Outdoor Dining Makeover

I was in cahoots with RYOBI, STOK, and Online Fabric Store during my back porch makeover this June. I received a few products during the process but was not compensated otherwise. My opinions are my own :)

So you guys... the porch is DONE. Like totally completely done. And we used the heck out of it this weekend for the 4th. Do you remember where I started? (Only the most embarrassing post ever) Here's a few pics of my patio set as a refresher.

My patio table was, let's just say, gross. It is actually an indoor set that was my husband's before we were married. When our furniture combined, it got moved to the porch. And since then, it's been a bit neglected (like 7ish years neglected). The only thing I did to it when it moved outdoors was to cover the seats in a brown vinyl. Why did I go with brown?  I have no idea. But it sure makes for a good "before"!

The feet were really rusty and and frogs and lizards had sort of made it their home. It's main use was to hold up drying beach towels and bathing suits.

So I finally did something about it (spoiler: I looks like a place you might actually want to sit down now). First thing I did was remove the seats.

Since I recovered them once already in their life, there were lots of staples. Instead of trying to staple over my other staples, I decided to remove them. This actually went really fast.

Once the old vinyl was off (yep, the seats used to be red suede), I got to work recovering them again. I chose a gorgeous white faux ostrich vinyl from Online Fabric Store. However, you might have already noticed, I didn't stick with the white vinyl. While I loved it (and still do) it just didn't work with all of the other bright colors I had going on. Once I had it on the finished chair, it looked out of place. So in the end, I redid the stools again in Premier Prints Outdoor Blooms Pacific Fabric and I love it! The white ostrich shall live on in another project.

Recovering a stool like this is really easy. You basically cut a slightly larger pice of fabric, pull tight from opposite sides, and staple. Just keep going around, pulling from opposite directions until you've secured all of the fabric and trim the excess.

After the seats were done, I got to work on the table and chairs. Everything was pretty rusty so it all required a really good sanding.

I posted this pic on my Instagram a while back. That was me mid-sanding. Besides the half deflated kiddie pool in the reflection, is the camera picking up the fact that my arms are on fire? It was quite a workout!

Once the sanding was done, I wiped everything down with a damp cloth. Note the outfit change. I didn't get this all done in one day :)

When everything is clean and dry, we're ready for primer and paint. I used Rust-Oleum spray paint. This pic is a little deceiving. I think the table took 2 cans of teal paint and maybe 2 cans of primer. 

Do a light coat of primer to prevent drips and a sticky finish. It doesn't have to cover completely.

Then came the paint. Again, light coats. I think my backyard smelled like spray paint for a week. 

After the teal was dry, I flipped the chairs over and tapped off the legs to spray the orangey-coral color for the dipped look. The chairs kind of remind me of little bugs in this picture that got tipped over and can't get back up. I realize that is weird, but seriously. They do, don't they?!

I thought it was going to be harder than it was to keep the paint from getting on the teal parts I already painted but it went pretty smoothly. Only a smidge of touchup required. (Can't you just hear the little chair... help me! help!... okay, I'll stop)

The table got the same treatment as the chairs.

And when everything was dry... drumroll... Tadah! It's like a color explosion. All of the fabrics you see are from Online Fabric Store (links to all of them are below). The rug is from World Market and the accessories are a combination of IKEA and Target clearance. We actually have an outdoor space to eat and entertain now.

And speaking of... remember our grill before? (ewww) Does it even count as a grill if fire doesn't always come out of it?

Anyway, after! We got a new STOK Quattro 4-Burner grill. The cool part about this grill (besides the snazzy orange accents... not gonna lie. I was equally as excited about that. So stylish!) are the interchangeable inserts. You can change out the grill grates to a pizza stone, griddle, veggie tray, and more. 

I got so used to not using our grill that I kind of forgot that was a cooking option. We've used the new grill so much in just the few short weeks we've had it this summer. I really love not having to turn the oven on in the house when it's 95º outside and having fewer dishes to wash. I forgot how good grilled veggies are. We've already been talking about getting a few more inserts to increase our cooking options. I may never cook inside again... or it might all be part of my plan to have the hubs cook from now on. He is the grill master after all. Mwahaha ;)

Like I mentioned before, all of the fabrics are from onlinefabricstore.net. The coral seahorse one is so adorable. I love the beachy vibe it gives the space.

You might have noticed the splendiferous (it's a word... Trust me, I used the thesaurus) screen in the background of some of the photos done in P. Kaufmann Outdoor Silsila Poolside fabric. The complete before & after and tutorial on that are coming soon!

1. P. Kaufmann Outdoor Silsila Poolside Fabric   
2. Premier Prints Sea Horse Salmon Slub Fabric

3. Premier Prints Fynn Apache Blue Macon Fabric 
4. Premier Prints Outdoor Blooms Pacific Fabric

So it's finally done and I just have a few more posts to give you all the details including the outdoor screen and Arctic Cove misting kit installation. Now who wants to come over for a margarita? I'll save you a seat!