So, this is the back of my rental house:
This space became my project this year. Oh, how I miss projects! I was at a home improvement store gathering tools and prices for another project, and the guy helping me complained how they never end. No, the problem is when they do, and you’ve got nothing that needs to be rehabbed or fixed or improved. That’s when it’s bad.
I haven’t had a real live project in a really long time!
The above is the forerunner of a really long, awesome yard. But again, I’m renting. I would love a garden. I’ve waited a long time to test my greenthumb-edness. Yet whatever I do needs to be mobile and temporary. However, this space cannot stay looking like…..a rental.
Found lots of great ideas on how to construct some seating (Pinterest, my new best friend). The best one called for cinderblocks. But, those are really heavy. Won’t fit into the ‘mobile’ category. Before I went to buy some chairs and benches, I called my mother, who wondered why I wasn’t just using my cast iron chairs. Well, they were meant for a dining room set makeover……
Well, huh.
As you can see, I’ve been carting these things around the country for the last four years. Well, longer, actually. Six, I think. The pictures above were when I toyed with the idea of selling them. Thankfully I talked myself out of that. They were an amazing find at a thrift store, but I’ve been a little lost as to how to redo them. The table is missing its glass, which is not as cheap as I thought it’d be to replace. Therefore, they’ve been sitting around unusable and fairly dull.
Remember the whole blueprint brain comment I made in the greenhouse post? Suddenly, I knew exactly how these chairs needed to look, and it involved spray paint and color. Lots of color. (Mmm, I love painting. And color 🙂 I bought some outdoor upholstery fabric a couple years ago, but the chairs were stuck in storage so I couldn’t redo them.
Oh, wait till you see them now! I was sitting outside today, staring at the ‘after’, and am pretty proud of myself. It involves a tea garden, a fountain, vegetables, and the greenhouse (click to read the post about my DIY scrap greenhouse).
This is going to be a short series, so stay tuned as I post the ‘afters’!
Of Words and Writing 
Like you, I live in a rental house. My yard is like yours though there is garden bed out the front where I grow a few vegies. Love you project with the table and chairs. They could come up brilliantly.
Thanks, Suzanne! I know what I want to do with the table, but it may be a next year project. Renting makes you get creative, though it’s easy to think you can’t do what you’d like to, isn’t it?
Yes. I’ve just starting renting a studio space in a shed – at least there I can make messes. As for the rental back yard – can you grow some flowers and vegies in small pots and tubs?
That is part of this little series. The ‘after’ 🙂