Prettying up the Patio

A few weeks ago I told you all about the Paris birthday party we threw in our back yard which centered largely on using the patio as a little cafe for the little girls in attendance. And while the party supplies only cost us about $200- I left out a few small details about work done on the patio to get ready for the party!
So, the patio, like anything else in this house is a work-in-progress. Which I think has to be the mantra for those who are really looking for budget-friendly-awesome-good deals. You must be willing to be patient. The first awesome find for the patio (6 years ago) was this glass and metal table with 6 chairs for $85 from Goodwill. (The only pic I could find is from about 4 years ago…)

Patio Table circa 2009 in the original olive green color

So, to get ready for the party, it was time to spray paint the table. A project that had been on my to do list for too long. I loved it’s orignial olive color and could not find spray paint to match it. I thought of lots of difference color themes- something beachy- like peach, turquiose and yellow for the patio furniture (we also have an adironnack chair with a table and ottoman that needed to be painted too). And then, my husband commented one day that we could use one or two more comfy chairs on the patio. I started searching. When I have a goal like that I just pop into all of the stores I can think of to see what is out there- comparison shop for a few weeks. I looked at Garden Ridge, Wal-mart, Lowe’s, Home Depot, Goodwill (of course), a small Antique/consignment store near us, and Big Lots. Until one day I was high on Kohl’s cash….(a future post topic I have in mind is how the department store Kohl’s cash is like an addictive drug)….anyway. Where was I? Oh- I was speedily using my Kohl’s cash and ran into this set on clearance.

The price was $220. BUT…… I had a 30% off coupon which brought it down to $154. Plus I had $40 Kohl’s cash. So the total price for the two chairs, table and cushions was $114. And the brown hammered metal on the chairs gave me the inspiration for the paint on the table. And the colors for the new cushions.

Ahhhh. The cushions. I love the cushions. But I couldn’t find a deal on them. So I kinda hate them too. Had it not been for the fact that the party was the next day and the existing cushions were dry rotting at an appalling speed, I probably would have waited until the end of the season to buy these.

I also scored 3 new flower pots….at someone’s trash can. Don’t be too proud to ask for people’s trash. I have done it a few times, and never regretted it. One man’s trash… well, you know.
Because it was late June, all of the flowers were 50% off so I could fill the planters for about $18. I ended up painting the adirondack chair a bright blue to match the new cushions.

Here’s a neat trick for storing cushions. Stack them on a kid’s wagon and cover with a grill cover all summer to keep them near the table. During the off-season I plan to wheel them into the garage for storage.

A neat trick to store cushions near the patio table is to stack them on a wagon. When we want to use the table, the cusions are right there to throw on the chairs. When we are not using them I cover them with a grill cover. In the off-season I plan to wheel them into the garage for storage.

Paris Party Chic for Très Cheap

I want a Paris party!” said Natalie, my then 7-year old, about her next birthday. Like any other mother in 2013 that needs to plan a birthday, I went to Pinterest. And found a lot of bubblegum pink and black when I searched for “paris party”.

Image Results

Then I searched for:

“When did pink and black become the official color theme of Paris?”

I closed the computer down and realized I was not going to be able to rip off ideas from the internet for this party. Too many fake chandeliers… and poodles. Oh, and table settings that were fancier than my wedding! It took a few weeks, but a plan started forming around the words back yard paris party on the patio. Once I figured out we could do the party outside ideas started flooding in- a café on the patio, and a little Paris street in the back yard with little shops for the girls to visit. And the pièce de résistance- a fashion show put on by Natalie and her friends.

We sent out invitations on Evite that said “Oh, la la. Join us for a Paris Party”

Join us as we celebrate Natalie’s 8th birthday with a back yard Paris party! Girls will make jewelry, have their nails done, and then put on a fashion show. Capping off our day in “Paris” we will have treats at “Natalie’s Bistro”.

When the girls arrived I had two easy-up tents set up to look like little stores. I made pretend awnings from paper table clothes that were spray painted. Then I printed letters on the computer, cut them out and glued them to the front of the awnings to make the store names, “Salon” for where we would set up the manicures and “Bijou”, french for jewelry, where the girls made necklaces and découpaged little wooded suitcases.

From there they all went to Natalie’s bedroom to get ready for the fashion show. Some girls wore their fashion show outfits and some girls changed into new outfits for the fashion show. My husband had music loaded on the ipod and announced each girl as she walked down the back porch stairs and up to the parents in the audience. I think this was their favorite part. They all just beamed when it was their turn to take the runway!

After the fashion show, they sat at the patio tables and had croissants, crudities and fruit with strawberry lemonade (said with a french accent..lee-mo-nod) to wash it all down. I asked Natalie’s older brother if he could be a waiter at the bistro, but he had a better idea.

And then it was time to blow out the candles on the store-bought fruit tart and open some presents. (Nana bought the girl an amazing cake from a fancy bakery too-but it is NOT included in my breakdown of expenses below.) Everyone loved it and I think we were able to offer the girls a trip “a la Paris” without breaking “le banke”.
Find out next week how I used the Paris party as an excuse to spruce up the patio and some of the deals I found on patio furniture and potted plants.

What would Jim Morrison do with these DOORS?

We moved into our new construction house 16 years ago and while our home has tons of great features that work well for us, these doors always bothered me.

Door to the master bathroom

They’re dark and plain. They don’t match my style (which is kind of rustic and traditional). I love old houses, farmhouses and cottages from the turn of the century. For years I pondered these doors and thought about painting them and/or adding molding to dress them up like they did here, but what I really wanted to do was change them out for some 6-panel doors that would be a better match for our colonial-style house.

The Problem: We have 17 interior doors in this house in two sizes (23″ x 80″ and 30″ x 80″) which both cost $26 at Lowe’s. Total cost for the doors would be $464. And I really had no idea about installation. Would I do the work myself, or hire someone to install all these doors? I mean, it seems like I have heard that “hanging” doors is difficult work…just the fact that you “hang” them made me feel like I had no idea what it entailed! A Lowe’s employee told me that when he worked in construction he would charge $100 per door to install. That adds a whopping $1,700 to my little project.

On a trip to the local Habitat for Humanity Restore I saw a sign, “Doors 30% off”! They had 6-panel doors and a bunch of them! The small size I needed was $10 ($7 with the discount) and the larger doors were $20 ($14 with the discount). That would bring the cost of the doors down to $176! For that price I would figure out how to get them “hung”. Plus, I ended up making 4 trips to find all 17 doors, which spread the cost out across a few months…. (uhm hmmm, you aren’t going to start asking me how long it’s going to take to put the doors in like my husband, are you?) Because, yes…I bought the doors a few 6 months ago and I still have 2 left to do, which is NO BIG DEAL when you are saving $2,000, right?)

What I did: I bought one door as a test. To see if I could do the work myself, and to see what the hubby thought of the one door before I threw 16 more in my minivan. I replaced the front hall closet door first because you see it as soon as you walk into our house. To this day seeing that door makes me smile.

It was trial-and-error to say the least. By the time I got home from Restore with that first door it was time to get the kids off the bus. It was a cold February day so as soon as we got home from the bus stop the living room filled with the kid’s neighborhood friends. They were intrigued with my door project and honestly having an audience kept me going as I tried and failed to “hang” the door. The doors from Restore are donated and many are used. The good part about that was they already had the holes drilled for knobs and latch plates and were already notched out for the hinges.

After much hanging and taking down of that first closet door, this is what I have to share about…

How to Hang An Interior Door

1) Take the old door off of the hinges. Leave the hinges on your door frame because you will be able to resuse them.

2) Stand the old door up to the “new” door and with a pencil mark where the hinges should be on the new door and make sure the door knob lines up. I am betting that it is standard to drill a door knob 35″ from the ground because the door knob holes usually matched (and I checked this measurement along with length and width of door before I bought them). But I am guessing there is no standard for placing the hinges because I always had to make small adjustments to make sure the hinges would fit.

Door knobs line up. Check!

Hinge marks on door

Using a chisel and a hammer chisel out the notch for the hinge on the “new” door to match the location on the old door if it didn’t perfectly line up. I found that usually I would only have to chisel out a few milimeters on each hinge to make them match. (This one though was wayyyyy off!)

These notches for the hinges are the only draw-back to using the used doors. When your hinge is screwed back on you can see where the old hinge used to be. While it is not ideal, no one has ever noticed or commented on this and I never really notice it either. Plus I still need to paint the doors, so it will be a lot less noticeable then.

4) Unscrew the door knob and knob plate catcher thingy (what is that called?!) off of the old door.

5) To help lift the door a few inches off of the ground to match up to the hinges, I would use a folded towel on the ground and set the door on the towel until I had the right height. Then, using a drill I attached the hinges to the door.

6) Add the door knob and catch plate. (Perhaps at a later date I will spray paint the door knobs a more current finish such as brushed nickle or aged bronze. But for the moment, I am waiting for brass to come back in style.)

The only other materials I had to buy were a set of (good) chisels for $19.99. They sell a butt plate that helps with sizing of the hinge notches- but it is not necessary. If I had to notch in the entire hinge on a door that came as a slab (nothing pre-drilled) I just used the hinge as a template and drew around it with a pencil to mark where the hinge needed to go. Also, a slab door meant drilling the holes for the knob- but I loved that part!

So, timewise I know I joked that it took me 6 months to finish this project, but that is mostly because it coincided with my busiest season for work (which is March – May) so I didn’t get to work on any doors during those months. I bet on average it took me 45 minutes to hang each door so it really is a big project (12- 13 hours). But, I am very happy with our new, brighter doors through-out the house. Especially how much brighter our upstairs hallway is now.

Before: Plain, dark, hollow door

After: New master bathroom door

Speaking of brighter doors. My original idea was to paint the doors a rich chocolate brown (like this idea picture) once they were installed, but I really like how they brightened everything up. What color would you paint them? (To go with the wood trim…because like the out-dated brass knobs, I am waiting for wood trim to come back in style too.)