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Swag & Chainlink

OUR 2nd HOUSE

This post title sounds like either a.  an indie rock band or 2.  a hipster tatoo shop located in the art district or d.  a brand of herbal tea.  What are you drinking?  Oh just a piping hot cup of swag and chainlink with a dash of honey.  It’s devine.  (just so everyone knows…for some odd reason, whenever I am drinking hot tea, I always describe it as devine.  except it comes out deeeeeeviiiiiine with a British accent.  be warned.  it’s very annoying.)

I don’t know how I got off subject….ohrightI’mpregnant…but let’s get back to it.  Swag and chainlink.  This will all make sense soon. 

Remember our outdoor patio area?  It’s this one below our deck… 

Well…that red plaid rug isn’t an outdoor rug.  It had to go.  It was getting bleached out by the sun and it was starting to smell from the mildew.  I wasn’t too heartbroken since it only cost me a couple bones at the Goodwill and I was just using it as a placeholder rug anyway.  But I did google the heck out of outdoor rugs. 

I scoured craigslist for a deal.  I bookmarked my favorite styles on all my favorite rug shops.  I checked every rug in every store in a twenty mile radius.  No dice.  I was getting a little frustrated.  Then it happened.  SALE TIME.  I  love end of the season sales.  But even with the sales, getting a rug that was at least 6’x8′ for under $100 (that was my predetermined budget for the rug) was proving difficult.  Then I saw this bin at the local Lowe’s…

The only problem was that they only had one 5×7 chainlink rug in the bin and I would need two to make it big enough.  So I went hunting in the store.  I don’t know why but I was convinced that there was two.  I call it my SSS…shopping sixth sense 🙂  Mine is highly developed after years of development, weight training exercises and tactical experimentation.  Finally I saw it.  The awol rug.  It was already opened but still rolled up…hanging out in the corner with the bird feeders.     

And now my two rugs are on the patio.  I love them.  Because they don’t have a border, we were able to just butt them up next to one another.  Yes, I was very excited to use the word butt 🙂  Immaturity at it’s finest.

The seam isn’t perfect but I don’t care.  I actually like having two smaller rugs…so if something spills, it is more manageable to move.  Afterall – Jer is only home a couple waking hours every day so muscle is a novelty around here.   

So our chainlink rug was in place.  love it.  bam.

Next up…mood lighting.  Here’s the swag people….

Prior to our patio changes, we had one string of lights stapled up.  One.  It didn’t go all the way around the deck.  Just stopped right there above Jer’s head.  They were up for my sister’s wedding and we never took them down.  oh and they weren’t ours.  The string of lights actually belonged to my mom. 

These are some of the only pics I could find with the old lights.  Will was stomping poppers.  That’s a treat (and workout) around these parts.

About two years ago I found a clearance section at Lowe’s with umbrella lights.  They were marked down from around ten bucks per package to $2 a package.  So I bought eight.  I figured that we could use them eventually somewhere.  They have been in a plastic christmas storage bin since that time.  Then we bought this house and I remembered that we had all those outdoor lights.

We planned out how much swag each needed to do the whole deck and clipped them all together.  Jeremy used a staple gun to attach each string to the underside of the deck.  It was funny because we didn’t want to staple while the electricity was still running through it.  So Jer was on the ladder holding the string till I approved.  Then I unplugged it.  He stapled.  I plugged back in.  And then we did it all over again and nobody died.  In hindsight, cuphooks would have been less stressful 🙂  I love the round bulbs. 

The ambience is awesome at dusk and later.  And I figure if we ever get tired of the swag look, we can always pop out the strings and staples and do a more tailored straight look.  Right now I am digging the swaggy look. 

 So pretty cute, right?!  Dare I say it….deeeeeeviiiiiine? 

p.s.  The folks over at the baby guessing game website decided to post an interview of us…and give some details on what you can win if you guess the little baby’s info/due date/blood type correctly.  Ok ok…not blood type.  but you get the idea.   Click here to go over there and read how perfectly boring we really are 🙂

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Comments

  1. Love these lights! I used some for our wedding this August and am just waiting for the time when we don’t live in a basement-level apartment to pull them out of storage and use them again. But I had to pay full price for the strands at Tarjay–you got a smokin’ deal from Lowe’s!

  2. Katie, you guys are far from boring! We love reading your blog and we’re excited to host the baby pool for Baby Bower #2!

    Meanwhile, I have to admit that Daniel and I were up pretty late last night after you posted the link to your pool. You had so many predictions so quickly, we realized we might be flooding some inboxes with e-mail notifications. (The pools are set up to send an email notification to all participants when there is a new prediction or new guess. You can turn it off, but most people don’t. Sorry, we’re used to pools with about 10 predictions – not 100+) We caught the probably quickly so hopefully there weren’t too many flooded inboxes! Anyway, we got the system tweaked now, but if anyone has any issues, please let me know.

    And congrats on successfully creating the most popular baby pool on our site to-date! The pool for our baby was tops for a while, but you trumped it about 2 hours. I’m expecting one of your readers to guess the birthday and time down to the minute!

    Good luck and we all look forward to “meeting” Baby Bower II.

  3. Love, love, love the lights! I’ve been wanting to do something like that, but our patio is barely covered (just the edges), so I think it’s not going to happen. It really looks great (and cements in my mind that I really want to do that someday!)

  4. Love the new rug and lights! (FYI. Only 2 of the pictures are showing up on the google reader feed, not sure whats up with that. stupid google). Anyway its nice to pop over to the full site once in a while anyhow. 🙂

  5. Um, can I come hang out with you on that awesome patio, Katie?! Seriously, beautiful. The big pairing of rugs brings a nice indoor touch to the outdoors 🙂

  8. No problem with the inbox…I was able to delete them all pretty easily and check out the comments on your site instead 🙂 And I think it would be awesome if someone predicted it down to the minute….I think I’d have to send them some bacon for that 🙂
    xo – kb

  11. LOOOOOOOVE. I’ve always wondered how to make a concrete pad that’s beneath a deck cozy, instead of dark and kind of neglected….. and WOW! This space is so fabulous! I just can’t believe what you’ve done with it. You really have an eye for design, scale, and the best part….a bargain! Love this Katie. Thanks for sharing 🙂

  12. Love the lights and the rug!

    I have a completely off topic question for you… With #3 on the way we’re in need a of new vehicle with a 3rd row. You guys have and Armada right? How do you like it? You’re the only person I “know” that has one!

  14. I’m so jealous of your rug-finding abilities!! I’ve been looking at every website, furniture store, and GoodWill to find a rug that I find fitting for my room and have had no luck thus far. Your rug is perfect!! And I love the lights – perfect for the holidays and they provide a really cozy ambiance. Also, I could play with those poppers that Will is having a blast with ALL DAY. I guess you could say I’m pretty much a kid at heart myself. 🙂

  16. Hi! I know this is slightly off-topic, but I was wondering how that outdoor furniture sets holds up (and how much rain they get)? I’m really tempted to get something similar, but can’t quite fathom the cushions being out all the time but not getting yucky?

  18. Is it weird that my favorite part of this post is that it starts with a list labeled: a. 2. d.??

    🙂

  21. Looks absolutely gorgeous, Katie! This post has motivated me to start thinking about how to spruce up my patio. A table and chairs alone does not a patio make.

  22. I have that exact rug! I put it indoors, in our sunroom. I love it! It’s held up nicely to a rowdy toddler and potty training two foster dogs. I hope you love yours too!

  23. So, so cute!! You’ve really made that patio area homey, and I LOVE how it is turning out 🙂

  24. I have that rug in my entryway! It is perfect & I am so happy to see you found two! I got it for $78 on sale so good for you for saving even more money. Lowes is the best!

  26. Your outdoor patio area is so adorable! I’m officially jealous…..

    We have ambitious plans to eventually turn our deck into a screened-in porch, but that’s pretty low on our to-do list at the moment. For now, I’ll just have to be happy with drooling over your patio and daydreaming about mosquito free outdoor dinners!

  27. Love the swaggy lights! It looks like such an awesome place to chill on a summer/fall evening with friends.

  29. I feel so cool right now, because I just bought two of those exact rugs a few weeks ago and butted them up against each other to make one larger rug in my living room! Is it weird that having the same rugs as you gives me a crazy sense of pride? I will warn you, though, our rugs are in our living room, and even after just a few weeks I am noticing that our little doggies’ paws are pulling the threads up like crazy! …but you should probably be fine with less furry traffic!

  31. Love the rugs and the lights. I actually saw the same rug at the Lowes by us. I had it in my cart and put it back. Two days later I went back and the two they had were gone. Why oh why did I put it back. It was such a good buy!

  32. Katie, thanks for the heads up on this rug. When I saw your post I immediately went to look for it on lowes web site. I mean, 49$ is practially free. But they didn’t have it online. So I sent my husband and email an said “go find me this rug”. He went to the Lowes by his work at lunch and SCORE, he found them!!!! I can’t wait till he gets home so I can see them : )

  33. Love the rug. I swoon over anything geometric. And those lights have swagger like Mick Jagger. We used them for our outdoor wedding too. Obviously, I really really like what you’ve done with your patio!

  37. Holy crap on cracker! That is gorgeous. I wish I could do something like that. Random question: do you do anything to keep the bugs away when you’re enjoying time out there? In the AZ, even though the only time of day it’s not a bazillion degrees is at night, I can’t enjoy it when I’m constantly being dive-bombed by moths. It would break my heart to have lights that pretty and not be able to experience them.

  39. Wow what a cozy little spot. And I’m super jealous that you can coninue using your patio space now. I’m in Chicago where it’s getting colder and rainier and the patio has been neglected lately 🙁

  40. Love the lights! I want to do something around my patio and am thinking the same lights… just gotta figure out where to hang them all from (it’s a large, open concrete patio with nothing around it). I want it at least 6 1/2 feet from the ground (so people can walk under it) but that makes me think of something permanent and then all I see in my head is dollar signs… so I wait. And wait. I wish I had it like you so a few staples would do. I’m jealous!

  44. Katie, your patio is soooo dreamy! I’m obsessed with those lights. I tried to make them work in our backyard and it was an epic failure. So jealous of your swag! 🙂

  49. We have one of those bug zappers…my Pappap gave it to us and we plug it in whenever we go out at night but in general, we don’t have a ton of bugs under the deck…in the yard it’s a different story 🙂
    xo – kb

  51. Our cushions have been accidentally left outside in the rain…but they drain out pretty easy and the covers still look good. I probably wouldn’t leave them out for good but in general, I am thrilled with these.
    xo – kb

  52. We love it. Sure, the tank is huge and gas is expensive with big vehicles…but I absolutely love the sensors for kids safety in front and back, the backup monitors, the keyless start, the full laydown of all the seats (we can fit a mattress in the back!) so yes…we love it.
    xo – kb

  54. I love the Home Alone reference! My sisters and I watched that movie countless times as kids and always list things that way.

  56. Gasp! I love your patio with those lights. I am moving out there, bringing my record player and staring up at the lights while playing some Mumford & Sons. Or blatantly copy it for my patio. Either way, love it 🙂

  58. first off, I always love a good Home Alone reference. 🙂

    Everything looks so great!
    Here in Nebraska I’m already preparing for colder weather by putting away my patio stuff. Just a general question, how cold does it get in Georgia over the winter? Will you have to put all of that furniture away in storage?

  59. We might get one to two snows if we are lucky. Last year we didn’t get any. We do get frost here so we will probably leave the furniture out and take all the cushions in. I’m not really sure if Jeremy agrees 🙂
    xo – kb

  60. I love the way you write Katie, it’s just how I talk! You are too cute! And your patio area is lovely, well done. xx From Australia. xx

  63. Hi Katie!
    I have the same rug under my kitchen table and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. Just wanted to let you know, do NOT use a regular upright vacuum on it. If you do, you will have threads start to pull out and it look awful. My mom told me what was causing it and after I started using my handheld Orek vacuum on it I had no problems. Just thought you’d like to know.

  66. LOVE IT! Such little changes with big effect! BTW I think the plant (pic 3rd from the bottom) peed when it saw the finished product! 😉

  69. I love the new rug and the umbrella lights. We’re building a new house and are going to have a covered patio out back so I’m storing away ideas for our new space and yours will definitely be on my inspiration board. One question though – where are your lights plugged in and what, if anything, did you do to hide the cord running down from the porch?

  70. great lighting can transform a space in such a magical way! great job katie (and boyfriend), love the rug too! its deeeeeviiiiinnnne <3

  71. Loooove the lights! I have a teeny tiny back patio (like 6′ x 7′, cause I’m in the city) but I might try and do this and swing them through some trees.

  73. wow, it really looks great under there! Normally under deck spaces are like spider zoos, but I’d actually want to hang out in that area! Good job!

  74. I love the lights and new rug. I did the same thing this morning: putting togheter two no edges rugs in my bedrrom. They work like a charm!

  75. What kind of bulbs are in your drapey lights? I tried to create the same look in our porch, but I could only string three sets of lights together unless they were the LED type, which look more stark and fluorescent-y than I would like. Did you stick to the 3-string maximum, or do you have them plugged in multiple places? Very pretty!

  78. We live down the road from you in Grayson, GA and have a similar deck situation. A couple of years ago we installed an under-roof system and I LOVE IT!! Under the deck fells like a whole new living space. No more drips. I think we paid a bunch for it, but I think they now sell similar systems at Home Depot and Lowes. You shoul check it out.

  80. I think we did four together because of the layout of where we could run the extension cords. And I have no idea bout the bulbs…whatever came in the strings?
    xo – kb

  81. This is my first time coming to your blog and I have to say… it’s deeevvviiiiiiiineeee 🙂 No but really, super cute ideas. I really like those lights with the wood – looks really classy.

  85. Katie-

    I love your patio! I work for a wholesale building supply company in NC, and when I saw your wonderful space, I thought of a new underdecking product we were shown. (http://qualityedge.com/about/underdecking) It is manufactured by one of our suppliers, and I’ve only seen samples, but it looks like a great product. My boss is planning to put it underneath his deck at the beach to provide a great outdoor living space for rainy days at the coast. The thing I like most about the product is that you don’t have to sacrifice the look of wood underneath the deck, which is one of my favorite features of your patio.

    Just a thought! I hope this doesn’t come across as a sales pitch! I think it may be something people would be genuinely interested in. Thanks again for all of your great posts!

    Paige

  87. i am literally swooning. i’m so envious of this space, my heart is actually aching. ack!! i love it. it looks so cozy and inviting and beautiful!! nice work 🙂

  89. i love love your outdoor space! the rugs are awesome and love your globe string lights too – we bought some this summer as well 🙂

    xo julesinflats.com

  90. Did you use anything to keep the 2 rugs together and from moving around? I found a 3 x 5 I LOVE but it’s too small and the next size up is 5 x 8 so I’m thinking I will do the same thing. The problem is it’s going under my dining table so when the chairs move the rugs will move 🙁

  91. Nope…just have them on concrete pad so they probably won’t slip too much. The bottoms of these also have that non-slip backing.
    xo – kb

  92. Hi !
    Love the chunky console table. Where did you guys buy it from?
    I have been looking for one that I like for a while now.
    Thanks !

  94. AHHH!!! This looks amazing! We are in contract on our first home and it has a similar under the deck patio that I wasn’t sure what I could do to make cozy. This is so gorgeous! Do you have anything to prevent rain/water from above or is everything just outdoor friendly?

    So glad my friend sent me over here! Your blog is gonna be great for this design-challenged gal! 🙂

  97. I knnow these pictures are from last year but I absolutely love your porch and I am so jealous! Any idea where you got the side double-selved table at next to your rug? I love that table. I’m looking for something similar in my entry way

  99. I’m starting to spark an interest in furniture and home decor in general and I was just wondering if your furniture was water resistant? What do you do about the carpet or the seat cushions when it rains or weather conditions get harsh?

  100. We just pull them in and put them up in storage. The furniture itself is water resistant for our southern conditions.
    xo – kb

  101. We’re installing a patio under our deck and I spotted your post…love everything about it! What type of bushes are in the bottom pic?

  103. The more important thing is that you have your own tennis court. Seriously what I would give to have that!

  105. Great rugs idea! Thinking of doing same thing and hoping to find ones with no border. I just wanted to say that I got a good few out loud giggles reading your post. Thanks for that! I especially love the I’m pregnant comment! Ha! I’m still using that excuse even though the baby is 15months old!! Lovely seating are well done!

  106. Those lights are fantastic – they are definitely one of the easiest things you can do to add a massive wow factor! I just need someone to help me put them up because I am far too accident-prone to do this myself!

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