the one with my Pretty Patio . . .

I’m over at Classy Living talking about workout motivation. AND there’s some free printables! Be sure to check it out, and show Kate some love!

Remember when I told you about the new tables I made for our porch (that seems like so long ago) . . . well I needed some more stuff to make it all seem pretty back there.

We won’t be at this apartment more than just 1 summer – so the budget was small. I started with a $50 budget and a plan for simple. When we are on the porch now we are just sitting with a drink . . .maybe dinner . . . talking to each other or watching our nephews play, so just a simple sitting area was all we needed and all we had room for.

The tables were free except for the paint which cost me $7 . . . I planned to use that paint to fix up some chairs we had, and use the rest of the budget for some cute décor and plants.

Keeping with the simple theme, I just used a place setting and a citronella candle all from Target last summer.

I also wanted to bring some textiles in to make it feel homey. So this rug (which used to go in our living room but it’s an outdoor rug so I switched it) was put down and some pillow covers from this etsy shop were thrown on each chair. The covers cost $25, and I used $4 pillow stuffing from JoAnn’s to fill them up (I sewed the openings up myself so none would spill out)

Finally, the chairs . . . fixing up the ones we had didn’t end up working out. They were just too old and started to fall apart as I painted. When part of the wicker jumped out and almost got me in the eye I took that as a sign . . . But after the pillow stuffing we only had $10 left. So I sucked it up and cashed in some points on my credit card to get these chairs from Home Depot. I had been saving points to get the Dior lip balm that creates a lip color for you, but without chairs this whole thing would be pointless so sacrifices had to be made. Luckily, I do love the chairs.