Our New Backyard: Outdoor Kitchen Counter

Hi Everyone!

One of the excuses I have for not blogging for so long, is that we bought a brand new house in September 2013. We have been moving in and getting settled for 4 months now. With my birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, etc., we have had a lot of interruptions, but we are slowly getting there..

 

Today I want to show off our DIY outdoor kitchen and the awesome light Hubby made to go with it.

 

We bought , shall we call it a shell for lack of a better word, for the counter area. Craigslist. It is made out of polystyrene, covered with cement,  hollow inside, and looked like this;

 

 

We could cut openings  where we wanted them, and put on a finish we liked.

So, my husband and one of his friends ,Lou, cut two squares in front, for cupboard doors,  and a square on the top left of the counter for the charcoal BBQ to go in.

 

Lou and Ann are our friends from San Jose, CA, who came to visit for the weekend of my birthday. Boy, did we put them to work! LOL! No, seriously, they were a great help. They might never visit us again, but I'm glad they were here to help us. Lou built the frame and poured the cement for the floor during Thursday while Niel was still at work, and Ann helped with the planting. ( A lot). 

  Ann, in our bare backyard.

  Lou, making the floor by flashlight! 

  Haha! He thought he could stop because it was dark, but Ann and I grabbed the flashlights and put him back to work!

On Friday, Niel and Lou built the cupboard doors, and lay the tiles on the counter.
 

My birthday party was on the Saturday, and we could use our new "kitchen" for the first time!

It wasn't done, but we loved it. 

I have the perfect door handles for these doors, but since it's Niel's project, I guess I will have to nag him wait until he warms to my idea. Looking at this picture, I realize I will have to age the hinges. They are way too shiny!
We both agree that the doors need to be stained a much darker brown. (Yay!)

 

I had several ideas for the finish, but in the end I went with the quickest, most affordable option;  I painted it with Modern Masters' rust paint to look like rusted metal. I talked about the product here.

 It is still a work in progress, but here are some more pics....

 

Notice the plug? Yep, they even did that, too. No need to get nervous for my sake...Lou used to be an electrician , so he could make sure we did not blow something up in the process.  :)

  I need to find some way to make the edges more finished; I thought of corner steel or wood painted to look like steel....not sure. Any ideas?

We found  the old railway tie many years ago , abruptly brought it home, then had no idea where to use it. Now it works perfectly as a footrest!

 

 Notice the brand new gas barbeque? Hubby jokingly said he bought it for me for my birthday. So I've decided to jokingly give him a boob lift for his birthday! Ha!

                           I got the Barstools  off of Craigslist too.

 

 I love that it even still had some kind of metal tag on it, too. It did not come with the bird poop. That is courtesy of the Crackels , who, for some reason, love my bar!

 

I know...the wood needs something...either darker stain, or metal rust, too.

 

 

Notice the lamp/ tree at the end of the bar? I'll tell you about it:

Hubby said he had an idea of what he wanted to do for a light at the bar and barbecue. I have to admit, when he explained it, I was not overly excited. I could not picture it.

 

He found an old dead tree stump in a dry riverbed ( does Arizona have any other kind? ) near our house. With a dremmel he made a small groove in the stump, to hide the electrical cord. See? It looks just like a crack in the wood.

 

 He also planted the piece of stump in cement, to make sure it is sturdy.

 

 

Then he used one of my thrift store lanterns that was supposed to hold a tea light candle.

 

With the light kit from another old , soon to be discarded light, voila! We now have an awesome, homemade, rustic, looks like we are camping, but most importantly FREE outside light at our bar!

 

 

 

 

 

I LOVE it! It is most probably my favorite part of the bar!

 

 

Notice the "bug" flying  in the top picture?

It is actually a humming bird. We have a feeder right there at the window, and love watching them drink while we drink. Hah!

 

 

 

This has become our favorite spot to hang out. Even when its just hubby and me. He sits behind the counter, close to the little bar fridge behind one of the wooden doors, and I sit, or hang, like a regular bar fly on the counter!

 

Gorgeous Arizona sunset! 

 

Until next time, have a great week!

 

 

Bye for Now!

 

 

 

 

Joining these parties:

          That DIY Show off.  http://diyshowoff.com/category/other/diy-project-parade/

Fun Bench...just for fun!

I bought a cute little bench at a garage sale a few years back. Since then, it has occupied many different rooms and played many different roles in our house. First it was used in my daughter's bedroom to hold all of her different soft toys....

Then I moved it to my guest bathroom, where I thought it fit perfectly....just to look pretty and maybe hold the occasional item of clothing while someone was taking a shower...

One day I decided to paint it, and moved it outside to the patio, where the poor thing resided, half-way primed, for a whole year!
I am surprised it survived the elements all that time. Must be of good "stock"!

Last week, I decided to tackle this brave little bench again. I was itching to do something resembling "Sticks furniture".
I have LOVED Sticks Furniture since the first day I saw it about 8 years ago. I did not know who or what it was, but I WANTED it! Unfortunately I could not afford to pay $3000.00 and up for any piece of furniture, so it remained an unrequited love affair.
Until I started painting old thrift store furniture and realized I might even try my hand at something like that one day!
Well, the day has arrived! And I had tons of fun doing it!

I removed the original embellishment, and was going to glue a wooden heart there, but ended up just painting one on.

 I wrote: Follow your heart....but take your head with you..

 I used any and all the paint I could find in my stash. The lines were done with Sharpies and paint pens.

 I think this can be used in a child's room, or playroom, or even as an unexpected accent piece in any decor. I am sure it will also look very cute on either a back or front patio, too.

What do you think?

Suzanne


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Curbside Potting Table Gets a New Lease on Life

Hello, and welcome back!

I am trying to get a few pieces together for the Barnsale at the end of the month .  That, plus Springbreak , and an older son who has his own project going in the garage, means total and utter chaos in our household these days .

This is my "workspace" at the moment...

...and this is my son's.

 

Do you agree that we need a workshop?

My friend found this little lovely on the curb more than a year ago.

She promptly took it home , fully intending to make it beautiful again. But, as you know, life all too often gets in the way of our good intentions.So,  a year later , it was still looking miserable at her front door , exactly the same as the day she found it .When they moved to another house, she did not want to bother with it anymore, and passed it on to me.

The poor thing was falling apart. Almost every single nail had to be replaced, and all the screws tightened.

Wonderhusband helped me with this part. He is so sweet...

Then it got a good sanding from me, and started to look a little more respectable .

I primed with Kilz again, and spray painted with Krylon Ocean Mist. I still had three cans left over in my garage, so, once again, I am avoiding using the spray gun for the first time..

I sanded and distressed afterwards, to make it look naturally old, as I know its gonna get some character pretty soon if it was going to live outdoors in Arizona!

The block that covers the hole was just stained in dark brown.

Funny story : As I was finishing up with just a little more sanding here and there,  the husband of my friend who found the table

dropped the kids off , and saw me working on it. 

He looked at it, and asked if I was going to sand the whole thing down! 

Well, that was encouraging! lol.

I did feel like it needed something else, though.

I got a piece of peg board, and painted it to look almost moss covered, and nailed it to the back. This would be a good place to hang gloves, pruning scossors, etc.

I did the same paint effect on the drawers and a little on the lid.

Then I added a loose shelf at the bottom, for extra storage. Don't know if I should keep that there, or not.

There wasn't much that I could do about the mark on the metal part...it will just have to be  part of the character...

What do you think? Not bad for a curb find?

Hope to see all of you in the Phoenix area at the Barnsale!

Joining these parties:

Designer Garden's VIP Party

Rust Effects

Er...H..hello there, Friends

My husband has a saying, "You smile like a dog who had just pooped in the bedroom."

Well, thats me today...guilty smile.

I am so guilty of neglecting all my faithful followers and readers. So,so sorry people. What can I say? This is not a Dear Abby corner, so I will stick with: Please forgive me and I hope I can get back to doing and blogging about it regularly again.

Today I want to show you some cool rust effects. I am not talking about the little kit of paint we buy at the craft store and then use normal rust colored paint to make something look rusty.

This stuff is the real deal.

It is made by Modern Masters and is called Reactive Metallic Paints .(Feel free to let them know I am advertising for them for free).


These paints are water based and contain real metal particles. They will tarnish naturally over time and when exposed to the elements.
But, if you are impatient like me, you can get the activator solution and apply it over the wet paint, and have the effect within 20 to 30 minutes.
The activator will react with the real metal particles in the paints, thus speeding up the oxidation process.

So, this is what  I did with it....

Don't know what you call those "indent" thingies, but I rusted mine.  :)

The base paint is black, with real iron particles in. Then, if you apply the activator over it, the iron particles start to rust. I wanted the effect of water that leaked and caused rust, so I applied the activator so that it ran down .The activator is runny, like water, so if you don't want this effect, you can use a sponge to apply it.

You get a protective coat to apply over the oxidized metal finish, minimizing any further corrosion, and  to create a weather resistant barrier, but I found that it darkened the color, and made it look less natural, so I'm taking my chances.

The more common use for it is on outdoor plant containers and ornaments, like this:

 I got this generic plant container at a garage sale for two dollars, and transformed it into something I love.

Again, I want it to go on rusting and tarnishing over time, so I did not put a top coat on.  

But then, of course, I was on a roll and could not stop myself... I just had to paint this wrought iron table's base , too. 

This is outside by the BBQ, so it, too, will tarnish more and more over time. Untill I get tired of it and paint over it, of course.

Well, that's it for now!

Love,

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