Work In Progress

Right now we are ping-ponging between three projects around our home: our living room update, finishing up the nursery and our patio. All while taking care of the little guy. Yup, life is busy, but oh so much fun. We recently made some progress on our patio in our backyard. We have a good size backyard and a nice size patio. We guess the patio is about 300 square feet. Until recently our patio and backyard haven't seen in love since our wedding in September 2009. That's all changed recently because we really want to extend our usable living space, by creating an outdoor space to enjoy in the many warm months we have in Northern California.

We have a lot of work do to, yup its a big work in progress. But progress is being made. Last weekend we finally purchased a dining room table set. After looking all over, we settled on a wood set we found at Cost Plus. We both loved the size of the set and style, it seats six and has a bench, two arm chairs and regular side chairs. The dining room table is a nice size and fits our patio space nicely. We also got a super deal on the furniture only paid $ 300 bucks for the entire set! We got the set on clearenace and used a $ 10 offf coupon too. We weather proofed the set after it was put together. Here are some pictures of our patio furniture, in this light our house looks blue but its really grey. Our cement patio still needs a good cleaning, we want to fix the cracks in the patio and eventually paint it.

I plan on buying some outdoor fabric to add color, pattern and fun to our outdoor living space. I plan on sewing a few pillows for the bench, arm chairs and cushion for the bench is a must. Cost plus sells a bench cushion below for $24 bucks that fits the bench perfectly, I would simply recover the fabric.

The bench seating is my favorite thing about our outdoor diningroom set.

I came across some great outdoor fabric, that I think would look great in our space. I like thcolor combinations and find the patterns fun. Here are some contenders.

For outdoor lighting we plan on using lanterns placed on the table and buffet table we wanna build. Not sure if the current lanterns on the table will go or stay. We also re-hung outdoor string lights we used for our wedding.

We have a lot of short term and long term goals for our outdoor space, and know this will be a slow process but so worth it. Here's our list in no particular order:

Resurface Patio and Paint It
Buy or Build Lounge Seating - love this idea
Create various zones on patio - Cooking Area, Dining Area, Lounge Area
Replace grass with Sod, like we did in our front yard
Large terra cotta pots with plants
Add color and fin with pretty outdoor fabric.
Build a Buffet to make outdoor dining easier
Outdoor Rug (big maybe)

That's our list so far, I'm sure over time well add to it. A while ago I came across this picture below, and its really inspired our work in progress backyard. I love the various zones, lots of seating and how colorful the space looks. The fabric was also a fun choice, and love the outdoor bolster pillows. Too cute.

Of course our space is very far from being completed, but we are so happy how the outdoor dining furniture looks. It has already made a big improvement and is already getting lots of use.

What do you think? What are your work in progress around your home?