Domestic Mother: Deck 'Refresh'

It has been way too long since I updated this blog, which I'm going to blame on . I'm now selling custom nursing covers, camera strap covers, boppy pillow covers AND little girl dresses, which will soon include some mommy and me sets. You should check it out. Really. Anyway, I found a blog that I'm loving, . Its a lovely mix of DIY projects, recipes ( check out the bananas foster bread spread, delicious!), and her decorating posts. It has inspired me to do this post on our deck 'refresh'. I say refresh, because I wouldn't classify it as a renovation. Now onto the good stuff. Here is the deck, looking the way it has for the past 8
months.

Andrew decided to scrub and stain it. It was looking pretty rough and dirty. I cant remember what brand we used, but we used a washcloth to apply a fairly cheap eco friendly deck cleaner. (My vegetables are growing along the deck).Then we used a heavy duty brush, and scrubbed it. All.
Aye Aye Aye.

Here it is after the scrub:

We chose this stain, as most required 2 coats and this one only required one, I highly recommend it!

We stained all of the rails first , and then did the actual deck last. We applied a fairly thin layer, using regular brushes. Here she is halfway stained. Quite a difference.

We also replaced the post caps, we found these solar caps at Lowes for about $4.88 each. Super pretty once it gets dark! We still had the same table on the porch this week. We got some plants : The pygmey palm is my favorite, a steal at home depot for $9. The large hibiscus was about $10, we already had the pot. Looking better...

And then some long lost friends made a trip to Atlanta with us, and bought us the table,bench,and 2 chairs that I was pining over at Ikea. 4 adults, a toddler, and the giant box riding back to Knoxville was interesting. The table looked like this http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90055696/ . We used our leftover redwood stain, and stained the table and chairs as soon as we got a chance. The wood was treated , but not really waterproofed, So we stained it the moment we got a chance. We are almost done, but I need pillows! So I searched, and couldnt find 4 pillows that I liked for less than $60. Ouch. So I decided I'd buy some cotton calico from hobby lobby, make my own pillows in the prints I want, and then scotch guard them. Great idea, it would work, but oh so time consuming.

Then, I happened to be walking throuht JC Penney yesterday , when I saw a lovely beauty, an Ikat pillow, on clearance for $7!! But only one. I quickly googled it, and saw they also had other prints, so I drove over to the JCP on the other side of town, and they had the other prints that I liked, for $7 each also! I was thrilled! For now, my deck is complete. Ya know, til I get that new grill... ;-)