$50 deck pick-me-up!
Posted by: TammyMy husband and I had some nice plans for our deck this summer. Having fully funded the emergency fund, we had decided to save a bit of money and buy new chairs, fire pit and other things for our deck. We had a great deck built almost 9 years ago, but with a growing family and the financial demands of that family, we never really did all we wanted with it. Well, our old van finally reached the point of no return and we ended up finding a gently used van and paying cash for it. We are debt free except for the house and want to keep it that way.
So, with the emergency fund a bit low, we put the deck do-over on the back burner.
I was NOT enjoying our deck. The plastic chairs were covered in mildew and nothing beckoned me out there to enjoy it. I desperately wanted a place for us to go and sit and relax. I wanted a place to sit with my computer or a book and enjoy the cool evening air and listen to the birds, crickets and other sounds of nature that we have here. It also wasn’t a great place to entertain although there was space for entertaining. It didn’t beckon anyone out there.
So, this morning I was whining to my forum friends about how empty the deck looked after we took off the old picnic table and how I wanted to BUY stuff for it so badly. Then I had an epiphany! I started thinking about all those TV makeover shows and designing on the cheap shows. The Sunday morning landscaping shows all came back to me in a rush! I was going to clean, scrub and re-purpose a bunch of stuff and make my deck the escape I craved!!!!!
My first step: I took a diluted solution of bleach and water and a short, stiff bristled brush on a long handle and scrubbed down the decking. I let it sit for about 15 minutes and then rinsed it off thoroughly.
Next: How to clean the black mildew spots off of the plastic chairs? A Magic Eraser worked wonders but it also took off serious color! I opted for a gentle paste of baking soda and water and a bit of elbow grease. It took me about 30 minutes to scrub off the black mildew. Here is a before picture of the chairs.
Once the chairs were cleaned and in the sun drying, I began to walk around through the house and yard with an eye towards using anything and everything to create focal points for the deck. We had a tree come down in a windstorm a few weeks ago. My husband had cut it up for firewood and the boys have had fun removing the bark from the logs and taking the logs for “chairs” into their fort. Well, once the bark is off the logs, the wood is kind of pretty! I grabbed a few of the denuded logs and put them on the deck.
Then I spotted the steel base to our old chiminea (it had crumbled after a few winters). I don’t know why I kept it but it made me wonder how I could reuse it. I put it up on the deck with the other items I was acquiring. I figured I’d put all of the stuff I thought I could use up with the chairs and once I had acquired all I could, I’d get to work.
I wanted a fire. Okay, well, I wanted fire light. I started thinking the chiminea base with a patio stone placed on top might make a safe, solid base on which I could place various candles. I started rounding up a collection of old jelly jars and empty Yankee candles jars I had. Then I braved two garter snakes and a bunch of BIG, REALLY BIG spiders to retrieve a patio tile from the pile given to us when our old neighbors moved. REALLY BIG SPIDER!!!!! EEKS!!!!
We had a pretty pair of sunflower tables we had been given as wedding presents many years ago. They were also covered in black mildew and they were growing lichens on them! I took a baking soda paste to those as well! They still have a distressed look to them but being that the “distressed” look is in, I’m all set! 
I have some nice rail planters. They needed to be emptied and new, good soil put in. That was just time consuming but no biggy. What I was going to lack was flowers for them. I also had a deck planter that was one of those plastic, terra cotta colored types that had gone way too many winters. It was cracking on the edge and looking beyond sad. I wasn’t sure I’d use it at all.
I also found a nice, gold colored galvanized bucket in the garage. My husband was using it to wash the cars. I had another purpose for it! He has plenty of plastic buckets. The metal one was mine! WOOHOO!!!
So, then I started pulling it together. First, I put the chairs into a pleasing circle on the upper deck. I then positioned the au natural logs between them along with the distressed sunflower tables. I took a stiff scrub brush to the patio tile and place the square tile on top of the round chiminea base. I arranged my candle and jar collection on top of the patio tile. You can see one of the logs in the background. You can put your feet up on them or set a drink on them.
During the process of scrubbing, hunting down items and battling woman eating spiders, I decided to buy flowers. I set my budget at $100 for anything (including flowers) that I might buy for this project. As I drove to the greenhouse, I decided to revise my budget and go for $50. Honestly, I haven’t bought flowers in ages, choosing to spend our money on food type plantings vs ornamental plantings so I had no clue as to how much they would be, but I figured I’d make do.
Once at the greenhouse, I figured out that I’d get more bang for my buck going for younger, smaller plants vs larger, more established plants. That said, I decided to split the difference opting to buy one, larger more established plant for each planter to give myself some instant size and then I’d intermingle smaller plants in as well. I also spotted some totally fantastic romaine and loose leaf lettuces in reds and freckles of red and green! My desire to spend money on edibles vs ornamentals made me think that I could intermingle the tall red romaines in with the flowers for color! I ended up spending my $50 budget on a mix of beautifully colored lettuces and young (cheaper) flowers and a few older (more expensive) flowers.
Here is one of the planters. Note the tall red and green romaines in the back. There is also a smaller, loose leaf type lettuce in the front in a green with red freckles.
Once the boys got home, they were eager to help! We decided to ‘dress up’ the ugly, cracked pot with a wrap of bark the boys had taken off the logs. I would have loved to use jute twine but the boys had recently used up my supply making their fort. LOL! I settled on the white cord, but my husband said he had some copper wire in the garage that would look better so we’ll end up using that and taking off the cord soon. But, here is how it looks. Kind of funky and natural looking! Note the edibles landscaping in the pot again!
Okay, well, this next planter was Ben’s idea! He’s my middle son. He managed to get the bark off of one log in one complete piece! He asked if we could use it as a planter. Well, I had a small terra cotta pot that sat in the top of the bark beautifully! We filled it with a lettuce mix and it looks great!
Here is the car wash bucket turned planter! The gerber daisy was one of the more expensive plants but it will get bigger and taller and bloom all summer and I planted some of the freckled lettuce along with some thyme. The thyme is out of my seedlings and will eventually flow over the edge of the bucket (and I can harvest it for cooking).
Here is the cleaned and distressed sunflower tables:
Here is the finished product!
So, here I sit, typing this blog entry on my $50 do-over deck and loving every minute of it!!! I’m watching my hummingbirds chase each other and enjoy the feeder. There is a nesting pair of fly catchers flitting around and chasing bugs in the col evening air. A woodpecker is beating the bugs out of a dead branch in the big white oak in the back. How that nuthatch can hang upside down and move up and down the tree is beyond me. The crickets are chirping merrily along.
THIS is the way I always envisioned myself enjoying my deck. That I found this much pleasure for $50 and some elbow grease and creativity makes me enjoy it all the more.
May 17th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Awesome job, my friend! Now if only I could be up there enjoying it with you……..
Maybe with a chocolate pie or 2……
May 18th, 2010 at 9:08 am
This is a very inspiring post.
Especially the candles vs. firepit!!
Thanks for “Advertising” Frugally.
I was starting to fall for “Advertising” of overpriced, everybody needs stuff.
Great
:glee
May 18th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Thank you!!!!!
May 18th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
You will be one of these days! It can’t be with chocolate pies. I have to find you a more typical New England treat! Something you can’t find in TN that way you’ll crave it and want to come back here for more!
June 9th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
nice !!