Courtyard Seating Area

By Kate Riley April 29, 2013

Happy Monday friends, come on and take a tour of a recent spruced up seating area in our courtyard! I mentioned before that we’re hosting a party to benefit my kids’ public school next month and that fact has prompted me to fancy it up a bit more out here. One of the spaces in need of some upgrades was the seating area, so I added a new rug, some outdoor pillows, and built a coffee table for the conversation zone.

mosaic tile outdoor table

 

We still have an old sofa and chair I bought at an antique fair five years ago. I made the cushions with Dacron wrapped foam and Sunbrella fabric way back then. I wish I had more details to share about them, but I don’t recall the source of the foam, it was an online one from the east coast and I sewed the cushions before I started blogging so no pictures! The Sunbrella fabric is Dupione in Maize, it’s five years old and still looking really great!

outdoor seating area

 

I made some new pillow covers in bright patterns that include yellows, greens, and various shades of blue. These outdoor fabrics are all from Fabric.com, from left to right:  Belize botanical $9/yard; Kiwi Splash $9/yard; Dandelion $9/yard. I sewed all of them the same way I stitched up these envelope outdoor pillow covers last year.

outdoor pillows on sofa

 

The little white drum table is from World Market, found last week on sale for $51 but regularly $59. The rug is made of recycled plastic and rinses off with a hose. I bought it a few months ago on Joss & Main, it’s the Thom Felicia Ackerman rug and reverses to blue on white. You can find it on sale here.

courtyard seating and vines

 

It’s such a great spot to kick off shoes at the end of the day and enjoy a beverage, or to hang out with friends. I love that it’s filled with happy colors and a variety of fun patterns too. Gold lantern and teal Ikat pillow from Target, green tray from World Market.

courtyard seating

 

The new mosaic tile coffee table was a DIY project. I searched high and low for the perfect narrow version and I never found quite what I was looking for so I designed and built a custom one instead.

diy outdoor coffee table

I’ll post the step by step later this week!

o

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31 comments

  1. This is just gorgeous. Looks like a great place to relax and maybe curl up with a good book!

    I could not get the link to the Thom Felicia rug to work :(

    • Thanks Sandy! I fixed the link, it’s full price elsewhere but at Sears it’s on sale.
      Kate

  2. Love all you have done and looking forward to learning how you did the perfect size table. Pillows are great!

  3. I absolutely think this looks lovely and I’m looking to make our outdoor space livable & lovely too. My question is this: how do you keep this clean (we have wind and dust everywhere) and dry (rain happens)? My space is open with no chance of roofing it in and it’s already too crowded to set up a gazebo.

    • Hi Teresa, I hose it off about once a month and the guy who we pay to mow the lawn comes in with a blower to eliminate most of the debris there from falling leaves or other things.
      Kate

  4. I love the coffee table! It’s gorgeous!! Although it’s a bit busy for my eyes placed on top of the small scale patterned rug (at least from the pictures). But still, the whole thing looks great. Good luck with your benefit party!

  5. Love this space! I’m trying to sew some cushion covers but not quite as easy as I thought. Yours look great!

  6. I love what you have done here. The colours are so bright and the area so inviting, I could spend hours relaxing on that sofa!

  7. Kate…I think this is just perfection. I adore blue and the way you’ve put this together is fresh and fun. Thanks for sharing a bit of your home with us! ~Ann

  8. That’s beautiful and I love the colors and fabrics. I just picked up that same white garden stool last week too! I was just thinking that I needed to replace my cushions on our outdoor furniture but now I realize I can re-cover them instead. Thanks for the inspiration and great ideas!

  9. So gorgeoud Kate! I’m checking out that rug – just the thing I need for our deck! Thanks for the inspiration! Heather

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