Lowes creative blogger - The Idea Room

Outdoor Deck Reveal

I am so excited to be able to finally share with you our newly updated Outdoor Deck. When I was given the March Lowes Creator challenge, I knew I would finally be able to finish off our outdoor deck just in time for Spring.

This has been one of those projects that takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to finish. We have wanted to update our back patio for a long time, but had always been one of the many projects that had to sit on the bottom of the to-do list.

When we first looked through this house when we were searching for a new home 11 years ago, the back porch was one of our very favorite things about this house. We have always enjoyed being outdoors as a family and we could see ourselves sitting on this porch for BBQ’s, summer evenings and for entertaining family and friends. Summer evenings in Utah are really pleasant and we were excited for how large this extra space was.

But, it has seen better days. The deck was covered in an outdoor carpet that was torn and worn out in several different areas. We knew it had some amazing potential and that it would just take some time and hard work to get it to where we were envisioning.

We were planning on doing the deck remodel ourselves. But as we looked closer at the overall deck and the construction of it, we became concerned that there was a bit of wood rot and we were worried about the overall safety of the 30 year old deck. So, we ended up hiring someone to rebuild the deck in August of 2011. And thank goodness we did, because there was a lot of structural damage and some of the main structure had almost completely rotted out. I will share a bit more of that process in an upcoming post.

About 7 years ago we bought some patio furniture on clearance at the end of the season and picked up this set for about $350 which is a great deal. I could only find these pictures of my little family eating pizza out on the deck about 4.5 years ago. Awww…I miss those babies!

But after 7 years and little kids, the cushions were pretty beat up. The cast iron furniture was still in great condition. I had looked into sewing me some new cushion covers, but the price of good fabric had me hesitating. Then, I saw that Lowe’s carries some awesome Outdoor Deck Furniture cushions and I knew it was the perfect solution. So I picked some up in this awesome neutral Linen color. I am in LOVE!! I love how it stands out next to our darker brick color.

Then I hit the flower section of Lowe’s and picked up some Spring flowers that love the cold weather since in Utah we can get a freeze all the way into May. I also picked up a couple of flower pots and some potting soil and gave the deck some needed Spring color with several potted flowers.

I also immediately fell in love with this cute white pot and made that a focal point on the patio table.

Some Lowe’s locations also carry some cute and trendy decorative pillows. I picked up the green pillow, and an orange one that I put on my front porch, from a Lowe’s while I tagged along on my husband’s business trip to Vegas this past weekend. We found them in the St. George, Utah Lowe’s Store.

This table and chair set is also from Lowe’s. I actually picked this one up last fall for a steal at the end of the season clearance sale with some leftover Lowe’s gift cards that I had saved up. We LOVE it too and have eaten dinner outside as a family several times already! The floor rug is also from Lowe’s.

I picked up the three wall clocks at my local thrift store last summer when I was shopping for the DIY Blogger house…and get this…the big one was $4 and the other two were $3 each. Pretty awesome right?

We painted the walls and trim to give it a fresh and clean look and filled in several large cracks that had never been filled in from when the original owners added the moldings. It makes a world of difference and makes our deck feel like another room in our home.

The table centerpiece box was made and shared in an earlier tutorial and I think it has now found its permanent spot.

And last, but not least, we built these simple shutters with some wood which I also picked up at Lowe’s. I am so happy with how they turned out and I think they were the perfect final addition. The brick wall look a bit barren and I love the crisp, fresh look and texture they provide. They were super easy to make and very inexpensive. I will share the tutorial in a later post….so be sure to stay tuned if you are interested.

So, I realize that this post contains a lot of different stages of work on our back deck. In summary, for this month’s Lowes Creator Challenge, we did the following:

Added updated Outdoor Furniture Seat Cushions

Painted Wall and Trim

Added Green Décor Pillow

Added Flower Pots and Flowers

Built Wood Window Shutters

Looking for more creative ideas for your home? S ign up for Lowe’s Creative Ideas Magazine. It actually has a lot of really great and creative ideas that you can and would want to do. Go ahead and check it out!

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*Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. Lowe’s provided me with a gift card to showcase a project this month as part of their Lowe’s Creative ideas Bloggers team. However all opinions and statements are mine.

$100 Lowe’s gift card Giveaway

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This Giveaway is now CLOSED!!

Last month, as one of Lowe’s Creative Bloggers, I shared with you this fun and creative PVC Sprinkler that I made for the kids to play in. We have enjoyed using several times this past month as a great way to entertain the kids and cool them off at the same time. Even the neighborhood kids have been able to join in the fun with us.

Later this week I am planning on sharing the tutorial with you for how we were able to make this so that you can make one too.

In the mean time, I am able to give one of you a $100 gift certificate for Lowes. That way one of you can pick up some supplies to make one for yourself with some money left over for other projects you may have around the house.

To enter simply leave a comment here telling us what you would use your $100 for. That is it. Straight and to the point!

And while you are at it, you could sign up for Lowe’s Creative Ideas Magazine. It actually has a lot of really great and creative ideas that someone would actually use. Go ahead and check it out!

Disclosure: Lowe’s provided me with a gift card to showcase this project this month as part of their Lowe’s Creative ideas Bloggers team. However all opinions and statements are mine. Giveaway will close on August 6, 2012 at 9:00 pm MT and a winner will be selected via Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to claim the gift card or a new winner will selected.

July 31, 2012 · Filed under: Giveaways Tagged with Lowes creative blogger

Lowe’s “curb appeal” challenge & giveaway

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This Giveaway is now CLOSED!!

This month, as one of Lowe’s Creative Bloggers, I was given the challenge of spicing up the “curb appeal” of my home. I was a little bit more excited about this challenge than I should have been.

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The front of my house needed some serious attention. It is not that I didn’t want to work on making it nicer…it just that it was a fairly big undertaking and we always had more pressing items on the to do list.

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The bushes in the front of our house and the sides of the front porch were overgrown and needed to be removed. In December, we had a huge windstorm with winds over 100 mph. The wind blew from the East and both of these bushes sustained permanent damage on the East sides. All the vegetation had been completely stripped from them. It was time for them to go for good.

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And those decorative trees? Well they both were also pretty badly beat up. One was completely broken in half…which is why it is leaning up on the brick wall. The potted plants? Well…both of those got blown right out of the pots. We had replanted them hoping they would survive…but as you can see…they didn’t fare too well. And…how do you manage to have a plant that is dead on one side and not the other? Ha!

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So this “curb appeal” was JUST the motivation I needed to get this area fancied up. We got to work ripping out the two main bushes and a couple of smaller ones as well. Then we bought some plants and flowers to add some much needed color and texture to the front of our home.

And…I FINALLY got the nerve up to paint my front door black! Can I get a holler? I have always LOVED black front doors. We bought some new door hardware from Lowe’s which made a huge difference in the overall look of the finished front porch area. I will be sure to share some things I learned and the products I used for painting the front door.

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We also picked up these nice chairs from Lowe’s so we can sit on our front porch at night and enjoy the nice Summer Evenings we get here. This is also where we come and enjoy a good summer afternoon rainstorm.

I am really happy with how the whole look of the front of my home has changed. It was quite a bit of work…but it really needed to be done. And guess what? Lowe’s want to help one of you update your curb appeal.

Want to win $100 in the form of a Lowe’s Gift Card? I thought you might! What do you have to do? Simply follow the directions below…

To Enter:

Leave a comment, on this post, telling me what “curb appeal” project you’d tackle with $100 from Lowe’s.

That’s it folks!! Can’t get any easier than that can it?

*This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and over only. Contest closes on Tuesday, June 5 at noon MST. Winner will be chosen via Random.org and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.