Patio Pimp
Hello! If you have arrived here from Around the Houses’ blog then you are on the #UKHomeBlogHop tour, hosted by the exceedingly talented and incredibly organised, Kimberly from Swoon Worthy Blog. I am proud to be one of 27 blogs taking part in this, the second ever UK home blog Hop tour.
There will be so much fun and inspiration to be found for everyone on these super blogs this week!
NB. A full list of the blogs taking part, can be found at the end of this post
Lazy Daisy Jones
My name is Ashley and I am the voice behind Lazy Daisy Jones, a creative lifestyle blog. I write about our colourful, home, my boho style and everything in between!
Patio Pimp
For this fun, UK home blog hop post, I decided to overhaul and tidy our patio and call it a patio Pimp! I chose to do it in a quirky style and put away our usual garden furniture. You can see what it normally looks like in this summer garden post from last week.
As a family love colour and enjoy rescuing and restoring old furniture. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will already know the story of our well-loved Ercol couch.
… the story of our well-loved Ercol Couch and Chair.
Our Ercol studio couch/day bed is a prepatent one i.e. from approx. 1951. We found it in an old Barn under a pile of rubbish and the owner parted with it for very little money due to the poor state it was in. The pale beech wood was stained black from water damage and the arms were cracked. Luckily my other half is a skilled restorer and he set about sanding, sealing and filling, he gave it lots of TLC, but unfortunately, it needed painting to cover up the water damage. So out came his professional spray guns and he gave it a mirror smooth coat of lacquer paint.
I then sourced and bought some vintage upholstery fabric that came from France and reupholstered and piped some cushions that fitted. We ordered some bespoke seating foam and I made a cover for that too, until finally a few years ago our Ercol couch became part of the family. Later we were given an Ercol chair and matching foot stool, this only needed clean covers. I sewed them myself from some Laura Ashley fabric.
One day I would like to have them professionally covered in the same fabric and keep them in the same room. Today they are proudly taking part in the patio pimp.
Cushions:
Those brightly coloured, embroidered cushions on the Ercol chair, are from Sweet Pea and Willow. Aren’t they fabulous? and I think they sit nicely with the neutrality of the grey fabric. Gotta love a rainbow pom-pom trim!
Garden Storage Box:
The most useful thing in our garden right now is that big plastic storage box. It may not be as pretty as the Ercol couch, but oh boy, it is so useful to store all the garden paraphernalia in, including all the cushions! It can also be used as a bench or a table. It came from Wayfair and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It even has a slow closing lid. Very useful if you have children, as there will be no trapped hands or fingers.
Yes I made those blankets….gotta love a crochet blanket for a candle lit chilled, summer evening !
Original Anglepoise lamps:
Both the Angelpoise lamps you can see here, the royal blue and the racing green, have been restored from rusty,neglected old lamps, to their original retro beauty by my other half. He takes them apart, sand blasts the bits, primes, fills and finally paints and rewires them.
Vintage Standard lamp and Shade:
The standard lamp was a £3.00 boot fair bargain in 2015. We restored and painted it in the same way. For my part I stripped off the fabric from the tatty old lamp shade and crocheted around the frame with some chunky tshirt yarn and a very large crochet hook! You can read more about the process here.
Coffee Table.
The coffee table was bought from Habitat in Brighton, in the mid 90’s. It has received some knocks and nibbles over the years, I used to have a large house bunny who liked to chew on the zigzag edges! Eight years ago it was revived with a thorough sanding down and sprayed to a high gloss, mirrored finish. We chose a neutral gold colour…
Bits and Pieces:
Green picture frame sprayed by you know who!
We use a piece of Astroturf as a fun garden rug, very soft underfoot and it stays in the garden all the time as it has drainage holes.
Small side table made by him too! All from scaffold bars and a scrap of wood. (I know how clever is he and how lucky am I?)
The stones and fossils on the tray on the coffee table were all collected on trips to our local beaches.
Old logs and branches make useful and decorative objects.
So there you have it! Of course, we don’t normally have this furniture in the garden, but if you are pimping your patio, it should be a little bit farfetched, right?
Tomorrow at 11am, the next part of the tour will begin with my clever friend Sue, From Old fashioned Susie Blog.
Here is the complete list of blogs taking part, but dont forget the posts will only be live from 11am on the specified date!
Monday, 29th May
Apartment No. 4
The Ordinary Lovely
French for Pineapple
Seasons in Colour
Tuesday, 30th May
Candy Pop
Around The Houses
Lazy Daisy Jones
Wednesday, 31st May
Old Fashioned Susie
Thursday, 1st June
Friday, 2nd June
Fresh Design Blog
Don’t Cramp My Style
UpTidy Life
Best wishes,