October is as close to heaven as you can get in my corner of Louisiana. The blazing heat of summer has abated, the weather has cooled, and I decide I’m going to make it, after all. We just started pulling together a project that has been in the works for a long time,redoing and enclosing our patio. We still intend to put down a tile floor, put glass doors across the opening, and paint the ceilings ng
All the furniture you see here is an amalgamation of Goodwill, thrift shop, repurposed, and utilization of materials on hand except for a few dollars worth of supplies. Bud is wonderful and loves a project, so all I have to do is come up with an idea he likes and we’re on it. The big wicker rocker to the left cost $50 at Goodwill a couple of years ago with a broken rocker. It retailed for $650, but with wood and paint Bud had on hand, he repaired and painted it. The rocker on the left upper center was a relative’s castoff, and was spray painted for less than $2.00. The yellow wicker on the right cost $20 in a thrift shop, paint $2.00 for cost of $22. One sister gave me the green chair frame, and I covered it in fabric another sister gave me. The only thing it cost was the seat cushion, and paint on hand, so it cost less than $10.
Now the ceramic top table took $6.24 in new tile and utilized leftover tile from another project. We had the grout and ceramic glue on hand. Bud also had to buy the screen-door stripping for less than $10. He did have to buy half a sheet of plywood to make the table surface. He built the pedestal for another table more than twenty-five years ago, so this is it’s second incarnation. He estimates total costs of table, $80 to $100 if he had had to purchase all the materials today.
The chairs at the table are from a thrift shop. Total cost, including purchase price of chairs, paint and pine for the seats and the polyurethane finish was less than $40 a chair. Together the table and chair set might have cost $120, but we still have paint and polyurethane left.
A dear friend built the potting stand in the corner from a decrepit screen door and salvaged materials from a barn demo and materials she had on hand. I love it.
The fountain came from a friend and has been on my patio more than twenty-five years. Best of all is the view I am so grateful for, as I sit in my patio writing. It is priceless and free, like all the best things. I am so blessed.
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