An Outdoor Living Room

If you're 1 of the 2 people who follow this blog, you'll remember a few posts back that I was sitting in our wicker garden chairs inherited from the previous tenant when --CRAAAACK!-- in the middle of chatting leisurely with my friend Daniel, the back leg suddenly collapsed, sending me tumbling into the bushes, trapped underneath a mess of broken wicker. Daniel, kind soul that he is, insisted on snapping a photo and posting it on Facebook before helping me get out of the bushes. Thanks, Daniel.

The timing worked out great, because with Memorial Day Weekend upon us, most furniture stores are at the peak of their outdoor furniture sales. We didn't want to spend a lot to replace the chairs because we're not sure how long we'll actually have a garden, but at the same time we do spend some warm evenings hanging out back reading magazines, sipping wine, and watching the cats go buck wild, so I wanted to make sure we found some comfortable, non-middle-aged-cat-lady-like replacements.

Contrary to popular belief, our owner is not a cat lady.

We found a great deal at one of my favorite bargain stores here, Cost Plus World Market, which is sort of like a cooler Pier 1 with better prices and awesome snacks like old-fashioned soft eating licorice* and dried mangosteens.  We scored a great deal on a 4 piece set for only $200!

*As opposed to modern throwing licorice, of course. For the record, licorice is delicious.

Our new outdoor seating is made out of solid, plantation-grown acacia wood, so in order to protect it from all the outdoor elements I set to sealing this with some all-natural water protectant.

I took an old, soft rag and painstakingly rubbed the oil into the wood. Let it set for 10 minutes.

Wax on, wax off.

Oily sheen on the acacia wood.

Let it set in for 10 minutes, then wipe off the excess oil.

Voila! We have a waterproof outdoor living room!

Now to work on those flower beds. My brown thumb hasn't changed much.