something myself.
Luckily I had a good head start. A friend of mine has a steady supply of these rectangular pallets and they happen to be the perfect size for a long rectangular table.
These are the same pallets I used for my Giant Pallet Headboard with the galvanized sconces, but this time I didn’t have to take the pallet apart – basically, I just had to frame it with 2 x 4s and add 4 x 4 legs.
This is my old housemate Mike. He was in the middle of building my deck and pergola and found himself sucked into my pallet DIY. This was his face when I said –
“Congratulations! You have just helped with your first Pinterest project”
He was less than thrilled.
But the table came out great!
I dry brushed some of my deck stain (which hadn’t made it’s way onto the deck at this point) and it was done.
It seats 8, and I found folding metal French bistro chairs on clearance at Big Lots for $6.99 each that fit perfectly. They were gray, but I spray painted them (ahem, TWICE).
This is my third summer pulling it out and it’s held up nicely. I still need to hit it with coat of stain, but then it’s good to go for the season.
My yard is jam packed with DIY projects that I did over the last couple of summers before I started blogging again. Here’s a quick tour of my baker’s dozen of easy outdoor DIY projects & upcycles that I put together for the bloggers upcycle challenge over at The Shabby Creek Cottage:
Easy Outdoor DIY Projects & Upcycles
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Outdoor Solar Chandelier
I bought a flea market chandelier for $4 and some cheap solar lights, taped off the solar panels and sprayed everything with oil rubbed bronze. The chandelier hangs on one of the trees near the hammock.
2. Tile Top Outdoor Bar Cart
My outdoor bar cart was a beat up kitchen cart that belonged to one of my housemates. It was destined for the curb, but I spray painted the cart and the hardware, then added a tile top and moved it to the deck.
3. Old Door Fence
I disguised an ugly chain link fence across the back of my property with old doors.
Some were curbside freebies, some came from the ReStore.
It was a really easy project, I used eye hooks and zip ties to attach them to the fence and heavy duty hinges to attach them to each other. I’ve since added flower boxes and other decor.
4. Old Chair Planter
If you have some sad old wooden chairs hanging around, you can spray paint them and use a staple gun to attach window screen mesh to the seat to hold a flowering plant. If you don’t have one, you can pick them up for just a few dollars, especially if the seats are missing. This one sits in one of my garden beds and adds a nice shot of color when my perennials aren’t blooming.
5. Rustic Wooden Path
I made 2 rustic paths in the back patio area using leftover wood from the deck and pergola project. I was planning to do this with pallets, but the 2×6 scraps from the deck happened to be the perfect size – I didn’t even need to cut them.
6. Spray Painted Patio Cushions
The chairs in the photo for #5 were freebies from my mom, who was getting rid of them. The chipped redwood finish got a couple coats of spray paint.
The cushions were pretty drab and had seen better days, so I spray painted them too. Surprisingly, it worked!
I discovered that spray painting outdoor cushions works best on cushions that aren’t super “fluffy”. I tried the same technique on a lounge chair cushion and it looked terrible.
7. DIY Flower Pot Water Feature
This sweet little bubbler is made out of 2 flower pots using a submersible pump, hardware cloth and rocks. If you have a Christmas Tree Shoppes near you, they are the best source I’ve found for inexpensive flower pots.
8. House Number Flower Pots
I painted my house number on simple terra cotta flower pots using stencils for the front porch.
9. No-sew Drop Cloth Pergola Privacy Curtains
The curtains on the pergola are simple no sew canvas drop cloths attached with ring clips. I live in a city neighborhood where the houses are almost on top of each other, so these make a HUGE difference. My deck feels very private even though the neighbors are just on the other side.
10. Outdoor Candelier Mash Up
The outdoor candelier over the pallet table was something I picked up at Pier 1. It was marked down to almost nothing because the votive holders that come with it were broken. Each summer I’ve attached different hanging votive holders depending on what I could find for $2 or $3 each. This is the 2016 version:
And this is last year’s:
The votive holders looked like small wine bottles. I finally got smart and picked up a few extras because invariably a wind storm will break a couple during the course of the summer.
11. Outdoor plant stand from Old Steps
This is not the best picture of this project, but I saw an idea on Pinterest for a plant stand using plastic window boxes and stair stringers. (the original photo came from White Water Crafting which isn’t online anymore). I made my version using the steps from the old deck we tore down with two 4×4 posts screwed into the back to make it stand on it’s own. I like having my potted herb garden all in one place and I like the beat up and weathered look, so the steps work perfectly.
12. Potting Table
This shabby and chipped table came from the flea market. I attached chicken wire to an old window frame I had in the garage to hold hooks for small garden tools and gloves and VOILA! Instant potting table.
13. Lantern Posts
I had purchased a bunch of those cement elephant feet bases for the deck construction, but we didn’t end up using them, plus I had some leftover 4x4s. I stained the posts, glued them into the cement bases (which I spray painted brown) and added fence finials and plant hooks.
These run along the property line on one side of the patio in the mixed border. I ripped out 2 rotted back to back old fences from this area a couple years ago and opted for a “living fence” rather than a wooden one – mainly because it was about 1/10 of the price. I planted shrubs that will provide privacy, but while they are growing in I felt the area needed some structure. I also string clear lights from the posts, which stay up all summer and look amazing at night.
The flagstone patio and the deck/pergola were DIY projects too…but I’ll save those for another post. 🙂
I’m sure I’ll be coming up with some new easy outdoor DIY projects & upcycles for this season.
Hmmmmmmm……….
If you liked these DIY and upcycle projects, head over The Shabby Creek Cottage where I’m participating in an upcycle challenge. You’ll find tons of creative and cool upcycle projects from bloggers all over the country. Cool, right?
I’m linking this project up at some terrific blog parties – you can find my complete list of places I party HERE.
