Today is the day! I am so excited to share our made over outdoor space with you all. I have been teasing about it for some time now with the painted rug and the outdoor table and now it is all complete!
Let me show you what it looked like before in the pictures below.
The deck and benches are cedar so they have held up well physically to the elements. It had been years since the space had been stained or re-sealed or cleaned well.
So in an afternoon, I took the pressure washer to the entire deck and the benches. And just with a little cleaning, you could already see a dramatic difference. So much grime was removed!
By that evening after everything had dried you could see how much lighter and brighter it looked. I did take my orbital sander over spots on the deck that were a little rough but other than those spots it looked great.
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Deck Staining
Next came the staining of the deck surface. I had a hard time deciding what color of stain I wanted to use but ended up settling on Olympic Deck, Fence and Siding Stain & Sealant (the color I chose was Clove Brown). One nice thing about this stain is that it is a stain and sealant in one so we didn’t have to purchase another product. We did end up applying two coats with a small nap roller which worked well since the stain is a very thin consistency
Progress being made! It felt so good to get to this point. You can see where I taped off for the
It felt so good to get to this point. You can see where I taped off for the painted rug in the above picture, we actually only applied one coat of stain where the rug was painted on.
After the deck surface was done I took each of the benches to the garage and sanded them down and applied Rust-Oleum Chalked Paint (the color I used is Aged Gray) and then Thompson’s Water Seal to give them protection from the elements.
FINAL REVEAL
Now the moment you have all been waiting for! Time to show all our hard work put together! We strung outdoor lights over the entire space since there is no other outdoor lighting in this area, brought the outdoor table over, placed the benches as seating for the table and decorated the space.
And now we are ready to host our friends and family in this warm and inviting space throughout the summer!
Source List:
- Watermelon Pillows-Homegoods (here are ones that are similiar)
- Feit Electric Outdoor String Lights
- Wood Patio Chairs w/cushions
- Ceramic tealight candle holder-Homegoods (similiar ones here )
- Citronella Candle buckets-TJ Maxx (these are similiar)
- Iron wall medallion-Homegoods (here are similiar ones)
- Chicken wire wall baskets-Joann Fabric clearance (this is similiar)