Our Colorful Backyard

I think it was back in August or September when our neighbor brought me an old wrought iron bench. The plan was to put it between a narrow section of our yard and neighbor Judy’s yard. But we nixed that idea because the man who cuts her grass would probably have problems moving it every time he mowed. So it sat in our “stock pile” of stuff in the area when unused things hang out, getting closer to the landfill. Winter came and went and now spring was on the way.

I happened to look out in the back yard a month ago and Rich was scraping the flaky paint off the old bench and painted it a bright seaside blue!

The bench had 2 faded blue cushions that didn’t match the new paint so I went through my indoor/outdoor fabric stash I’ve had since we retired our decorating shop in 2018. I just happened to have a piece of lime green that had just enough to make a new cushion. I also had a piece of outdoor foam the perfect size! I whipped up a new cushion, had a table runner we never used with the same color green and purple flowers so I made two pillows and backed them in the solid green. I love our new, old bench and cushion!

Once Lia saw the bench she looked around at our old hand-me-down chairs (also saved from the landfill) and put in her order for one to be painted purple and the other pink. Pop got right on that of course. I had a small strip of the pillow fabric left so I made one for the purple chair. Then we had one mismatched chair so Rich painted that his Dodger blue. Our colorful backyard looks like something from the ’60’s but I love it! And I love when our Azalea bush is in full bloom, everything pops!

Did you notice the teal bistro set? Lia had a small pink plastic table and chair set from when she was 2 years old and when she was washing it earlier in the spring she realized it was too small. Her and I looked through Amazon and found this perfect bistro set and she even put it together!

Lia was so happy with her new table and chairs she called mommy outside to have a little picnic – cheese puffs and mini M&M’s!

Our colorful backyard was complete or was it? One day ass we were pulling in our subdivision I read a post on our FB page that a neighbor had large flower pots at her door and if anyone wanted them, come get them. We hustled over and I was shocked when I saw them. Three large pots were the exact same color as our newly painted old furniture! There was even a smaller teal one that looked like it was made to order to match Lai’s bistro set. I grabbed these but I did leave some others she had in case someone else wanted some. I couldn’t have gone to the garden center store and found anything as perfect as these!

Now I have to figure out what to put in them but we did fill the pink one up with mums that keep growing year after year. This is why I like to recycle old things, it saves the landfill and it gives things a new purpose. I wonder what my next fun project will be.