Go Ahead, Put Your Feet Up…

Seriously, we got recliners for the backyard. And they rock.Remember our plan to acquire seating for 10-12 people that could be spread out over the entire backyard space, but also come together to form a complete dining set (you can read more about that in this post)? Well, we found the last two pieces of the puzzle! Let me introduce you:Yes, it’s another Ikea piece and goes with our ever-growing Applaro Set (see the bench here and the table here). Some time ago, my mom and I took a trip to Ikea (how is it that what should be an hour long visit turns into three hours?!) and I had every intention of bringing home our last two chairs- but I was originally aiming for the singular version of our white bench. Thankfully, my mom pointed out the possibility of having something that reclined a bit (our space is too small for a chaise lounge) and after some thought, I decided to go for the recliners.

The only problem? They didn’t come in white like our table and bench. I took home two of the natural wood to see what they looked like, fully expecting to return them in the disappointment that they didn’t fit in with our white table. HOWEVER, you’ll remember our $5 yard sale bench… do you remember what color/finish that was? Boom, also natural wood:

I figured that I would bring the recliners home and set everything up (white table and bench, black chairs, and natural wood bench and new recliners) together to see if there was any chance of so many different colors and finishes actually working together. Although I had my doubts, when I got everything set up I was pleasantly shocked at how much I liked LOVED the combination.

As much as I love things that go together and are uniform, I really liked the differences in tone and colors when everything was put together. It creates a cohesive (there is at least one repeat of each color and the slatted pattern is carried through most of the pieces, even though they come from different product lines and stores!), but layered and “collected over time” vibe. Which could be because it was, most definitely, collected over time. I like that the grouping is not obviously from one specific generic set, but has a little here little there feel to it. Oh, and add those teal cushions and my heart soars…

Here’s a close-up of how each of those textures, colors, and patterns play against one another:

The coolest part about all of this is that bringing these chairs home and setting them up for a test run helped us to decide what to do with our $5 yard sale bench. We had previously debated painting it white, painting it blue, or painting part and leaving part natural wood, but seeing how everything ties so nicely together now that we have our wooden reclining chairs, the verdict is in on the bench: it stays natural wood! Of course, now I’ll have to seal it for outdoor use (you can expect the how-to on that), but it’s nice to have come to a decision and to have reached the end of our seat-searching journey.

As for that backyard/patio to-do list, here is how she’s looking to date!

• Find and purchase bench See it here.
• Purchase table with lots of potential seating See it here.
• Find and purchase seating for at least 10-12 people  See it here and here.
• Purchase a grill
• Purchase an umbrella
• Build a mini-patio under the bench See it here.
• DIY solution for hiding the air conditioner and misc. garden supplies See it here.
• Weed and plant new flowers in garden bed See it here.
• Edge garden bed  See it here.
• Weed brick patio
• Figure out a way to better camouflage Christmas lights
• DIY a birdhouse and hang
•  Figure out how to plant a mini veggie/herb garden See it here.
• Decide on plants to fill hanging baskets and empty pots
• DIY or purchase accent pillows for seating

Whew, home stretch, baby! Oh, and happy day- we’ll be crossing at least one more of those items off the list later this week (so stay tuned!). Progress feels good. 🙂 I think that all of these changes will warrant another updated video tour of the backyard. If you’re interested in what it looked like before, click here to see that post or you can just grab some popcorn and watch the video here:

Looks a bit different now, eh? Consider me smitten. So what’s going on in your backyard? Any seat-hunting adventures you’d like to share? I’d love to hear. 🙂

-Leslie