ORC Week 3: Hydrangeas by Mail, String Lights, Turf, and Baby in a Cooler
It’s One Room Challenge Week 3, People
Isn’t it funny how when you begin a project knowing you have a full seven weeks to complete it, you feel like you have more than enough time? Then, suddenly, it’s week three and you’re like, “Oh ****! We only have four weekends left to finish this!”
Sound familiar to anyone else?
While we’ve certainly been making headway on our patio area for the One Room Challenge, there are still a handful of projects looming ahead. Perhaps “looming” was the wrong word; these are projects we’re actually very excited for(!!), but we know these are going to be the time-intensive ones. To help my sanity, I’m going to make two lists: one that describes everything we still need to do, and one that details the items we’ve been able to check off our list at this point. I feel like it’s always best to end on a positive, so that’s why we’re going in that order. But first, a photo of our son enjoying his hillbilly pool (we ordered a splash pad from Amazon, but it’s not here yet, and it’s been hot!):
Projects Still to Come:
Have I told you that we have a DIY outdoor kitchen tutorial on the way, and it’s 100% sponsored by our helpful folks at our neighborhood Ace Hardware? If all goes according to plan, we’re going to give a brand new Weber liquid propane grill (thank you, Ace!) a modern-organic, built-in look by wrapping the whole setup in wood and creating a waterfall concrete countertop that extends to the right of it (our small-space solution for not being able to cover-up the window well to the basement but still wanting to extend our counter space). We’ve never done a waterfall edge with concrete, so wish us luck!!
I’m going to paint the concrete underneath the pergola using Clark and Kensington Exterior Satin Paint in colors that coordinate with our newly painted exterior (if you missed that update and want to see the before pics and the colors we chose, head to my last post). The paint, as you might have guessed (you smart cookie, you), was generously provided by our sponsor: Ace Hardware (thank you, Ace!). Before I could paint, I needed to power-wash the concrete. Then, in order to make that area appear to have a flat surface prior to painting a stenciled patterns on it, Jason filled the large cracks with backer rod and covered that with self-leveling construction sealant. If you skip the backer rod step, your caulk/sealant will just fill in the gaps below your concrete, and you’ll need to get more.
If you follow me on Instagram (I’m @nest.out.west), you might have voted on a stencil in my stories. The first poll was between this Petra Tile Allover stencil from Royal Design Studio and this Birds Eye Ikat Allover stencil, and the ikat stencil won. Then, I discovered another one I liked (the Ranae Geometric Floral Stencil), so I put it up in my stories as another poll, and there was a 50/50 tie! I followed my heart and went with the one I thought would have more longevity. I try to not do things exactly as I see everyone else doing them because I feel like over saturation of a trend is what causes it to die-out quickly. (Think of any song that you loved the first time you listened to it, but then you heard it everywhere, all the time, and the sound of the first eight-count made you want to chuck your portable speaker into a river.) I’ve been seeing ikat-patterned stencils all over Pinterest and Instagram for the past few years, so I wanted to do a pattern I hadn’t seen before. It’s not that I have a problem with ikat—in fact, I really love how it brings a modern-yet-tribal, pop-of-Moroccan vibe to any space—I just have seen it on one too many tile stencil projects, so I’ve chosen something different.
Also to come, we’re building bench seating out of paver bricks and 4″x4″ wood planks, the latter of which (along with the paver glue) will be provided by Ace Hardware. We initially thought it would be really easy to do the cinderblock bench DIY that’s all over Pinterest, but then I asked my husband Jason if he’d be willing to move up one notch on the difficulty scale and shoot for a more high-end, custom look in the end. He is now thinking of ways to make these benches look über modern while still keeping to our tighttt budget. I can’t wait to see what he has in mind, and of course, share a tutorial here!
Another to-do: Jason and I are working on a fun design for some custom wood shutters and a planter box we’re adding to help make our two-different-sized windows under the pergola appear to be symmetric. Yes, we’re going to play a Jedi mind trick on you.
Finally, if IKEA will ever allow me to place the order OR if they’d just answer their customer service line, I was planning to use a plug-in, three socket light cord I found on Amazon (for a project I never finished three years ago) to create a boho-vibey three-light chandelier over the seating area in the pergola. I wanted to use these lampshades, but for some reason, the website keeps telling me my zip code is invalid for this order. Shenanigans.
Projects We’ve Completed:
Well, as you saw in my last post, our home is no longer Denver Broncos themed! The puke-pink/pale orange and navy blue color scheme has been painted over in beautiful Clark and Kensington Exterior Satin Paint that was color-matched to some of my favorite Benjamin Moore colors. Ace sponsored the paint and supplies in order for us to even be able to consider making this project happen in conjunction with the Spring/Summer 2020 One Room Challenge, and now our patio will have the color scheme I had always envisioned for it! Now we just need our plants and yard to come back after the weeklong freeze that shocked everything back in April.
We also half-completed our lower patio task, which was to add artificial grass over the concrete so that our baby Joe can have a safer area where he could play. Our home was built into the side of a hill, and in the Greater Denver area, you have to pay a premium if you want even 1/4 of an acre of grass in your back yard. The previous owners of this house must not have had small children because they filled 80% of the back yard with concrete, leaving the grassy area to the side of the house that isn’t visible from the patio. Our poor baby has wiped out one too many times on it, so until we’re able to afford a larger-scale yard renovation, this turf is going to serve as Joe’s safe-to-play area. Look how happy he is already—we laid out the first of two rolls of turf, and Joe ran from end to end until he had no more energy left in those chubby little legs! We still need to connect the seams of the two rolls and finish-off the edges so you don’t see concrete anymore.
I’m planning to start painting the patio tomorrow, but I can at least say that the power-washing portion is complete! Boy, was that a gratifying task!
One thing I’m probably most excited for is not going to happen for another few summers, but we laid the groundwork for it—quite literally—earlier this week! I ordered five Proven Winners hydrangeas to fill-in the space between the end of the turf area/lower patio and the fence: two are strawberry sundae hydrangeas, which should grow to be around five feet tall, and three are limelight hydrangeas, which should grow to be about eight feet tall. Jason planted them while I kept Joe entertained, and I can’t wait for all five of these to mature and fill in that gap along the fence where the patio drops off!
If you’re wondering why I ordered all of my hydrangeas online, might I remind you that this One Room Challenge is taking place during the uncertain and rather chaotic time that is defined by COVID-19. We’ve tried going to our favorite local nursery a few times over the past three weekends, and every time we went, no matter what time of day it was, there were super long lines, which wouldn’t have been fun with a one-and-half-year-old. Thankfully, the plants I ordered online arrived promptly and in good health. It’s just funny that this is what landscaping in 2020 looks like for many of us ;D We’ve recently been enlightened to the fact that our local Ace also carries fresh flowers (we’ve only gone there for paint and construction supplies for so many years that we neglected this part of the store!), and since shopping with them for flowers, we’ve had nothing but great experiences. Also, check out this gorgeous mulch we got there!
Finally, Jason had his very own summertime-edition Clark Griswold moment this week. If you follow me on Instagram, then you might’ve seen it happen live—we strung-up our patio lights and ALL of them (well, the ones that survived our move last year) turned on when he plugged them in!
Here’s a quick tip if you’re hanging string lights this summer: Use eye-hooks, S-rings, and needle nose pliers to secure your lights to whatever structure you’re decorating. Make sure your S-rings are able to fit around the thickness of the eye-hooks you choose. Once you’ve hooked your string lights to the S-hook, use the needle nose pliers to clamp the S-hook shut. See below:
We ordered these lights off of Etsy from a party planning company in LA… According to their description, these exact string lights were used as part of a much larger display for a Justin Timberlake concert(!!!), so we expect there to be lots of dancing under this pergola once it’s all finished. I’ll sign off with that. Until next week!