Outdoor entertainment can be a homeowner’s best friend. After all, spending time with friends outside means you won’t have to clean the house from top to bottom, only to be left with a mountain of mess. Instead, you can embrace the elements, enjoy a clutter-free home for the evening, and generally provide an outdoor dining experience to remember.
But, what if your outdoor space doesn’t suit this kind of al fresco dinner party? After all, a range of outdoor issues can mean that you may be reluctant to welcome guests into your garden.
Luckily, even the worst garden setup can suit outdoor entertainment if you eliminate the most pressing outdoor issues like the following. *This post contains affiliate links
Leveling Uneven Land
If your outdoor space is uneven and rife with holes, you may worry that outdoor entertainment could end in injuries. And, your concerns aren’t altogether unfounded, especially considering that guests will often walk this unfamiliar ground in the dark.
Luckily, key DIY tips can help level even the most uneven or sloped yard, and they include top dressing, regrading, and filling any lumps or bumps. Professional patio installations can also ensure an even outdoor surface. If you’re dealing with large gaps or drops between a decking area or patio door, you could also benefit from installing threshold ramps that make these transitions easier for everyone to manage. And, of course, proper lighting is key for ensuring that, even if there are hidden holes in your lawn, your guests can easily step around them instead of breaking their ankles.
Creating comfort outside
If you live in extreme climates or simply haven’t set your outdoor space up for al fresco entertainment, you may feel that your garde, deck or patio lacks comfort. Investing in a comfortable and stylish outdoor patio furniture set is a the first step to creating the type of outdoor entertaining area your family and guests will want to linger.
It’s also easy to create outdoor comfort regardless of temperatures. For relatively little cost, you can now invest in everything from full patio sets to outdoor fireplace tables that keep everyone cozy. Even something as simple as a string of fairy lights and a blanket box can see you enjoying the fresh night with friends who are unlikely to wish they were indoors.
Limiting a lack of privacy
It’ll be difficult to have fun with friends if your neighbors can look right down and see what you’re up to.
Unfortunately, you can’t do much about your proximity to your neighbors. But, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck dealing with a complete lack of privacy. In fact, getting your garden growing with high plants, trellises, and even high hedge borders, can help to obscure neighborly views. Even if you only install these additions in one corner of your garden, hosting outdoor events here can save you that feeling of having the whole street watching you. If you don’t have patience, try an artifical greenery privacy panel wall of ivy or boxwood for instant privacy!
Lastly don’t forget to add some elegant and useful tiki torches to keep the critters away so you can actually enjoy the beautiful outdoor entertaining space you have created.
Outdoor entertainment can be a great and unique experience with way less stress than an indoor dinner party. Simply eliminate these outdoor issues to put al fresco dining on your menu!
Spring storm home protection is necessary each year. With the warmer season just around the corner, now is the best time to get some small jobs done before they become a big headache. From storing furniture to trimming shrubs and branches, here are some handy ideas to get started.
Back-Up the Power
As you probably know, spring comes with storms. And that often means power outages. No one wants to be stuck with no power, as it can be a nightmare. So why put yourself or your family through that. Fortunately for us all, there are excellent services that offer backup generator installation and maintenance. A backup genie is one of those things you hope you never need. But it’s better to have and not need it than need it and not have it. If only to keep phones on!
Store Light Furniture
We all love sitting outside as winter sheds away the cold and the season becomes warmer. Lazy days in the sun among the smell of freshly cut grass lead into long evenings with outdoor cooking. However, we all know the weather can change at the drop of a hat. Continue to watch weather forecasts, and be ready to move or cover any glass patio furniture
Spring Storm Protection for Appliances
Each year, around 1 in 200 homes are struck by lightning, and whether struck or not, power strips can blow out. This will can damage kitchen appliances plugged into wall outlets, but power surge protection strips can help prevent that. i
Trim the Shrubs and Branches
Is there anything more satisfying than a lovely green and lush garden full of flowers, shrubs, and trees after a long winter? However, as gorgeous as these are, they can become hazardous when the weather turns against you. Fortunately, spring is a great time to begin getting back outside to trim the shrubs and branches after winter neglect. Trimming the hedges keeps them in check and prevents stray branches from coming through the windows, and it’s great exercise, too!
Maintain the Sump Pump
Not everyone has a basement, but many do. If you have a basement or underground level, then you probably have a sump pump. A sump pump helps remove water from the lower part of a home. If this stops working, your home will potentially flood. Therefore, maintaining the sump pump is a vital task when it comes to spring jobs as the extra rainwater can cause them to overflow. Of course, there isn’t a much worse scenario for your home than a spring flood.
Lastly don’t forget to clean out the gutters in the spring and check your roof for signs of winter damage to prevent leaks. Following the suggested tips here can help prevent a stressful spring and allow more time for enjoying this beautiful season!
Happy Februrary and welcome to TFT! This is now my sixth year co-hosting this fabulous weekly link party for bloggers and blog readers with Katherine of Katherine’s Corner and a fantastic group of bloggers!
NOTE: The party time has changed to 9:00 a.m. MDT (11:00 EST. Read more
Touches of Spring Decor brighten can brighten our homes and spirits while waiting on spring’s arrival.
Welcome friends and welcome spring!!!! I am thrilled to invite you into our new home for the season!
If you’re new here or if you haven’t visited in while, you may not realize we sold the yellow brick home this past year and moved into another charming 1920’s red brick home in early fall! We actually purchased this home in fall of 2022 and spent the past year and a half working on renovations. While we STILL aren’t finished, and some rooms are far from fully decorated, I managed to pull together some of the living spaces in time for the holidays, and they are continuing to evolve as we move into spring. Even though we aren’t quite ready for that big full home tour before and after reveal post, I am happy to invite you in to see some spring peeks.
After having to take a break last year in preparation for moving, I am so happy to once again be joining my friend Marty of a Stroll through life and 23 other bloggers from the annual Spring Home Tour! If you are coming over from Pasha is Home or just happen to be stopping by for a visit, I am truly thrilled that you are here! I have soo much to share and catch up on! You will find links to all the fabulous tours at the end of this post. *This post contains affiliate links.
We’re going to skip my “messy-not-ready-for-spring-yet-porch” and hurry past the “not-quite-there-spring foyer” and head straight on into the cozy spring living room for today’s tour. Grab your favorite cuppa and enjoy!
Still Keeping Cozy in an Early Spring Living Room
When most people move from winter to spring decor, it often means switching out heavier fabrics and warmer colors with light and airy fabrics, and pastels hues, or bright, cheery pinks and yellows. However, I have just been enjoying the visual warmth and coziness of the rich, rusty tones of my floral pillow covers and velvet curtains so much since moving here, that I decided to make them work for early spring, especially since we can still experience cold weather or even snow all the way through April.
Because I consider green a neutral and a year-round color in my home, as well as pops of blue and white, I think it keeps those warmer colors from feeling overtly “fallish.” Garden-inspired accents are also staples of my year-round decor, and of course those always speak to spring.
A major decorating and life simplifying goal when we moved was to create a cozy, vintage-traditional aesthetic that would work year round with only minor seasonal changes. Rather than using a lot of mass produced seasonal decorations like I did years ago, I now prefer to use items I already have in new ways as the seasons change, then simply add in a few special holiday or seasonal pieces.
While I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on any new seasonal decor, I knew I needed just a few simple accents to pull a spring look together if I wanted to keep the warm orange tones.
I found some sweet little orange velvet carrots at Hobby Lobby which were a perfect accents since I am still using the rusty orange velvet curtains in the living room. I also found some beautiful and realistic, white real touch tulips or my spring styled tray. All of the other elements in the tray are favorite items I reuse over and over in different ways.
When we moved here, I downsized a ton of seasonal, store-bought decor, but this mossy bunny with a carrot was a keeper. He also helped with “spring-i-fying” the living room, along with the velvet carrots, and favorite coffee table books with gorgeous seasonal images on the covers. Claus Dalby’s new bookContainers In the Gardenis a stunner!
I will be sharing more about what’s on my March coffee table in a new monthly coffee table series starting this coming Monday.
Up until last week I was still on the fence about whether or not I should go ahead and switch out the burnt orange velvet curtains and the same pillow covers I had shared on my fall tour for different spring curtains and pillows. I was starting to stress about wanting to have a brand new look for this tour, but I just wasn’t ready to spend additional money or time on those items yet. Finding this adorable and inexpensive needlepoint tulip pillow was the final accent I needed to just follow my heart and keep enjoying the colors I already have and am loving right now.
Follow my heart I did, and it led me to remembering this sweet picture of my baby boy in a patch of identical orange-red tulips on his first Easter! He is no longer a baby, in fact he is currently 12 hours away in Hyde Park, New York at the world’s premiere culinary school, The Culinary Institue of America. Oh do I miss him more than words! I am so excited that we will be traveling to spend Easter there with him this year!
The day I took these photos was in fact very spring-like, with sunshine, warm temperatures, birds chirping and daffodils starting to bloom. With the sunshine pouring in and a few simple touches of spring decor, it felt like spring time indoors and out!
This is my favorite view from the loveseat, looking over to my beloved organ, a family heirloom that finally found a perfect spot in this home just a week or so before Christmas.
The organ was a gift from my grandfather, who was my first piano teacher. He purchased it for me when I was just four years old (it was already over 100 year old at the time.) I have had it in my possession for about 10 years now, and I always enjoy decorating it with a couple of nods to the season, just like my grandmother would do when it was in their home as I was growing up.
Even though I don’t have a dedicated music room in this house, it is an obvious a music teacher lives here!
Early Spring Living Room Mantel
We have two nearly identical mantels, one in the foyer and this one in the living room. Each one is decorated a little differently, but I am using blue and white pottery and brass on both mantels for a bit of visual flow and continuity between the rooms. The two ginger jars (similar here), center chinoiserie planter (similar here) and brass candle holders (similar here) are classic and elegant pieces I have chosen to be the foundational items on this mantel year round. I will simply change out flowers or add other seasonal touches.
Here is a peek of the foyer mantel and round table. I had just started the colorfultulip bouquetand hadn’t even really spaced them out yet, but I decided to keep it real and let you peek into the spring foyer to see what I am working on even though I didn’t get it all styled and photographed for today’s tour.
Here is a view from the foyer into the living room as the sun starts to set in the evening. I am excited to share more of the spring foyer in an upcoming tour post.
Back to the living room, I was loving this mantel but still felt like it needed either a wreath on the mirror or taller orchids to fill negative space and provide interest, so I went thrifting this past weekend to see what I could find.
I ended up scoring a preserved boxwood wreath for just $3 at an antique mall! I tied it on the arched mirror (similar here) with a daffodil-yellow velvet ribbon. It works for me!
A little green bottle filled with a trio of fresh daffodils picked from a patch I inherited here in my new garden adds an additional pop of spring cheer to the mantel.
I will keep some vintage St. Patrick’s Day postcards on display through the holiday, then switch them out for antique Easter postcards. I will probably add some additional little Easter touches such as pretty decoupaged eggs.
Battery operated candles are pretty much mandatory for me as far as creating a cozy, elegant ambiance no matter the season.
A Little Spring Preview of The New Kitchen-(STILL)-In Progress!
Here is a view looking into the kitchen from the living room. Again, I am still new working out the best time of day for lighting and angles when photographing all these new spaces, but I’ll figure it out eventually! What I am loving right now is seeing my new vintage thrifted mid-century barstools, just scored for just $15 each!
Well there’s a pretty long checklist of details to “finish” this brand new kitchen install ( a still-a-mystery-to-me backsplash, larger crown moulding, ceiling treatment, cabinet hardware, more cabinet details, painting the island??? window treatments and the list goes on) BUT I am embracing the beauty of what IS finished so far. I am going to do a couple of spring kitchen posts next week with more rooms shots and details about all the progress and seasonal decor.
Here’s what’s coming up soon:
More about our kitchen reno and decor, like my husband’s amazing faux finished copper range hood and my seasonal faux florals and spring vignettes…
More about my husband’s work including custom cabinetry and how I added sentimental beauty through his stunning oil paintings….
Spring and Easter styled trays and baskets, branches and blooms…
Cabinet hardware and cabinet feet will be installed next week. I can’t wait to share some before and afters!
Friends, theres a whole lot more yet to come in sharing how we are making this wonderful old house our home sweet home! Please do subscribe by email to see more and stop by for a visit anytime!
I hope you have enjoyed seeing our new home as it is so far with touches of spring decor! Now the tour continues over at The House on Silverado. If you missed any of the other fabulous homes on tour this week, you can check them out via the links below.
