An outside area as cool as the autumn air

So, summer is almost over, and I can honestly say, “Good!” I have never been a big fan primarily due to oppressive heat/ humidity, mosquitoes and a moderate aversion to swimming or other water'related activities. I am, however, a huge fan of being outdoors, and it’s just nearly impossible to enjoy that when it feels like you are sitting in an E-Z Bake Oven.

Though it may seem a bit late for an article on an outdoor room, I feel it is the perfect time. Grilling, sitting by the fire or watching the big game, fall is the best time to be out of doors. Spring is a close second. We recently had the chance to create an outdoor space, and we could not be happier with the results.

Waynette Ballengee is one of those clients that interior folks, like myself, love to hear from. She is fun, stylish and will tell you straight up whether she likes something or not. I love that!

Waynette wanted to update her outdoor area to make it more cohesive, and we pounced on the opportunity to help her. We had worked for her daughter, Jordan, in Houston and apparently had impressed her enough to also work at her home in Southern Trace.

She had already selected some very nice poolside lounge chairs from Reggie Grider at Corner Collection. We helped her pick a really cool navy/bone pattern for them, and just like that, our palette was born. The outdoor room we started on next is a vast space with an amazing vaulted wood ceiling. But, the area looked sad with a lot of dark bronzes and browns. Folks, I cannot emphasize enough how dead oil-rubbed bronze and brown are. They are out.

We found the coolest outdoor chair I have ever seen in a navy/teal/white Sunbrella fabric. It was definitely a throne worthy of our client, and we built the rest of the room around it. We found some extraordinarily affordable chairs and sofa set at S.E. Salvage on Mansfield Road, some navy seat cushions and pillows from Lowe’s. Next, we popped over to Paul Michael’s in Monroe for a banded bronze-colored coffee table, which I spray-painted stark white (we also painted the chandelier from S.E. Salvage) and a couple of acrylic ghost chairs in navy. We then stopped by this little store in Monroe, which is like a poor man’s Big Lots. But, occasionally, this dive will provide some pretty awesome finds. This is where our gorgeous outdoor rug came from. It’s perfect! Throw in some vintage green elephant side tables picked at an estate sale, a very funky cool painting of dueling egrets from Kings Antiques and other accessories and voila!

Waynette now has a gorgeous outdoor space for entertaining, reading, watching TV or doing absolutely nothing.