Dipped Effect Outdoor Bench and Front Patio Makeover

This post was brought to you in partnership with The Home Depot and ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape.

What DIY projects are top on your list this summer?  Ours have been revamping our outdoors!  I made a long to do list which I shared with you earlier and we have slowly but surely been making our way through it, plus just tackled out front patio this past weekend. 

I really wanted to bring the front space to life and add in a variety of colors which we’ve never really done before.  Anything DIY outdoors really frightens me, it’s just an area I’m not as brave in.  However we finally started working away and I’ve been really pleased with what we’ve been able to do!  I knew one of the easiest ways to bring in color would be to make over our bench that we’ve had sitting out front for the past two years.

I scored this bench at a garage sale for like $10 two years ago, the first year I sanded it down and painted it a neutral grey color.  I wanted to make it over again this time with some fun brighter colors.  Don’t you love how it turned out???

I love the dipped effect that I decided to do with it too.  I feel like it really stands out and is more of a feature in the space.  Here’s my run down of how I painted this bench.

Materials:
Bench
Drop cloth
Spray Paint Primer
Spray Paint (two colors of your choice)
ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape
Tin Foil (could also use saran wrap, or plastic bags, or just painter’s tape)

First I cleaned the bench off and let it fully dry.  Then I did a first coat of primer since it’ll be used outside and will help the paint really adhere to the surface.  When in doubt – I always prime.

Then I used quart paint cans to prop up the bench so I was able to paint the entire legs easily.   I spray painted the bottom of the bench with the color I wanted to be “dipped”.  I did two coats to ensure full coverage, including the lower support bars.  Typically a dipped effect isn’t as high up but because I wanted the effect to be able to be seen from the street, I went a little higher up.

Then I wrapped the lower part of the legs in tin foil to protect it while spraying the remainder of the bench.  I could have covered the entire lower leg parts with the ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape, but using tin foil let me save a lot of the tape!  The important part was to be sure to have clean cut lines for the edge of the two colors so I only wrapped the lower part in tin foil.  Then the support bars, and the upper part with ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape.

The big benefit of using ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape is I’m able to wrap it around the curved surfaces really easily, and while it’s protecting the already painted portion, I also know I’ll get clean paint lines with the two colors.  Next I just sprayed the remainder of the bench with my second color and let it try thirty minutes in between coats.

I paired it with this perfect cushion I found that pulled a lot of colors we were using in the front garden, and the accent color maroon from our front door.

Here’s a big ol’ sneak peek at our newly finished front patio space!!!! I have so much to share about all the changes and our DIY’s so stay tuned!

I’m so excited to be a part of this amazing with so many other inspirational painting projects!

Have fun checking out these great posts by my favorite fellow bloggers:

Centsational Girl - Textured Panel Dresser Makeover
Thrifty and Chic Framed Stencil Wall
The Design Confidential DIY Concrete Color Block Painted Tables
Sand & Sisal Faux Etched Glass
The Girl Creative Summer Chalkboard

Now here’s the extra exciting part for you!! GIVEAWAY TIME! The Home Depot wants to give one of my readers a $75 gift card to tackle their own DIY project that’s been inspired (hopefully) by me!

Entry is EASY! The first entry is easy to do – just leave a link to your favorite summer DIY or painting project in the comment section below for a chance to win the $75 Home Depot gift card and confirm by the Rafflecopter below!  Awesome giveaways like this make me sad I can’t enter my own giveaways hah!

Join the giveaway via the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can continue to get more inspiration for your DIY summer paint projects here:

The Home Depot's Facebook Page
The Home Depot Pinterest Page
ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape's Facebook Page
ScotchBlue™ Painter's Tape Pinterest Page
So be sure to follow them!

                  

This post was brought to you by ScotchBlue Painters Tape & Home Depot.  As always I only share products and companies I love and use myself. 

Family Pictures–Making memories last a lifetime

When is the last time you had a professional photographer take your family pictures?  If it’s been longer than a year, I strongly suggest you start planning on getting a session done soon!  I am quite lucky that my best friend since 6th grade is one of the most amazing photographers I know and she takes our family pictures whenever we get back to Minnesota for visits.  Her business is Ashley J Tyler Photography and she is an amazing lifestyle photographer.

She has done a handful of sessions for us over the years since Jackson was born, but over the past couple years we don’t get back to MN as frequently so our sessions have been cut down.  We did one session last August with her and this was one of my favorite shots from that session.  It was the last family shot we really have of just the three of us (actually little Makenzie is tucked away in my belly but you can’t really tell I’m pregnant even). 

Well we were able to get back up to Minnesota over Memorial weekend and did our first family of 4 photo shoot and I am just in love with all the pictures we got!! If you follow me on Facebook you’ve already seen a few handful of them but I wanted to share a few more with ya. 

Ashley asked me what kind of background setting I wanted for this session and we tend to go back and forth of our sessions between “nature” or “industrial”.  I knew our clothing was a little brighter in color and wanted a background that would enhance that too and she immediately knew this yellow wall would be perfect and I LOVE the punch of color it adds!

When I saw the pile of pallets I just had to have some pictures in front of them!  Too perfect for us!

I treasure these pictures, plus all the other sessions and pictures Ashley has been able to capture for us.  I’m also SO happy that modern photography has come light years from what “family pictures” used to be! 
I may be bias but I sure do think we’re one cute family!

Outdoor Spring Cleaning Made Easy

This discussion is brought to you by P&G and The Home Depot.

As you may know I really wanted to tackle our outdoors this spring.  I have a long to do list of project’s, upgrading, and cleaning.  But honestly, cleaning is my most HATED “chore” of the outdoors.  Cleaning indoors can be a lot of work, but what grows and builds up outside is just NASTY.  It’s a whole different world out there….mildew, grime, grass stains, mold, nastiness, etc etc etc.  Can you tell… I just love it out there. Hah!

Well, knowing I had all this to do, and given the opportunity to try out some outdoor cleaning products from P&G and The Home Depot for their #ReadyDoneClean campaign, I knew it was the perfect motivation to get this “to do” finished.
Here’s where I get really weird about these products with you guys.
I have loved a LOT of things I’ve tried and am so happy to share them with all my readers.  But this one… this is a new absolute personal favorite! Like NEVER leaving my cleaning products must-haves.   And here’s why -

First I knew I wanted to try and clean my son’s toys that are always left outdoors.  I never let him even play with them because they’re always covered in ickiness from being left outside.  Let’s just let the pictures do the talking quickly:

Yah. Do you see that sparkle?
No photo editing.  No sore arms. No sweat.  Literally all I did was spray the toys with the Mr. Clean Outdoor Pro spray and then sprayed with water.  No scrubbing. I’m NOT kidding.

I have this sever phobia of mold.  I think of them as little black dots of death. And the wood of his wagon was covered in it.  BLEH.  Now we all love Magic Erasers. They’re incredible for so many reasons around the house.  Well, now add outside the home too.
All I did was take one of the Outdoor Magic Erasers to the wood of his wagon and see for yourself:



Can you kind of see why I’m freaking out over these products?? They do an AMAZING job and all I did was spray on, and spray off with water.


Originally that’s where I was going to stop, but this was working so well I was intrigued to test it’s power.

Are you ready for me to seriously embarrass myself?
Parts of our outdoors have been neglected…like seriously neglected.  I’ve been wanting to schedule a power wash for our house but every weekend slips by me. 
So there’s one part of our house that is insanely dirty from grass/rain/ickiness.
Deep breath, this is cone of shame worthy embarrassing:


That’s bad right!?
Okay so to test the Mr. Clean Outdoor Pro all I did was spray the product on our siding, let it sit for a minute or so… and sprayed it with the jet setting from our hose.
And… this is what was left…

I was seriously impressed.
It’s not “perfect” but for not even scrubbing it’s an incredible solution that is so easy!Way to go Mr. Clean!

Want to try it all for yourself?  You can find these products at your local Home Depot… BUT you also have the chance to win this awesome bundle:

Mr. Clean Outdoor Pro Spray
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Outdoor Pro
Bounty Paper Towels
a $50 The Home Depot Gift Card

You can join the giveaway via the Rafflecopter entry below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Proctor & Gamble and The Home Depot provided me with these products for review, and provided me with the bundle of goodness to giveaway to a lucky reader!  As always, I only share products and companies I absolutely love myself!