more patio furniture

Well after redoing our patio, we knew we would finally be able to get some outdoor dining furniture. We picked up a small lounge set last fall right after Labor Day on major sale but that alone is not enough to fill our new patio! So we've started shopping for some dining sets, but I'm just not sure what I want! So clearly I'm not quite ready to buy, but in the meantime, we're browsing around these:

Home Depot

Smith and Hawken for Target

Teak Station through Amazon

We are also thinking about adding a couch to our lounge set (love seat and two chairs around the fire pit)

Possibly something like this:

Patio Furniture Buy

Any thoughts on which style would look best on our patio? ?

Patio inspiration

So we are hoping to redo our back patio sometime soon- it somehow keeps getting put off to do later and later but I’m thinking it’s coming soon! P wants to do it RIGHT NOW! In fact I think if it were completely up to him it would have been the first thing we did to the house! My thing is that, while its hideous and somewhat of a tripping hazard, it is still usable and when its 110 outside I don’t want to be out there anyways! And there are so many things I want to do in the house, it’s hard to make the choice to wait on those things I see/ use every day. Like painting the living room/ dining room area, or getting a new dining room rug, so that rug can finally go live in the guest bedroom! Or just some new furniture! We desperately need some furniture but it’s so hard to choose that over something that is adding value to the house. But now that it’s cool it would be nice to fix it up. So I’ve been pinning some outdoorsy items on Pinterest (which you need to be on btw! It’s amazing!) and I thought I’d share- since I’m not sharing the “we’re finally redoing the patio” post for a while!

So. . . I actually wrote all of that at the beginning of December (actually December 13th- exactly a month ago!) which is amusing considering we are now very close to re-doing the patio, as in like- we are starting demo this weekend and I'm super exciting. We bid it out to several contractors/ designers and have come up with a design I'm really excited about. But I still wanted to share all the inspiration pictures I started with- I'll post more next week about the whole project and how we came to all of our decisions!

While I have always known we aren't going to have such an amazing outdoor room as this, I really liked the striped pillows and the greenery growing through the pergola- for added shade in the Texas heat!

LOVE the globe lights overhead- and we could easily string them diagonally in the L of the house

LOVE the slate and the fireplace is amazing (although I already know we won't be able to do that but still amazing) and I Really like the white picnic table/ benches too

Stamped concrete in a slate pattern- LOVE

would love a little pergola- at least over the dining table and grill

more pretty stamped concrete

and some more!

Can you tell what I'm leaning towards???

HGTV magazine

Have you all seen the new HGTV magazine?

source

The inaugural issue is out on the stands now and I am super impressed. They had so much information in there, lots of references to blogs and great designers and lots of tips on how to make your house look its best.

They had a section about house hunting and showed pictures of different houses, one whole spread about one couch five ways, showing how you can pump up your couch with just new throw pillows or upholstery

from the cover

another look

both pics from HGTV

The piece going behind the scenes of Sarah Richardson’s farm home is also great and you get to see the house in use. There are SO many useful ideas in just this one article.

HGTV

Also- for my fellow Houstonians there was an article about bungalow style which featured houses all in the Heights. They talk about what makes a bungalow by definition, different paint color combos that look great and info from the owners about what all they had done to the house.

source

basic make up of a bungalow

One example

2 pics from HGTV

I was really impressed and super happy I threw this into my cart full of TP, paper towels and frozen chicken breasts as we were checking out at Sam’s last week! Definitely go pick one up for yourself, you won’t regret it!

Houston's Urban Market

The other fun part of my weekend consisted of spending an hour or so wandering around the Urban Market in Midtown Houston on Sunday morning. This is a three times a year outdoor antique market with some of the best Houston designers. I missed the February one so I was bound and determined to go this time around and it was completely worth it.

I didn't really NEED anything, but that's never stopped me from browsing or buying (who am I kidding!) I found a lot of amazing items and really everything was reasonably priced too which is great. I fell in love with three booths in particular. Thayer Design, which had some amazing furniture pieces and art including this coffee table made from reclaimed wood which I was practically drooling over.

SO PRETTY and big. Big enough for our space which is difficult to find- our current coffee table is a little dinky for the size of the room but that's okay. As much as I loved the table I certainly am not in the market for one right now. I also saw an amazing large round upholstered coffee table with tufting and fabric covered buttons. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of it.

Then I found my way to Gracie's Custom Interiors. She had some wonderful bedding, pillows (I probably could have bought ALL of the pillows) and upholstered furniture. Again, fell HARD for the most amazing upholstered occasional chair that would actually fit PERFECTLY in our bedroom and be much more comfortable/ useful that the small chair we have there now.

Isn't she beautiful??

I am still going back and forth- it was more than I was planning on spending for a bedroom chair but the quality was superb and the fabric perfect! I'm afraid it's sold but I may have to call and see about it if I'm still thinking about it in a week!

Lastly, but actually the first (and last) booth I went into was LeSueur Interiors which was in a booth with Sally Wheat. They had so many beautiful pieces including a painting that was so fun and colorful but still really clean lined and this wonderful chest

I love the color and want it for my bedside table but we aren't quite ready to make a major furniture investment right now. I did however buy a few small items from her shop which I'm super excited about. I got a pair of Delft salad plates, a weathered metal "M," an itty bitty mirror, and an antique Japanese gold leaf tray! Super excited- I have been collecting antique blue and white plates (Delft and others) for seven or eight years now and I'm always looking for more!

The "M" and the little mirror are going to become additions to my gallery wall and I'm not sure about the tray but at $10 it was too pretty to pass up!

I had a blast and even though I didn't have any major purchases it was great to see all the wonderful goods and get fun design ideas! If you missed this one, no worries, the next is in October and you should definitely plan on going! Look at all the fun other items looking for homes:

Can't find the card of what booth this was at!

Thayer Design

The Red Chair

Gracie's Custom Interiors

couldn't find the cards but I just loved this little arangement on the X table, oh and the big pillows!

Inspiration

Well after showing you all of the different patio furniture I want (well some of it at least) I felt like showing you other things that were inspiring me right now, even if they aren't things I'm going to be getting right away they are still fun to look at!

Emily A Clark

LOVE the color of this dresser- especially mixed with the fun pink-y/ coral-y lamps and mirror

loving corals and pinks right now

Dwell Studio's Vintage blossom fabric L-O-V-E, love at first sight. I now want to recover the bolster pillow on our bed with this along with a cushion for our bedroom chair

http://www.fabric.com/

Crate and Barrel

this is the Dwell studio's vintage blossom fabric I am IN LOVE WITH

how pretty is this chair???

Caitlin Creer Interiors

while we are in the bedroom- go ahead and give me this headboard.... LOVE

I actually really like our current headboard but I desperately want an upholstered one.

Oak Ridge Revivial via Emily A Clark

that is an ikat stencil (from Olive Leaf Stencils) used all over the bathroom- how amazing does that look

The Nesting Place

LOVE the color in here-so happy

Holly Mathis

Can my office please look like this? Pretty Please???

Emily A Clark

again- she does great stuff- love the whole thing- but mainly I'm digging those bookshelves all the way across the wall. . . I have an idea brewing for the Wii Room but I'm pretty sure it's expensive so we'll see how soon I get to it!!

Emily A Clark- AGAIN

I know! But look at those pretty bookshelves, and the pops of coral. . . REALLY digging coral right now :)

Sunburst mirror I should have bought from One King's Lane....

from Etsy's Milk and Cookies Canada shop

my pillow obsessions- I NEED THEM!!!

The Nesting Place

LOVE the coffee filter wreaths- I might just get around to making one, one of these days!

from Etsy's The Pinwheel Press shop

If only I needed a calling card- these are about the CUTEST things EVER!

oh and I want a rug just like that- in the navy. Thank you!

Or like this:

Emily A Clark

I believe this is an old Pottery Barn rug but it has been discontinued

Can you tell I really want a navy rug. They are hard to find!

via Emily A Clark

How pretty is that? I wish I could do something like this on our porch

Oh and then there is this- I'll leave you with that delectable morsel...

coconut lime macaroons with white chocolate from Two Peas and their Pod

YUM!