Since we have bought our house, I love entertaining. We have family over quite often but being that our house is small, it gets crowded REALLY easily. Therefore, I have a dream; I want to create a hang out spot in our side yard with plenty of seating.

This is what I am working with

I am not sure how long that deck has been there and the trash? Sadly, that has been spread out over the back yard for over six months. I took the first step with this project, cleaning up the backyard last weekend. Hopefully this weekend we will complete the next step: ripping up the deck.

I have some pictures on Pinterest that are serving as my inspiration. Here is a peek:


This is the very first picture I found when searching for inspiration. I love how cozy it looks with the lights and the mix matching chairs but still looks uniformed. I think I also saw a similar yard with a dart board on the wall which I would love to add to our side yard as well. I also love how the stone is in the ground and I look forward to creating that with our side yard instead of a deck. The only thing I want different is a larger table. Something like this:

Source?

I love how informal the table is and how much room it has. Our "dining" space in the house is tiny. We have a four seated round breakfast table. If we had a large farmhouse table like the one pictured above, I could host many more dinners with family and friends.

We started progress in our master bedroom shortly after moving in. My inspiration came from the Katy Magazine. I was flipping through it before we moved into the house and found this picture.

Remember on this post, I said I was going to try gold leaf on this frame?

Well I did. Kinda. I used Liquid Leaf in gold because that's all I could find at the time. I am not sure if it is the same thing as Gold Leaf since this is my first time using any kind of Leaf. I bought mine at Wal Mart, it was more than I though it would be but than again I was originally planning the Gold Leaf. It was almost five dollars for this little bottle.

The bottle is 0.75 fl. oz.

This project took less than five minutes to complete however I let the frame dry overnight.

I first gathered all my supplies and unassembled (is that a word?) the frame. My supplies were the frame, the liquid leaf, a paint opener (to open the frame), a small paint brush and a board to lay the frame on while I paint it. I would suggest a type of mask because liquid leaf has a very strong smell similar to spray paint and I painted while indoors since it was during the night.


I only had to apply one coat because the liquid comes out pretty thick even with applying small dabs at a time. I think with the frame being painted a type of gold before also helped having to use one coat.

And here is the finished product

For the most part, it looks the same. The biggest difference is there is now a shine to it. The previous paint job looked really dull so I am satisfied with this quick and easy makeover. I am anxious to try out liquid leaf on other things now!

Is there a difference between liquid leaf and regular gold leaf? Are you a fan of liquid leaf? What projects have you completed using liquid leaf?


I am sharing this post at nancherrow, Remodelaholic, Serenity Now, A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, and Made in a Day.