Outdoors

Host A Beautiful Vintage Garden Party: A Mood Board of Ideas for Decorations

The garden is the perfect place to host your vintage party – whether it is for a birthday party or a tea party. Set the mood with some soft glowing lighting, and decorate that food table with vintage inspired pieces. The list of vintage party decoration ideas below will help you transform your garden into a vintage wonderland.

Setting the Mood with Lighting: If your party is set to go into the evening, then you’ll want to have some lighting. This can be done cheaply by hanging up vintage style string lights just like in picture (2) (get them here), using paper lanterns, or use candle lanterns to light up the tables.

You can put candles in Mason jars (3), and even cover the outside of the jars with colorful craft paper.

One of the simplest and cheapest ways of adding lighting is to put candles onto stakes and plant them into the ground – a DIY idea by A Subtle Revelry seen in picture (4).

For more pictures and lighting ideas, have a look at my post here: Vintage Outdoor Lighting Ideas Mood Board

The Food Table: Some vintage party supplies to decorate the tables include using Mason jars as glasses, glass drinks dispensers seen in picture (5), twine to wrap napkins around cutlery sets, and have mismatching plates (6).

Decorate the table with a lace table cloth, a doily table runner or a burlap one. Vintage style glass bottles can be used as table planters (Table Decor: Vintage Centerpiece Ideas)

Birdcages: A birdcage can be used to house plants, string lights, or vintage books as a decorative piece (Home Decor Ideas: Using Birdcages). They can also be used on the food table to house cutlery or sauces.

Bunting: You can get handmade vintage style bunting decorations on Etsy (7).

How To Create A Magical Evening: Outdoor Movie Night Ideas

A Chalkboard: See if you can incorporate a chalkboard into your decoration plans somehow – just like the one in the vintage garden tea party in picture (8).

This can be as easy as grabbing a piece of thick cardboard and covering it in chalkboard paint (get some here). A sheet of plywood would be better, or check out my DIY post where I used an IKEA Billy bookcase door to make a chalkboard display. Or have a look at my DIY post where I printed out some vintage borders and painted in the empty space with chalkboard paint (Print and Paint: DIY Chalkboard Paint Posters).

Suitcases: Old vintage style suitcases can be used as food stands, or just decorative pieces.

Here are some more mood board posts, where you’ll definitely get more ideas for your vintage party decorations:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8

Vintage Garden Party Ideas: How to create a great looking party

March 19, 2016 in Design Styles, Outdoors

7 DIY Swimming Pool Ideas and Designs: From Big Builds to Weekend Projects

Some people can make building things look so easy. This is good, since it let’s the rest of us have the guts to try something like building a swimming.

But if you take a look at some of the DIY swimming pools people have made below, it does show you that anyone can build one in their own backyard oasis.

There are three types of DIY swimming pool designs to choose from:

There is the permanent swimming pool construction
The natural swimming pool
The temporary pool – which can be a weekend build

The Permanent Pool

1. The dumpster pool – DIY above ground swimming pool

Stefan Beese is one of those who makes building a own pool look easy. He took an old dumpster and used that as the main container. It was padded out with insulation, covered with a liner, and then cladded with pine slats – showcased here.

2. The shipping container swimming pool

Using a premade metal container seems to be a pretty straightforward and simple way of starting a swimming pool build – by Ian Starz.

3. A more traditional DIY concrete swimming pool build

Build Your Own DIY Natural Swimming Pool / Swimming Pond / Organic Pool

Not only do they look great and blend into natural surroundings, natural pools are chemical free and are lower maintenance than normal swimming pools. Also when the pool is not in use, it is still full of life.

4. A natural swimming pond

Build plans by David Pagan

5. Another natural inground swimming pool pond, this time in a more urban backyard

Built by VonBubenberg

Temporary Weekend Swimming Pool Ideas

For a temporary swimming pool all you really need is way to make a large box, and a way to hold in water (which is usually in the form of a large waterproof tarp – get one here). Some ideas to make the container include: shipping containers, hay bales, or a wooden frame.

6. 9 pallets were used to build the frame for the pool

Swimming pool DIY by Torben Jung

7. A DIY swimming pool using hay bales and a waterproof tarp

Built by Roy and Reagan

More fun DIY home builds:

March 1, 2016 in DIY, Outdoors

Is That a Pallet Swimming Pool? 24 DIY Pallet Outdoor Furniture Creations and Big Builds

There is so much creativity in these DIY outdoor pallet furniture and build creations. That’s what happens when you’re limited to building with scrap, salvaged, and recycled wood. Not all of the pallet builds below have instructions, but they are straight forward enough to be built from looking at the pictures.

Pallet Furniture

1. A pallet swing bed

From The Merry Thought

2. DIY swing chair

From Instructables

3. DIY daybed and side table combo

From Lovely Greens

4. DIY outdoor seating lounge

From Instructables

5. Cinema night made out of pallets

How To Create A Magical Evening: Outdoor Movie Night Ideas

From Home Tree Atlas

6. Cozy balcony lounge (pallet walls, flooring seats, couch, planter, table)

From A Piece of Rainbow

7. Outdoor pallet bar diy

From Green Thumb Print

8. Pallet dining table set

From Brit + Co

9. Cute pallet picnic table

From Needles and Nails

10. Table and succulent planter combo

From Make

11. Round pallet table top pattern

From Fruhstuck

Pallet Builds

12. Tool storage DIY

From Our Little Acre

14. A charming DIY pallet gate

From Funky Junk Interiors

15. A mini outdoor reading room

From Little Bit Funky

16. A kids fort (made out of apple crates)

From The Little Veggie Patch Co

17. The pallet wigwam / tepee

From Laura Crane

18. A DIY pallet playhouse

From Instructables

19. A simple pallet bike rack

From 1001 Pallets

20. Rustic walkway path

From Funky Junk Interiors

21. Mini foot bridge

From Home Talk

22. Pallet storage shed

From Calion

23. The pallet deck

From Remodelaholic

24. 9 pallets = A pallet pool?

From Torben Jung

More DIY idea posts:

February 19, 2016 in DIY, Outdoors

The Pallet Cinema: A Garden Movie Night

These pallet chairs were made for a garden cinema night hosted at my friends co-working space Work Saigon.

DIY Adjustable Lounger Chairs

The main lounger chair is made up of three main pallet sections which are hinged together with bolts. A rope threads through the 3 pieces, giving its main structure. The notches on the back of the pallet garden chair let you adjust the angle.