Creating a Nice Deck Area

I seem to be running into more problems trying to work on the outside of my house than I did on the inside.  In the mornings and evenings when it's cooler, the mosquitoes are brutal! Very hard to work on any of my projects. I have to put on jeans and boots and load up with mosquito repellent.  During the days, it  is starting to get up to 100 degrees and more, then when it's not hot, it's raining.  What's a girl to do?

I was able to put a coat of primer on the top of the picnic table, I may end up having to drag this thing in my house to work on it!

Remember the oil spill on the top? Well the oil is seeping through the primer.  I'm wondering if one more coat might help seal it better?  I did try to use the kitty litter to soak it up, but that oil isn't budging.  It does  look very pretty white though.  Now I need to do the legs and put a coat of paint on it.  I had originally thought I was going to drill a hole in the top of it and put an umbrella through it, but I've changed my mind.  I'm going to just get a big umbrella and buy some chairs and bench seating to put around under the umbrella.  I think it will function better that way and look much nicer.

I am debating on getting this umbrella from Pottery Barn.

The only thing is, the stand the umbrella goes in costs about $100.00. I'm wondering if this pole is a regular size pole and would fit in any stand that I can buy somewhere else?  I know the way PB makes their lamps, they have it fixed so you can't buy the lamp shades somewhere else, you have to buy theirs to fit the base and vice versa.  Does anyone have any idea about these PB umbrellas if they will fit in just any stand?


I found this table while I was blog hopping and love how they painted the blue stripe down the middle. I was thinking of doing something similar with my picnic table.  My original plan was to paint it white.

Photo from Elle Decor found on Fresh Nest Design.

I'm not sure about all the bright colors though, I am always so drawn to the calming peacefulness of whites and organic materials like in the photo below.

Photo from Decor Pad.

If you haven't checked out Decor Pad, it's a great site to browse for inspiration.  You can go to the search bar there and from the pull down menu, choose photos, then type in any word or room you're looking for and it gives you so many beautiful decorated spaces to browse.  

This is how I get ideas for my home, I just browse decor sites and blogs and get a feel for what i want. The pic above from Decor Pad gives me a feel of calm when I look at it, so I know I want to create that calm on my deck. I won't copy it, but will create something of my own to elicit that same *feel*.  

Taking design quizzes can also help you nail down your own special style.  This one from Sproost is good.  My answers to the quiz was 40% French Eclectic, 40% Nantucket Style and 20% Rustic Revival. I think that about hits the nail on the head.

Oh and one more thing, here's my next little project.

Fixing up this old table.

What color do you think I'm going to paint it?