Curb Appeal Makeover by Amy & Chris

Our homeowners association makes a drive by every few years.  And then notifies the homeowners of any updates that need to be made to the outside of the home. We recieved a letter stating our shutters need to be re-painted. Chris and I disagree because we think the shutters are fine, but the association will be back in 45 days to check on it. Since we have to re-paint we decided to go for a different color.  And give the outside of the home a facelift and different look. Here is what our home looked like before ( I love the red and will miss it, but was time for a change) We also decided to also re-vamp the mailbox.

Here is the after.  Amazing what paint can do!

Thanks for stopping by! Amy & Chris

Outdoor Bar

I have seen a lot of great ideas for having a bar area outdoors.  We are continuing to work on our deck project as we speak.  Rob created this shelf area on one side of the new deck with some of the leftover wood rather than just create a railing.  It is a simple space and I just wanted to dress it up a bit.

The only new addition to this set up is the wine carafe at the top that I got for $1 at a local yard sale. I figured it could stay outside because it is not something I'm too worried about getting ruined. I got the Happy Hour sign from my sister a few years back and it is from World Market.  The lanterns and outdoor wine glasses are from the Pottery Barn outlet. I like to take the lanterns and put them on our new Pallet Coffee Table when we are outside in the evenings.  

We hope to get the pergola overhead to be built very soon! It's definitely a challenging project in this heat that we've been experiencing in Maryland lately.  


Thanks for stopping by! I can't wait to hang out there tonight and enjoy a cocktail.


Megan

Pallet Coffee Table

Last week we shared our pallet chairs, and we now have a pallet coffee table to go along with them.  We received about nine pallets and knew that another project was in order.  Our neighbor also gave us the back of a bench that had seen better days.   This bench back was sitting in our garage for about two months until we found a purpose for it.  Rob decided last night he would make it a part of the pallet table. We just spray painted the iron piece with some leftover spray paint.

Rob cut out the middle slats of the pallet and laid the iron piece in the middle of it.

 Rob used the Minwax Gel Stain in Mahogany that he used for the pallet chair.  Then he cut the extra pieces of pallet to fill the spots on either end and the middle of the iron.

 Rob used additional pallet pieces to make the attachments for the bottom pallet to adhere to the top.

 Rob then worked on staining the bottom pallet for the table. This was tedious but worth the effort.

 He stained the pieces he would use later to attach the pallets together.

He got some casters from Lowe's to put on the bottom for around $3.00 a piece.

He used quarter inch carriage bolts to secure the pallets together.

Here is the finished product: 

The project cost approximately $30.00 if you factor in the casters, carriage bolts and the little bit of Minwax that was used.  

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Megan

Frugal Girls

Craft Challenge at My Life in Pencil