Welcome to Throw Back Thursday, Friends! Today I’m going to share the spruce up we did in my Mother’s courtyard last year as a surprise for her birthday. Check out the before and afters!
In case you missed it, this is my Mother and Dad’s courtyard in the front of their lake house. My parents love sitting out here in the morning with their coffee. Last year my folks were so preoccupied with family matters they didn’t have time to plant flowers or pay much attention to this area. So, as a surprise for my Mother’s birthday, my siblings and I got together and whipped it into shape for Spring. This is how it looked after a long winter:
My parents already had the perfect space and furniture. We just wanted to add a few new things to freshen up the courtyard. The first thing we did was clear out the furniture. We hauled in ladders and used Christmas light hooks and attached them to the gutters. (I spray painted the white hooks brown to match their gutters beforehand.) Then we strung 4 sets of string lights back and forth across the courtyard. Luckily there is an outlet nearby to plug them in. We rearranged the existing furniture and here’s what we came up with!
We spruced up the planters by tying the arborvitaes together and added vinca and some flowers. The new placement of the planters and furniture adds symmetry and balance. New pillows and a few accessories finished the look.
My parents have a fire pit in the courtyard they use when it’s cold outside. But the rest of the year it wasn’t functional. So I bought a thick round piece of wood and painted it black and placed it over the fire pit bowl. Now the fire pit doubles as a table. Double duty! Now a lion statue and fern add some color and texture to the middle of the “room”.
The courtyard looks so pretty at night with the lights! I bought my parents one of these neat contraptions called an Outdoor Wireless Remote Control. They plugged the string lights into the device and now they can control the courtyard lights from inside the house with the touch of a button! How cool is that?
And the fountain on the back wall adds a soothing backdrop.
This was such a fun surprise for our Mother. Mission Accomplished! She loved it! The courtyard is right beside their front door, so everyone gets to see it when they visit. It gets lots of early morning sun and afternoon shade which is perfect. And you get a bird’s eye view of Mom’s gorgeous yard from every angle. So, I hope you are still enjoying it, Mother and Dad! We’ll visit soon!
Also, today is my baby boy’s birthday, so Happy Birthday, Nicholas! We love you SO much! xoxoxo
Thank you, friends for stopping by! Have a great day! xoxo Dell
