Tag Archives: Outdoor Living Space

Embrace Your Outdoor Space!

Photo Credit: M&CO

You heard it here first, it’s summer here in Minnesota! That means it’s the ultimate opportunity to make use of your outdoor spaces. Plant an herb garden, set up the patio furniture and fire table, hang the café lights, and you’re set for a season of outdoor relaxation and fun!

In our home, we believe in being hospitable, not entertaining, so our goal is to create a warm, comforting space for guests, and to provide easy, tasty food and drinks. We want to avoid spending too much time cleaning, preparing and cooking (because we have two littles and don’t have the time anyways!), but we love to spend time with friends and family, and doing so outside is just perfect!

Here are a few of our favorite summertime, outdoor-friendly recipes. Add a couple of bags of tortilla chips and you’re all set for an afternoon, outdoor hang!

Cowboy Caviar by the New York Times

Two-Minute Avocado Dip by Pinch of Yum

Minted Lemonade by the Food Network

Caprese Salad by the Pioneer Woman

What are your favorite summer recipes? We’d love to hear! Email us at katya@ahomerevival.com

Guest Blogger: Katya Larsen, Stager, A Home Revival

Making Your Outdoor Space Valuable

Your outside space is so valuable, especially if you live in the northern regions, as our time outdoors is so limited. Whether you are selling or dwelling, that space is valuable. It’s valuable to you for your enjoyment whether it is a small quiet place to curl up with a book or a large space to gather with friends and family.

It is valuable if you are selling as buyers can see how the house extends outward. It isn’t technically square footage but you better bet a nice outdoor space brings value to a buyer emotionally. This applies to decks, patios, and front porches.

My number one advice: TREAT THE OUTDOOR SPACE LIKE YOU DO YOUR INDOOR SPACE

  • KEEP IT CLEAN: Pressure wash or do a good scrub down in the Spring. Paint or stain any chipped areas. Brush off any cobwebs and leaves regularly.

Clean patio

 

  • USE AN OUTDOOR RUG: Rugs add a sense of warmth just like in your living room. It also defines a conversation area and can add color and pattern. Make sure it is an outdoor rug that will resist fading and dry quickly after a rain shower.

 

outside

 

  • BEING OUTSIDE DOESN’T PRECLUDE USING TEXTURE: There are so many fun outdoor fabrics that are water and sun damage resistant. Add in throw pillows and even an outdoor poof so you can put your feet up!

Pouf

 

  • DON’T FORGET TO ACCESSORIZE: Just like any other room in your home, accessories add the style and pizzazz to a space. Weather safe candles, lanterns, and even lamps. Yes I have a weather safe table lamp and floor lamp on my patio that I never bring in until winter hits! It feels so much like a true living room.

 

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Your outdoor space is valuable for so many reasons. Take the time to make it stylish! It’s nature so mix an abundance of color, pattern and texture. Have fun and enjoy your outdoor space!

 

Outdoor Fireplace Tables are Hot! Hot! Hot!

 

Yes, that pun was intended.       Outdoor gas fireplace tables are all the rage and you see them everywhere.

It started out that you saw them on the patios of upscale restaurants. Then you saw them on the patios of most restaurants. Now you are seeing them on many residential patios.

They have become so popular that furniture stores are selling them adding competition for the fireplace stores. I think they have become so popular because they are an added extension to your outdoor living space.   For a lot of us our outdoor summer season is short and we want to be outside as much as possible. With the gas fireplace table, your outside season just got longer!

The wood burning fire pits are nice don’t get me wrong. They smell SO good! But they can be a pain. You need to have them on a  surface that won’t burn or scorch, you have to buy or cut the firewood and then you need to make sure the fire is completely out before you walk away and leave it.

A gas fireplace is a quick turn of a switch and you have instant beautiful flames and when you are ready for bed you turn the switch off.

They come in all kinds of shapes, sizes and price ranges.

I have to admit I got one a couple months ago. I really wasn’t sure if I would use it that much, especially in the heat of the summer, but I can honestly say it is my favorite area on my patio. Even on sunny warm summer evenings I have it on low for ambiance. When the cool nights move in this fall I will crank it up and I may even bundle up and sit around it on a nice winter day.

 

 

If you are drawn to the fire tables at restaurants and are thinking you have a spot to enjoy one, I wouldn’t hesitate if I were you!

Sit back and enjoy. I am….I am sitting on that chair right in front of you typing this blog post!