Operation "Loungify the Patio”

Last week I mentioned a that I've been working on our patio for a fun little project...

Those kind and helpful purveyors of all things home improvement, Home Depot, invited me (along with several other design bloggers) to style our outdoor spaces around one of their seating sets, and the final product is officially up today over on the Home Depot blog.

I chose that hunk of burnt orange loungey goodness above as my jumping off point for transforming our little back patio from "sadly neglected wasteland" to "lounge central". Out went the uncomfortable metal furniture that nobody ever sat on, and in went all sorts of furry/textured bits to up the cozy factor.

As a point of reference (and because before and after photos are fun), here is a snap of our patio from four-years ago in all its uncomfortable (dim, slightly dreary) metal furniture glory...

Re: this photo, it also should be noted that I searched for over an hour through all my past posts (over 1500 holy hell I've had this blog for a long time) to find this particular photo, so determined I was to show you some "before" action. And during that hour (who am I kidding, it was two hours), I teared up more than once (and not just because I couldn't find the damn photo). It was an emotional jaunt down memory lane courtesy of the old blog. Those girlies of mine...they're big. They're not babies anymore. (Case in point, that's Audrey up there looking so little and Millie-esque.) It's freaking me out. Melancholy city friends. 

But back to the patio (and sorry for the massive digression)... Pre-operation loungify, we never sat out there. Now, we're out there all. the. time. We are officially patio dwelling peeps. Morning coffee, evening G&Ts, plowing through a massive stack of magazines on Saturday morning, hanging with the girlies and Bryan, typing this post. I never want to leave the freaking patio. I'd sleep out there if I weren't too chicken to sleep outside.

It's good stuff.