Our Modern Global Patio Reveal – One Room Challenge Spring 2020

We made it! Wow-what a whirlwind it has been the past 8 weeks! This was my first time participating in the One Room Challenge and this project definitely ended up being way more time consuming than we naively estimated, so we ended up working a lot of late nights to finish on time, but now that we are done I can definitely say it was worth all the literal blood, sweat, and tears!

I want to start by saying a HUGE THANK YOU to all of our friends and family that made this project possible, by donating their time, tools, and supplies to help us finish on time! This was probably a lot more than we should have taken on in such a short timeline but, I witnessed so many daily miracles that made it all possible!

And a massive Thank You to my husband for willingly doing the photography for all my projects! If you are in need of a commercial photographer check out his website here.

If you’re unfamiliar with the One Room Challenge it is a bi-annual event that encourages entrants to focus on and finish one room and it also provides a wonderful community to cheer on one another as you work on your room.  On the ORC website, it states the mission statement of the event: “The One Room challenge™ will provide participants with a supportive, enthusiastic forum in which to share the process of transforming a room. The ORC is not a competition, but rather a celebration of creativity, inspiration, and original ideas. Welcome!”

I’m so grateful to Linda Weinstein, the ORC Team and Better Homes and Gardens for hosting this event.  It has been so fun to participate in and meet so many new creatives!

 

If you missed any of my weekly updates check them out here:

| Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 & 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 – You are here! |

 

Now, before we dive into the after pictures, here is a quick refresh of my plans for this space. For the patio, we wanted it to have a clean and modern base that we could mix in some elements of the global and modern styles that we love so much.

The exterior was not initially in the plans but when I had the opportunity to work with Valspar Paint I knew I had to add it in too! I love a neutral base that I can layer color, patterns, and textures on top of. For the exterior, I went with a classic black and white palette. The landscaping and garden will add the color to the exterior and the whitewashed bricks add the perfect visual texture.

Now as a reminder here is the side yard before.  The siding was a dated ugly beige and it was pretty much just the place where we tossed our garbage.  The trim was faded and warped and there was a garden bed that we haven’t been able to grow anything in since the stray neighborhood cats keep using it as a litterbox. Ugh!

Now brace yourselves for this After. I live here and it is still blowing me away!

Here is a GIF so you don’t have to keep scrolling back and forth. Like can you even? I’m so in love with it!

I’m describing this makeover as “Modern Global style” because of the mix of textures and culturally inspired pieces.  Modern Global style is a term for a mix of textures and styles from all around the globe.  It is similar to the Bohemian style but a bit more streamlined and minimal.  It uses neutral backgrounds to layer on pops of color, patterns, and textures with handsewn details to make the space feel special.  And of course, it wouldn’t be complete without lots of plants and natural materials.

We started by framing in the deck.  We figured this would only take a day. haha. This took most of the month of May.  Mind you, we were mostly just working on it on weekends but still.  You can read more about our process in my week 5 & 6 post. The other updates we made included painting the whole exterior of the house, painting the fence, and changing the gate part of the fence to a modern horizontal pattern.

The exterior painting was a huge project in itself so I will be doing another post in the future on that whole process but since it became part of our ORC project too here is another mind-blowing before and after shot of the front of the house.

Our House before:

And now AFTER! The Body of the house is painted in Valspar ‘Ultra White’ and the trim and fence are Valspar ‘Dark Kettle Black’. I Grout washed the brick which you can read more about in my week 7 post.

Working with Valspar paint on the exterior was a dream! I have used their interior paint before and loved it, so it was no surprise that their exterior paint also met my standards.  It covered flawlessly and only needed 2 coats-even on the metal gutters and old wooden trim boards!  I seriously can’t stop raving about the quality of this paint! I used the Valspar Duramax Exterior Paint, it goes on thick and is made to create an impervious bond that won’t peel, crack or split, even in extreme temperatures.  We seem to get nothing but extreme weather in Canada so I have confidence in this paint to hold up for years to come!

Now the exterior is so classic but modern-like it was meant to be this way from the start. I am so proud of this home of ours! She is a shining star on the block now. 🙂 And that horizontal fence is everything! It only took about an hour to flip the boards around but it made such a huge difference.

As you come in the newly rebuilt and repainted gate, the first spot you come to on the deck is the kid’s zone I created for our girls to relax and play.  I took their old IKEA drawing easel -(that was broken anyway) and I cut off the legs and then just mounted it on the fence with a basket of chalk nearby.  I put this area right out the back door so I can watch them if they are playing there and I am in the kitchen.

They are thoroughly obsessed with this spot!

Across from the girls’ space is the railing I made to cover up the gas and power meters.  There is also a small window well down there so for safety we figured we would just block it all off so no one falls in.  The horizontal balusters on the railing add the perfect modern touch.

I also painted our backdoor the same color as our front door which is ‘Valspar Deep Green Sea’.  Below the door, I added a doormat-another basic IKEA rug that I added some colorful touches to.

Next to the railing, I created a sitting area with the wicker loveseat I found on Kijiji for $50.  It was such a great find!

On the loveseat, I incorporated a blanket from Mexico and some other handwoven textiles for warmth and texture.  We got a weatherproof cover for it so at the end of the day we just tuck all the pillows and textiles on the couch and put the cover over so they all stay dry.

Next to the sofa is this IKEA chair that my husband keeps trying to throw out. haha. A neighbor left it on the curb for the garbage truck last year and I scooped it up knowing I’d have a place for it someday. All that modern style for the price of free! Sometimes my decor hoarding pays off.

Above the couch, there was some damaged siding from an old satellite dish that the previous owners left, and we hadn’t removed yet.  After caulking and painting, it was still a bit of an eyesore so I figured this was a perfect spot for an outdoor art moment.

I have always loved African wall baskets as decor, but I haven’t been able to find any at a price I can afford so I made a trip to Goodwill and took some old easter baskets and painted them to make my own version.  I used leftover paint from other projects in our house. I wanted this outdoor space to be an extension of the style in our home so it only made sense to incorporate these colors outside as well since they were already present inside of our home.

Here is what they looked like before.

A little paint and they were brand new. I hung them up with command strips.

The rug below the couch is the basic IKEA rug that everyone probably has.  It is from a few years ago and I think it was only $15.  Here is a similar one. It was sitting in our empty guest room so I decided to be resourceful and use it here instead of buying something new.  I added some patterns similar to mudcloth fabric to it by putting on some painters tape and using a foam brush to stamp on some lines and dots.

The Barbeque fits perfectly next to our sitting area so it is the perfect spot to “grill and chill” – as my husband put it.

Now to the dining space.  Once the deck was in place we added the pergola.  I knew I wanted a modern slated pergola but when I looked into buying 1×2’s for the slats the price was way out of budget.  Luckily we had lots of 2×6’s leftover from the deck so we borrowed a table saw from a friend and cut our own slats.

That pergola was in my plans from the beginning but it almost didn’t happen due to our tight timeline.  My husband was away several weeks for work and I was exhausted from solo parenting and trying to work on the deck so we were just really behind on our project.  Luckily my mother is an angel who lives to serve and she came out several days to help cut slats on the table saw, watch my kids, and help me nail on and stain all the slats! Mother of the year award goes to her!

This side of the house is south facing so it gets pretty intense sun most of the day.  The slats on the pergola provide the perfect shady spot to relax and make it feel so cozy and intimate for dining outdoors, and the patio lights add the perfect ambiance.

The chairs were one of the few things I actually bought new.  I got them from Superstore for $22 each! (One of our Canadian grocery stores.)  I made the table using this tutorial from the ‘Awesome Orange Blog’ and just used some more of the leftover wood from our deck.  My husband keeps joking that it is made of garbage since it was just leftover junky 2×6’s but I’m pretty darn proud of it! I painted the base white and then sealed the natural wood on top to add some lighter wood tones to the dining area.

I couldn’t resist styling up the table.  The peonies from our front yard bloomed the day before so I cut a few for a table bouquet.

After the photo shoot, my husband and I popped open the sparkling juice and celebrated finally being done with this project!

It is so magical at night too, with the tree swing and firepit area nearby, I just can’t wait to host our first family gathering here!

We are so in love with our new patio! I can’t believe how much living space it has added to our home.  It’s really like having a whole other room in our home.

Thank you for following along on this project! It means so much to me to have so many cheering me on!

Now go check out all the other AMAZING rooms on the ORC BLOG PAGE!!

All Photography by Brock Kryton Photography.