Deck Progress- One Room Challenge

Hello! I am excited to show you the deck progress I am doing for the One Room Challenge. Here is the design plan if you missed it from last week. As a reminder, the lovely before!

That is how it looked last September. Not great, not terrible, just boring! And then winter hit and the carpet got a hole in it and the paint came off the railing (it was a particularly wet winter)

I don’t have a picture of the hole in the carpet (it was about a 9″ hole though), but trust me, it was bad. At this point, I wasn’t sure if we were going to replace it. But I knew the paint needed fixing, so one Saturday as the baby napped, I rushed to get painting. Guys, this part is embarrassing, but as I went to get the paint down, I was in a hurry and instead of using a step ladder, I just pulled the paint down off the high shelf it was on. I accidently knocked another can of paint down and it splattered all over the garage, my hair, and the cute outfit I was wearing

I don’t think this photo does the mess justice. It got all over the walls- paint splatters everywhere! And my hair! It looked like a bird pooped in it. I jumped in the shower right away, but I am still finding paint in my hair. So I took this as a DIY lesson to slow down and not skip steps. I mean, it would have taken me less than a minute to pull out the step stool and because I skipped that step I spent an hour cleaning up paint. So learn from me!

I then went to open my paint can (after hour scrubbing the garage, showering, trying to get the paint off my dress and shoes) and the paint was all dried out. I wanted to cry. I am sad to say that this story only gets worse…

The next day I was super careful. I laid down drop cloths, gathered all of my supplies, put on paint clothes, and even turned my socks inside out so that if I got paint on them I wouldn’t be sad. I painted during nap time the first coat of paint. After Don woke up, he was super cranky. We ate lunch together, but he was screaming by the end of it. I let him out of his high chair and let him play while I cleaned off his tray. All of the sudden I thought- where is he and why is it so quiet?!

You can kind of see the hole in the carpet to the left there. Not to mention the paint hand prints…

You guys I left the deck door open and the paint can on the floor not completely closed (parenting fail!). He dumped the WHOLE gallon of paint out and was splashing in it! My goodness, it was stressful! I didn’t want him to eat it and he was covered in paint so I didn’t want him to go in the house. I was scooping up the paint with my hands. It’s funny to me now, but not so much then! That was a BAD weekend for painting (my husband may have banned me from painting for a little bit- haha!)

I guess it goes without saying that we will now be replacing the carpet! I begged my husband to use wood for the deck, but he says because of the construction of the deck, wood won’t work. So carpet it is! 

He ripped out the carpet, and fun story, a bunch of the base wood was rotted! So my husband replaced those boards

And then replaced the board that covers those beautifully weathered boards! We haven’t put the carpet down yet because we have had a very rainy few days in Utah.

Meanwhile, the seats to our outdoor patio set were in a sad state! I always hated the coloring and now they were faded. So I decided to cover them with outdoor fabric I had on hand (you can get it here– at $9 a yard it is super affordable). I simply traced the seats and sewed them together with my trusty sewing machine.

The most painful part of this project was hand sewing the back closed. The rest of the project came together quickly and I am VERY happy with the turn out! P.s. I need an updated solution for that sad amber side table…

I have decided that planting some flowers was in order, so I grabbed some pansies from my grocery store for $12. Don was excited to help “plant” too!

The whole reason I am focusing so hard on the deck is because he LOVES to spend time out there. He likes watching the neighbors and playing with his toys. I believe in kids being outside, so this One Room Challenge is for him! I have a secret plan for a play area that I think he’ll love, so watch out for that!

So that is where we are at now!

• Railing is painted
• Flowers are planted
• Floor is prepped for carpet
• Chairs are recovered

Next up:

• Accent pillows
• Rug
• Lighting
• Installing the carpet
• My Secret Project (although it’s not so secret if you follow me on Pinterest– haha!)
• Figure out an update for that side table
• Some “art” for behind the chairs
• Accessories and fun details

Stay tuned! To see a behind the scenes photo everyday, follow me on Facebook (I’m At Home with Ashley there too)

If you missed out on last week’s design plan, you can check it out here

p.s. want a free course on how to style your accessories to look amazing?

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