Pallet wood outdoor sofa reveal

This post is a 2 parter.

For one, Sherry at Young House Love is having a Pinterest Party on Tuesday. She challenged us to actually MAKE something from all that pinning going on. YES.

By Shrimp Salad Circus

Ever since I saw this photo on Pinterest, I knew these wooden buttons had to be mine one day. Thanks Lindsey!

And today was the perfect day to try this cool method out!

I cut down two sizes of branches and found out pretty quick that bigger was better this round.

I used the compound miter saw to make the quick chops.

Two twines and no sewing later...

Cute! The perfect woodsy touch! 

So what does this cute pillow sit on anyway?

I wanted to chime these adorable woodsy buttons with...

... why, just an ol' outdoor pallet wood sofa of course!

A combination of 2x4's, 3x3's, and all sorts of random found pallet boards were used for the entire project, rating the wood  free. I LOVE free. And the challenge to make it all work.

It's totally comfy as all get out, sturdy as a rock and large enough for the two of us. Which was the REAL reason for making it.

I've already spent a few evenings out there reading my book with my coffee. Perfect for those hot summer nights. Gotta love arms that accommodate a coffee...

A mix of warm whites along with a painter's cloth keep it light and bright for summer yet not too fussy. 

My first intention had been to create an old gate look for the back, but the random boards were a rather quirky twist I was taken to mid stream... so I left them.

Equally quirky arms keep you from yawning. :) 

Ah... my little visitor means the photo shoot was taking too long.

Well, come on in then, dog!

The aftermath of a long ongoing project are numbered stickers that end up where they don't really belong.... nice upside down 6 ya got there, Jenna. :)

And then... "Mom, can I sit down yet?!?"

I think we'll call this one a wrap. And a success! We all love this thing!

Part 2 - How I built it is HERE.

More of my pallet wood projects (there are LOTS) can be found HERE.

And find out if your pallet wood is safe HERE.

This project has inspired this fab bench at A Cherry Blossom Kind of Life. Wow.

And yet another! B and B's Nest

Pretty and practical poolside pallets

I needed salt today. Bad.

"You can buy the chips ya know."

"I can?!? I just had them yesterday!"

"Yeah, that's ok. If we were at the beach, you'd get them. So we may as well put this summer on the map. Get the chips."

We were at the corner store we visited yesterday. My truck came with some bad news. The transmi$$ion fried. So looks like summer will be at home this round.

The place that will be doing the work can't take me till next Tuesday so I had to drive Rent-a-Wreck home. I was able to get up to 20 mph,  revving at 2nd gear top notch. The cure? My boy handing me ketchup chips all the way home. It took the tailgaters and curious looks off my mind as we drove home like I was 110 yrs old with the flashers going. Sa-weet.

So once home, we walked to the library, kicking a little green apple all the way there (it's actually rather fun), loaded up on loaner videos and a ton of books, went home, and I continued my new mystery project, PLUS jazzed up the pool area abit. May as well bond with the joint. We'll be around. :)

Ah, right. POOL. Wanna see?

What can I say. The pallet was too heavy to get rid of so I put it to work so it could earn it's keep.

Gotta love all those pool noodles all in one place.

Weird galvanized somethings were bent to hold poolside toys in place and off the sidewalk. It works!

Simple screws hold the water guns in place just fine.

A book I took out that I have to read in 7 days... HAHAHA. Trust me, that's hilarious. I'll no doubt be bringing it back without a word read. Looks nice for the photo shoot though.

Not sure I'm loving this new low resolution I'm using on these photos. I think I need to up it some... I dunno. What do you think?

Aaaand, we needed a nice place to hang towels.

So my old barn gate came back outside for the season once again.

I dolled it up abit with a plastic plant pot, wire hanging basket and real hydrangea cuttings. I LOVE these flowers. They make such an incredible impact with so few and they really do last quite long. I'm going to attempt to dry these after they've had their day.

Know what? We are going to have a GREAT summer! We've already carved out a few new routines we really enjoy. Nightly walks (kicking that little green apple), evening coffee and slushie on our front bench encouraging neighbourhood conversation, a little DIY while the boy reads, sleeping in, going to bed late... we are enjoying ourselves!

But I need to do something tangible to pay for that blasted truck. So I plan to fire up some real writing and get busy with selling some real stuff.  Was this truck breakdown part of a bigger plan? What's He up to now... :)

Click to visit features at:

From dirt to a pallet wood walkway in the garden

We had the most fantastic past weekend weather wise! Which meant it was a great gardening day to continue on the massive front yard project.

So... what did we all do?

Ripped it out

Lotsa ripping out was to be had by all. Miss S helped by wheeling burnt out shrubs to a neighbouring burn pile.

Cut it up

In order to create a new shape for the flowerbeds, a half moon edger, a generous neighbour Rudy and sons Lucas and Kenny, plus their trailer did the trick!

Cutting new shapes is pretty easy if you break it down.

How to edge

1. lay out a garden hose to your desired shape

2. cut in small sections, much like cutting a sheet cake

3. dig it up!

The scraps went to another generous' neighbour's place. She needed clean landfill. Perfect! Thanks Francis!

turf tip: turn freshly cut turf upside down in any compost or area you desire more fill. It will eventually turn right back to soil again.

Here you can spot a glimpse of the curvy shapes we created. And then we shuffled a few plants around. 

This is going to be one amazing before and after transformation.

Design theory: curved edges are more pleasing to the eye outdoors because nature has no straight lines.

And then we...

Top soiled it

No messin' around here. We ordered up 4 yards for a truck to deliver. 

I squealed when I saw the truck backing in! On the menu was a top soil mixed with a mulch and feed so your plants will be healthy and happy all summer long. Dark and delicious!

 Better than diamonds, girls! Better than diamonds.

I'm clearly low maintenance...

Ok, well, maybe not to my hard working neighbours...

Beautiful blank canvases...

... to be had at every turn, just begging for some artful additions.

You'll see what I did with this space at the bottom of this post.

EVERYTHING got topped up, including the backyard garden.

Thanks so much Rudy, Lucas, Kenny, Cody and Sento!

And then I...

Pruned it

Nice hat, tree. 

Lots and lots of pruning on all kinds of trees and shrubs.

While my preference is more of the shaggy willow type look for this unique tree, it grows so fast and out of control it's better to give it a good clean hack to start, then let it soften up naturally again.

The funnest part is coming right up, because I also got down to true blue DIY business and 

Created

I couldn't wait! I had to make something cool. These reclaimed boards were sitting around that were collected some time ago. They were nearly thrown out during the big purge!

It pays to be a packrat. :)

A level pathway was dug lower than the driveway, then the boards were placed.

Yes! It's a pathway from driveway to the sitting bench in the yard. Cool, huh?

I was always jumping over the soil to get to the yard so the removal of a buncha plants made this little pathway possible.

The boards are just sitting loose as I want them easy to lift for carefree weeding. The weight of walking on them appears to embed them just enough to hold them in place.

I started adding some rocks to work with the elevation of the sides. Perfect spot for mini rock garden plants I'm thinking...

Even my son came around the corner and stated, "Mom! You have the best ideas ever! You're such a cool mom!"

I think I was too stunned to say anything back! (he generally doesn't like my junk)

Yes, we are having way too much fun. :)

Hey... remember I mentioned having a Dream Yard Challenge link party?

(I challenged you to make at least one dream feature for your yard this summer to get you outdoors!)

I think I'll save this final reveal for then. Perhaps sometime in August??? Make sure you're ready and clickin' those pics on those nice slightly overcast picture perfect days. :)

What cool little feature do you have in your own garden that you love?

All yard 2011 posts to date.

Is your pallet wood safe?