Spring Garden and Outdoor Living Accents to Love

This post contains affiliate links. All thoughts are my own.

Are you an outdoor living lover? I sure am! I'm of the mind that outdoor spaces can and should be an extension of the home, and utilized for living and entertaining. Not all outdoor spaces are the same. Some are small, offering a balcony and minimal room for seating, while others are vast and offer enough space for endless possibilities.

My new home has a lot of outdoor living space, and it speaks to my soul. My mother grew up on one hundred acres of farmland with her family in Centralia, Missouri. She lived there until she met and married my dad in the early 1980s, and then they headed for the big city (yep, THAT big city) and lived about 30 minutes away from it for over ten years. Talk about culture shock for my mom! In the 90s, my parents packed up their lives (including my sister and me), and moved us to North Carolina. We went from living with no backyard and sharing a multi-family home to our own house with a yard and space to garden. My parents have lived in four different homes in North Carolina, and my mother always took great care to incorporate gardening and outdoor living into each one.

My mom, Leslie. My twin for life.

I know that I get my love for the outdoors from my mom and my Grandpa Jones. As the granddaughter of a farmer, how could I not yearn for time spent outside, puttering in the flower beds, and plotting my vegetable garden? I've spent many a weekend gardening with my mom, watching her plant beautiful rose gardens, digging out new flower beds, and then adding plants, seating, and decor. Some people hire landscapers to do jobs like this, but not my mom. She knew what a wonderful reward she would receive if she rolled up her sleeves and did the hard work herself. I feel the same way, and am so thankful that my mom instilled this in me.

My new home has ample outdoor living space, including a wide, partial wrap-around front porch, a large stone patio, a large side yard, and a sizeable backyard, too. It's a ton of space to landscape, and while I have big garden plans, I am taking baby steps to get small areas in shape before I start on any big projects which will require much more of my husband's time and muscle.

Getting porches and patios into shape is easy enough. Adding outdoor rugs, furnishings, accents, planters, plants, and lighting makes a huge difference in any space, no matter the size.

Check out some of my recent outdoor living space finds...

Outdoor accent pillows (Costco, $10.99)

Where else can you find outdoor pillows this large and plump for under $15.00? Costco, you always have my back and I love you... I don't care what the haters say!

Outdoor area mat (Hobby Lobby, $29.99)

One of my outdoor decorating dilemmas has been accent colors. I know, it seems silly, but I have a lot of green garden accents, which I love and want to keep. My porch decor is mostly all-natural wood, and black and white, which is so easy to work with and goes with just about any color. Our one-hundred-year-old Craftsman house has red cedar shakes and a red brick exterior. Why previous owners chose to have red on red, I don't know, but it's something that we will be changing in the coming months. The red will soon be a gray-blue, and then the green accents will look much better with the exterior of the house. I don't like things to look mismatched, but I'm not about to store my outdoor accents and buy new ones for just a few months of uniformity.

I wasn't sure how I was going to tie my green accents into my decor scheme until I found these amazing outdoor accent pillows at Costco earlier this week. I just happened upon them, and was like- yes! Finally, I found pillows that worked! From there, it was clear that I was going to have to pull some blues in, too, which I love, and quickly realized would look great with the paint we chose for the house, and the sleek black accent lighting we've already purchased. I cannot wait to see it all installed and see the finished look!

My new trellises arrived this week, and my new garden fountain arrives today!

Dura-Trel Cambridge Trellis ($46.49, Amazon)

I can't wait to see these trellises installed on the side of my garage. These will provide support for my climbing roses, and they'll look pretty, giving the front side of the garage that's visible from the main road a nice look. I started off with two of these trellises and may add two more, depending on how the first two hold up. I'm looking forward to spending time out there, situating our new additions, and planting all of my rose bushes! I'm still on the hunt for just the right garden bench. I'll keep you posted!

Do you have an outdoor space that you love to spend time in?

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!