The Gazebo Makeover

I last wrote about our gazebo here. Back then, our gazebo was purely a place for us to place our outdoor furniture. Obviously we furnished it with the basic necessities i.e. a fan and lights. But that was just it! It didn't feel homely at all.

In an effort to make the gazebo more cozy with a class of luxury, we decided to embark on a mini makeover project. Inspired by the beautiful purple flowers growing just by our gazebo, we adopted a purple theme for the area.

Our ever flowering purple flowers by the gazebo.

To give it a touch of style, we started by sourcing for a carpet. We initially wanted a Moroccan designed rug, but we hunted everywhere - IKEA, Spotlight and even online. But we couldn't find a suitable rug that we could easily fold over for storage in case it rains. Everything was either not to our liking, or to our liking but just way way way too expensive. In the end, I suggested to Hubby for us to just recycle an existing purple motif carpet that we had in the house. Since it was going to stay outside in the rain or shine, why bother splurging so much? Hence we ended up purchasing a new carpet to replace the recycled carpet, which went to our guest bedroom downstairs. And we brought the purple carpet outside... Takdelah rasa ralat sangat if it gets destroyed over the years, kan?

Recognize the purple carpet?

Our willow tree leaves giving the area a tad sense of privacy.

For a touch of elegance, we added some purple pillows and even a purple throw to the seats. It matched the carpet beautifully!! Hubby even found an old painting in our attic, which complemented the whole look. So far so good - zero money spent!

Surprisingly, the painting matched the whole purple affair!

A place of comfort in the garden.

We love relaxing in the gazebo, enjoying the peace and quiet with a cup of tea/coffee. Kids enjoy playing there too!

Next up, despite the carpet being recycled, we simply couldn't leave it exposed to the rain. Nanti bau masam! We resorted to rolling it up and bringing it indoors during the weekdays. But it was no easy feat - berat ok! Hence we collectively agreed to source for some outdoor blinds to cover the open sides, to prevent the rain from coming in.

Initially we wanted to just go for IKEA blinds, but in the end we calculated just a slight top up to custom it to size. So glad we decided to go custom, especially since we needed a slanting blind for one of the sides (far end in above photo).

Last but not least, in order to give it a bit of rustic feel to match the wood decking flooring, we sourced for these beautiful lovebird storage seats and repurposed them into flower beds! We also planted more of those purple flowers in honour of the theme we chose. And every morning the flowers would bloom without fail - such a pretty and soothing sight.

Storage seats from IKEA, repurposed into flower beds!

So happy that the gazebo is now the main garden feature. Since it is so cosy, it is fully utilized both during the day and night. On weekend mornings, we'll have our breakfast or brunch outdoors. Some nights, we would setup our image projector and watch a movie on the big screen. We also use the area to entertain our guests with an outdoor BBQ, or even a romantic supper for two after the kids have gone to bed.

That's it for our gazebo makeover! We're happy and content with our outdoor space now (well at least until we find another spot to revamp yet again) *chuckles*