First of all, on Thursday, it’s our 5 year anniversary in our home – yay! *throws confetti* – and in that time, we have done a ton of work on our back garden. The weather here in the North West makes things a little difficult, of course, because it’s quite rainy and even in the summer, there’s no guarantee of sunshine. So when we know we’re going to have a good week weather-wise, we try to take advantage of those and spend some time outdoors.

Now, April was actually decent in terms of sunshineΒ but the month of May has been pretty rubbish – a bit cold and rainy and not particularly the kind of conditions you want to spend a lot of time outdoors in. Even as I write this post, we’ve had rain all dayΒ andΒ it’s blowing a gale out there – boooo! However, they are promising warmer temperatures and sunshine by the end of the week so that will be my cue to start getting some work done outside.

If you have been following me for a while, you know we still had plans for our decking outside last summer. We extended the deck and stained it but I really wanted some better furniture out there so we could actually sit and have dinner outside when the weather (finally) warms up. It was also in the plans to rethink the colour scheme a bit.

This is what it looked like towards the end of last year… and aside from removing the (no longer working) solar lights and putting the old furniture back on it, we haven’t done much else. Yes, it all looks a bit sad in this picture, I realise!

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Well, we’ve made a small start on getting the outside together. As you may know, I’ve worked with the lovely HomebaseΒ in the past (see our Garden on a Roll review here and here and our Bonfire Night here) and I was thrilled they agreed to working with me again on this project to give our back garden a bit of love! As you probably know, we do a lot of DIY and spend a LOT of time in Homebase so of course, I’m really happy to be collaborating with them again!

They’ve graciously supplied us with some furniture for the outdoors and are helping me to bring a little greenery by way of potted plants to the outside too (which I still need to get!). So while we need to add facia to the front of the deck and replace the steps (they were supposed to be temporary!), it’s a pretty good start to finally getting a ‘grown up’ garden look that I would love out here

This is the set I chose – the Ramini 4 Seater dining set. Simple, clean lines, comfortable and small enough to fit on our decking and nice neutrals that can be used no matter what my colour scheme. (On a side note, I always think if you are unsure about your colour scheme no matter what your room, your base furniture should be in go-with-anything neutrals and then you can always layer colour afterwards.)

Rimini 4 seater set from Homebase

One other thing that we’d done already is that we replaced our teeny tiny shed with something a little bigger and more practical for our needs – a 6ft x 6ft model rather than the paltry 5ft x 3ft number we had before!

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Wayne put it up in early AprilΒ (we were desperate for storage!) but as yet, it’s still unpainted (so no, it won’t be staying luminous orange). I absolutely adore Kristin from The Hunted Interior’s black shed so at the moment, I’m considering painting it black with white trim.

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Apologies about how horrid everything looks in my pictures by the way – the winters here are a bit hardcore rain-and-misery-wise so it needs to be cleaned up and pretty-fied again! And of course, this pic was taken in early April before when the trees were still bare and the garden wasΒ still hibernating!Β Everything is looking rather greener now!

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Also if you are wondering about that horrible scaffolding, the building behind us is pretty much never inhabited. Not sure who the owners are but they put that scaffolding up on the other side of our brick wall and have left it there for over a year (!!). I lodged a complaint with the council (we don’t know the owners as I said, there’s never anyone in there) so please keep your fingers crossed we can get that resolved soon so I don’t have to keep looking at it ;)

Anyway!Β Homebase is also providing a little bistro set for the back of the garden next to the shed too. The little chairs we’d had originally sadly started to fall apart (we did have them for 3+ years and I bought them used from eBay!).Β Β At the moment, we just have some orange folding chairs that match the orange table (not especially pretty) – but I’m doing away with all the orange out here so they’ll justΒ be going into the shed for extra seating when required. So, thanks to my lovely sponsors, we chose this set to take it’s place – the Amalfi Mosaic Bistro Set. I love the mosaic table top and how simple it would be to dress it up.

Almalfi Mosaic Bistro Garden Set from Homebase

I’m kind of dithering on the colour scheme for the projectΒ – I really want it to be punchy black and white and then combine it with some accent colours but the selection for outdoor fabrics here in the UK isn’t fabulous and so I’m really limited in terms of what I can use that will be able to withstand the British weather!

I did impulsively purchase a couple of theseΒ cushions from H&M so I’m thinking these may actually be my jumping off point for the colours… what do you think?

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And I’m considering this rug as well – although I haven’t purchased it yet so whether I get it or not remains to be seen! It’s all up in the air at this point because I can’t make up my mind what I want! Ack!

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Or should I go for a more boho vibe? I also fell quite hard for my girl Shavonda’s from SG Style’s boho garden reveal over on Home DepotΒ (seriously, it’s so fab) and it’s pulling me to go for softer, more organic colours and textures.Β 

Shavonda garden

Of course, this is a wonderful covered porch and well, there is no cover at all (or walls) on our own patio so not sure if it will translate that well… gah. I’m so torn, can you tell?

If I do go for a more boho look out here, I’m thinking perhaps this rug (which would tie in nicely to the creamy cushions of the dining table and chairs…

Joss & Main Rug

And maybe a few nice textural cushions and a large cotton throw (that would need to be brought indoors when it rains of course):

Joss and Main Cushions and throw

Of course, no matter what I do, it’s gotta have a little bit of ‘glam’ in there for me and normally, that means touches of gold. I’m thinking of picking up these lovely hanging baskets from Rose & Grey

rose and grey hanging pots

I recently picked up this fab tray from H&M as well…

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And I’ll probably be spraying some of my existing planters in gold as well! I just can’t help myself…

Anyway, I’m hoping to get to Homebase really soon if the weather gets better to start choosing some plants and planters and to make some decisions in terms of the direction I want to go here! We haven’t even been able to unbox all the furniture due to the weather so keep your fingers crossed this rain lets up so that I can share some of our progress very soon! I can’t wait to turn this neglected-for-the-last-6-months space looking much nicer!

What do you think of the selections so far? And which do you prefer? Punchy brights or comfy boho?

 

Disclaimer: Homebase have provided the garden furniture and will be supplying plants and planters for our makeover free of charge for my review but of course, as always, all words and opinions are my very own. I only work with companies I really like and think you’ll like too! Thanks for supporting the businesses that support Swoon Worthy.

 

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