Details about our adventure power shopping for our back patio at At Home.

I am about to break a stereotype here. I am a woman and I do not like to shop. There I said it. I’ll wait a minute to let the gasps quiet down.

When it comes to shopping for our home I do it sparingly. I am very slow to pull the trigger on purchasing any decor or furniture pieces for our rooms. I used to get overwhelmed with the thought of decorating a space, wondering how I would know if all the pieces I picked out would work well together and if I actually liked what I was picking out or if I was just buying it because it was cute or on sale.

So I took a different approach that might be a slightly unconventional way of home decor shopping or an unconventional way of shopping for a female. I used this method on our past two room makeovers (the home gym and guest room) and it has worked well for me and allowed me to focus on the design of the space and the general style of our home ensuring that I choose pieces that we genuinely like.

My preferred method: power shopping.

Usually, our room makeover process goes a little something like this:

1. Brent and I plan out a room or space. We online window shop for ideas, create a vision board post, and we set a general budget for what we would like to spend on the room.

2. We list out all the DIY projects for the space that we want to tackle. Then we do all of our DIY projects first and make waaaaay too make trips to the hardware store.

3. I wait until all the DIY projects are done before buying anything for the room and then I stand in the room and make a list of all the new items I will need to purchase to make the room feel complete and make note of the amount left in the budget to spend on finishing touches.

4. I power shop for the items on my list all in one day, all in one shopping trip and I always bring along a shopping partner (usually Brent or my mom).

While this may not work for everyone, I have found my power shopping method works extremely well for me because my shopping trips are limited, I know my specific budget for the shopping trip, I don’t lose focus and I am tuned in to shopping for those specific styles and pieces. I always look for good deals and a fun splurge item as well.

I love coming home from a power shopping trip and immediately going to the room and arranging all the pieces in the space. It is so satisfying to me to buy just the right amount of items, that each items feels like it definitely fits the design of the space and that we genuinely like every single piece. It is almost like a challenge that I now enjoy. As long as it is only every now and then.

Power Shopping for our Back Patio

The next space we are making over is our back patio (you can see our plans here) so for my latest shopping trip, I brought Brent along with me and we power shopped for all the finishing touches we needed to complete our soon to be freshly made over and colorful outdoor space.

We were excited to do our shopping for our back patio at At Home because they have such a huge selection that it was almost a guarantee that we would be able to find everything we were looking for there and wouldn’t have to travel all over town like I normally do on my power shopping trips. So with a budget of $500, we set off on our shopping adventure.

The store is huge and the first thing you notice when you walk in the door is the large selection of indoor and outdoor decor and furniture they offer, especially cushions. If you are looking for cushions, this is the place to be. They don’t just have a wall of cushions to choose from they have aisles and aisles and aisles (I am not exaggerating) of every colored cushion imaginable and at prices that won’t make you cringe. Within each color are a variety of different shapes and sizes of cushions and matching pillows.

As I was testing out the cushions, I started daydreaming and it popped into my head that I am pretty sure you could build the largest cushion fort known to man in an At Home store. I am an adult so obviously I wouldn’t actually do that… but the possibility is there, just saying.

We brought our measuring tape to measure the different types of cushions to see what style would work best with our seating. Having all those options made us change our mind three times, but in the end we really did get the exact style and color cushions that we wanted. It was nice not to have to settle.

And remember, when the sign says “Ask for assistance when getting items off the top shelf.” It is there for a good reason. Brent learned this lesson. Ha. At least they were just cushions. I think Brent secretly wanted to have a cushion fight. And, the cushions won. I am telling you, there is just something about seeing all those cushions that brings out the kid in you.

If you are looking for outdoor pots, you definitely are going to have a hard time choosing your favorite from all of these. They cover a variety of styles so whether you are in to the big concrete planters or more of the colorful ceramic planters they have you covered for sure.

Just remember to be careful getting them off the shelves. Someone knocked three or four off the shelf a few aisles over from us and the kid in me yelled. “It wasn’t me. I am right here.”

After cushions, the next item on our list was an umbrella. I like that they put all the items they have on display so you can easily identify which color and style you want. We went with a 10ft. offset umbrella in a neutral color to balance all the color we are adding with our other pieces. The umbrella, stand and base were all $80. You can’t beat that price for that large of an umbrella. That one was a score.

The great thing about At Home is they not only have a lot of color options in just about every department but also a lot of styles within the colors and the colors all coordinate with each other throughout all the different pieces. If you want a blue chair you are not stuck with choosing the one blue chair offered but rather can choose whatever style blue chair that suits your taste.

We liked knowing that the blue chair would match our blue pillows because they all came from the same place. If you are a lazy shopper like me, then it takes all the guesswork out of running around to several stores to make sure your items coordinate perfectly. At Home already is set up in that way.

While they had some really cool blue chairs and it was hard to make a decision, we ended up going with the best bang for our buck and got five of these blue ones for $19.99 a piece because we needed several chairs to go around our outdoor table.

The best part of power shopping at one location is the look on the cashier’s face when we roll up with two carts full of stuff, half excitement, half dread. So. Many. Pillows.

It was a fun shopping for our back patio at At Home and as usual I was exhausted by the end but we have so much cool stuff for our outdoor space. We were able to get cushions, pillows, a rug, an umbrella and five chairs all for $500!

Then…we realized we had to fit it all in the back of my Jeep (the downside to power shopping). It took some strategy and patience to get an umbrella, 8×10 rug and five chairs in a small space but we did it and were super proud of ourselves and while in the parking lot we already got a compliment on our rug choice.

We can’t wait to show you exactly what we ended up picking out and how it all ties together with our back patio plans. Stay tuned to see how our back patio makeover turns out!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of At Home. The opinions and text are all mine.

We are making over our backyard this spring! Here are our back patio ideas for redoing the outdoor space.

Spring has always been my favorite time of the year. Mostly because my birthday is during spring (yay for April birthdays) but also because it is the best time of the year to spend outside here in Houston before it gets miserably hot.

One of the features that sold us on our home was the backyard. It is small but it backs up to a greenbelt which means there is not a house directly behind us, just lots of tall trees. It is a gorgeous and peaceful view because we have a low iron-rod fence.

Current Back Patio

The back patio on the other hand leaves more to be desired. It is just two slabs of cracked concrete with two chairs on it. If you have been following along for awhile now you might remember that revamping our back patio was on our home renovation goals of 2015. Sadly, it didn’t make the cut in 2015 but this spring we are determined to make the space more inviting, comfortable and cozy so we can enjoy our beautiful view.

Currently, our concrete slabs are a mess, there is absolutely no landscaping, and minimal mismatched furniture is scattered on our bare patio so this outdoor space is in some serious need of TLC.

Back Patio Ideas

We will be giving our concrete a refresh with some stain and add a new fire pit area with crushed granite as well as lots of new flowerbeds and landscaping.

We plan on creating three defined spaces on our patio: a dining area, a lounging area and a conversational/fire pit area. We will also have a separate little grilling area. We feel like by creating these spaces our back patio will feel much more complete and as if the pieces we are adding are intentional. As well as just provide a more cohesive and cozy feel with plenty of space for entertaining. While browsing online, we found a nice selection of bright colored decor pieces on the At Home website that will help us capture our vision.

Dining Area

If you remember from our canopy of string lights, I am a big fan of the backyard in Parenthood. We have our string lights, so now I want an outdoor dining area to gather around and eat outside. We will build our table but the accent pieces in this area will really make the space complete.

chair  /  lantern  /  plant stand

We would love to put bright wicker chairs from At Home around the table to brighten up the space and add lanterns and a planter to the table. Then round out the space with a bright blue plant stand in the corner with a nice, big plant.

Lounge Area

I love reading and I find reading outside relaxing, so I am really excited to create a cozy lounge area in the far corner of our patio. To refresh this section, we plan on building a sectional and adding bright colored cushions on the seating as well as lots of vibrant, plush pillows. A large offset umbrella would be much needed to provide shade over the sectional.

umbrella  /  pillows  /  rug  / side table  /  cushion  /  planters

A bold blue rug would be perfect under the sectional and coffee table to define the lounging space and tie in the blue and green colors in the pillows and chairs around the outdoor table. I would love to include some side tables on the side of the sectional. A couple of interesting planters on the coffee table filled with succulents will complete the space.

Fire Pit Area

We will create a brand new space off the patio with a fire pit. We will build our fire pit in the center and put our orange zero gravity chairs around the fire pit with a side table between the chairs.

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When it comes to an outdoor refresh for spring, bright colored decor and lots of greenery come to mind. Our house is fairly neutral so the back patio is our chance to incorporate our favorite colors and surround the patio with lots of plants.

We are really excited to start making our back patio ideas a reality and can’t wait to start our backyard projects and to go shopping for decor pieces at At Home to transform our sad outdoor space into a backyard oasis.

Today is all about new projects and a new room makeover as we start planning our home office.

For as long as I worked in a cubicle I dreamed of having my own office. And not just any office, an office I could design and decorate myself … and preferably at home. When we were looking for our house two years ago the number one item on my list was a room that could be our home office. When we found our house with the perfect room for my office that even had the french doors I wanted, I finally made the leap to starting my own web development business and working out of the office in our home.

I have been really happy ever since. I still love this room, mostly because it is the room in our home that I spend the most time in during the day. For the most part I had it decorated close to what I wanted. I love the large desk which was the very first piece of furniture Brent ever made me.

But while it was close to what I wanted my office to be, it wasn’t quite there yet. I didn’t have that deep down gut feeling that this room was 100% finished. Obviously because it didn’t have the wood floors I wanted yet but also because of lack of organization. The large black shelves are from my first apartment and while they worked fine in that space and have been okay in this space, sometimes I feel like they are swallowing the room and making it feel smaller than it is.

My office was at the bottom of the list when it came to rooms to work on (our garage/shop is always at the top but consistently gets bumped, poor Brent) until suddenly we decided to shuffle some rooms around. Just like the guest room makeover, something comes up and the list goes out the window and suddenly we find ourselves knee deep planning a makeover in a room we weren’t expecting. And I couldn’t be happier.

We are now starting the process of moving my office across the hall to the open room that is now our “studio” aka empty room we shoot our videos in that is next to our library. I’m saying bye to my french doors even though I will be looking straight at them from my new desk view and I am even saying bye to my current desk. I am super sad about this because Brent built it for me. He is not sentimental in the slightest when it comes to furniture. I’m all, “But you made it for me!” His response, “I’ll make you a new one.” Luckily, I found it a good home where I know it will be appreciated and get a lot of use.

Our thinking was if we are going to spend the time to move everything, we might as well take the time to make it feel 100% right. So that means new desk, new storage solution (custom built cabinets, yay!) and some other really fun projects that we are really excited to tackle.

You may be wondering why I am moving my office out of the perfect office room. Well, that is because… it’s a surprise. Gray House Studio always seems to have exciting things on the horizon these days and we can’t wait to share what we have coming up next. But you will have to wait just a little bit longer to find out…

Planning Our Home Office

Now, sit back, relax and let me walk you through how we are planning our home office. If this were Fixer Upper I would have homemade cookies warm from the oven and freshly squeezed lemonade in mason jars garnished with lemon slices for you. Good thing you can’t see through the computer at what is really sitting on my table right now as I type this (a half eaten package of Twizzlers).

Here are our ideas and inspirations for how we want to transform this room into my perfect work environment.

Geometric Rug
It is not in the budget or time frame to do wood floors yet, sigh, but one improvement we can make right away is to add a large rug. I plan on having my desk float in the middle of the room. I am not very productive when I stare at a wall but that means cords will have to make their way to the wall somehow and a large rug is the perfect way to hide and keep me from tripping over the cords. I really like this rug, it is neutral but has a fun pattern to keep it interesting.

New Wood Desk inspired by display at Restoration Hardware
I still can’t believe I have to part with that huge desk Brent built me but one weekend when Brent and I were window display shopping, that is where we go around and act like weirdos by taking pictures of all the store displays to get ideas for our home, we came across this really cool wooden table at Restoration Hardware used to display teas. We both instantly knew it was the perfect inspiration for the new desk we would build for our home office. We are pretty excited about this project.

ÄPPLARÖ Wall Panels
These wall panels from IKEA really have me thinking about creating a large indoor plant wall display on the wall behind my desk. I am not sure if we would modify this exact piece or make our own wall trellis of sorts to pull off this look. My web development business is named Naturally Design so I really like the idea of incorporating a lot of natural elements and what is cooler than a plant wall display?

Schoolhouse Pendant Light
We are already ahead on this one. Last year we updated the lighting in the room by taking down the old, gross 90’s fixture and replacing it with our own DIY version of a Rejuvenation schoolhouse pendant light. We still really like how this looks in the room so it will be staying.

Plants, Lots of Plants
Like I mentioned before, I really want to incorporate a lot of greenery in this room especially on the accent wall. I am 50/50 on whether I want to really step up my game in trying to keep plants alive or just get realistic looking faux plants. Maybe I will do half and half.

Cabinets
The cabinets are the first project we will be building and I am really excited about this project. It is the first time we will build custom cabinets, dipping our toes in the water before we do the bathrooms or kitchen I suppose. I can’t wait to finally have a designated space to organize all my office supplies and files. The best part of DIY, being able to build pieces that exactly fit your needs. We plan on painting them a nice gray color and then adding a butcher block top.

Gray Chevron Chair
As you can see in the picture above, I already have this chair in my office. I got it a year or two ago and love it. It is comfy for my clients to sit for long client meetings and it isnt’ too big so it fits well in the space and of course it is my signature neutral with a fun pattern. Because obviously I am slightly afraid of color, well except in the guest room. This chair makes the cut and will be moving across the hall.

Wood and Metal Desk Tray
I love organizing and I love paper so I really love this wood and metal desk tray. I am looking forward to tackling a few smaller DIY organization projects for my office with Brent like building a similar tray, a computer stand, business card holders, and maybe a new iPad stand.

Office Print
I am planning on having the pops of color in this room come in the form of some fun and motivational framed prints to display in the office. This one seems appropriate since I spend so much time here.

That is what we have planned for the next two months. I am pretty excited and thankful that Brent has graciously set aside his long overdue garage makeover to help me make this room feel 100% finished. Be sure to follow along as we post all of the projects we build for this room as well as stay tuned for our final reveal of our new home office.

Behind the Scenes: Cabinet Building Part 1

We have started a vlog! We thought it would be fun to share what really happens during our project building sessions, the good, the bad, the funny and maybe the mundane (Brent gives a short math lesson and then realizes he did the math wrong). In this vlog we are working on the first part of our cabinet building project and Brent gets a little sidetracked.

Jake The Studio Cat busted out his party hat today because we have some really exciting news to celebrate!

Gray House Studio has been selected as one of the top ten DIY and decorating blogs in this year’s Better Homes & Gardens Blogger Awards. We are so grateful to be included in this group of amazing and talented bloggers that we ourselves have been following for quite some time now. We are still pinching ourselves hourly that THE Better Homes and Gardens magazine chose us!

We love getting to spend time together dreaming up projects and then making them come to life. We love being able to share them here and we especially love being able to connect with all of you! And to be recognized by Better Homes and Gardens is just the icing on an already pretty sweet cake. (As you can see I am still on the party thought train over here).

Thank you all for your support and for following along with Gray House Studio!

We would love for you to cast a vote Gray House Studio’s way in the DIY/decorating category. You can vote once a day from now through March 7 for your favorite blog. Vote Now →