Backyard Pergola Reveal

So every blogger out there seems to be posting all their fall decor, and I'm still talking about my backyard!  To be honest, I'm not quite ready for fall, and I always find it hard transitioning from my favourite season, summer, to fall... hey life goes too fast, why rush it?

So this space (which is half of our back deck) all started to transition last year when I purchased a pergola from Home Depot which we are extremely happy with.  Then this year I picked up these striped cushions from the Superstore and painted these very basic brown cushions.  I've had great success at the Superstore...we got our patio set from there a few years ago, and most recently these black metal side tables.  They were $10 each on clearance.....wow!  I'm sure I'll bring them in for the winter and use them somewhere in the house.  I like to use as much of my outside furniture inside over the winter.  Like my ratan chairs, I always bring them in and use them in living room.  Oh and I move the lanterns in for the winter too.

My original thought was to buy three side tables and then stagger them as an alternative to the original coffee table that I got with my patio set...which is a little too ordinary and boring for me.  But I'm eclectic and also don't like everything to be so new, so when I put them in the space I actually decided to use a bench from my picnic table set as the coffee table.  Then I moved the coffee table to the side for extra seating (see below) and placed my seat cushions and roll top cushions on top for extra seating.  I actually really like this look and it mixes it up a bit. Also the seating is quite low so the eye continues into the garden.  I love to use things in an unexpected way...which is also why I use my birdfeeder as a planter (see below).

One more thing I did this year to the space was replace my curtains that I made last year from drop cloth.   They had a plastic liner which I thought was a good idea at the time but turns out it wasn't, because it held in the moisture and blew in the wind (what was I thinking?).  So this year I made more curtains out of a drop cloth without a plastic liner and I like them a lot better.

The jute rug seen here is actually from my dining room.  I just propped it with this one to see if I liked it...and I do.  So now I'm on the search for an outdoor one.  I found one at Lowes in the spring, but when I went back to the store to purchase it, they were sold out. :(

Hoping to get a few more nights on this back deck before the cold comes.