This post is sponsored by Cost Plus World Market, which you know is one of my favorite places to shop! Thank you for supporting the brands that make this blog possible! As always, all ideas and opinions are my own. This post also contains affiliate links.
Over the past few years we’ve made a lot of changes to our backyard and it’s become a really great space for entertaining and play… but we have another outdoor space that we’ve been pretty much ignoring. Until now, that is! I’ve been scheming up some plans for the space and I want to show you what I’m thinking and get your opinions!
Our house is built on three levels, with just our master bedroom/bathroom on the top floor. Off of the bedroom is a pretty good sized deck with treetop views. Before we had kids we used the space on occasion, but for the past five years, we’ve really barely stepped foot out there. Now that I think about it, I’m not even sure I’ve ever shared a photo of the deck on the blog.
Here’s a picture of how the deck looked about five years ago in the fall. It would look pretty much the same right now, if we ever bothered to uncover the furniture that is {it’s remained covered for several years in a row now}.
To give you a bit more perspective, let me show you the floor plan for our top level. Our house faces south, but the large, open part of the deck is on the east side of the house, making it nice and shady in the evenings.
We live in an older neighborhood with lots of big mature trees all around. I really hate that we have this big outdoor space with gorgeous treetop views, and yet we hardly ever go out there. The problem is that we’ve just never given this space a real purpose.
When we first moved in, we put a table and chairs up there, as well as two lounge chairs that we picked up on an end-of-season clearance. The table and chairs never made much sense at all… we were never going to carry food up to the third floor to eat, especially not when we have a nice patio with a BBQ right off of our kitchen. And the lounge chairs seemed like a good idea at the time, but the reality is that we aren’t “lay out in the sun” kind of people, and now that we have kids, it’s just not a comfortable spot where all four of us can hang out.
My friends over at Cost Plus World Market asked me to dream up my perfect outdoor space, and after giving some thought to how we’d like to use this rooftop deck, I’ve come up with some plans that would transform this space into a relaxing family retreat for summer evenings!
Since I don’t envision us bringing many guests all the way up the third floor, this deck doesn’t need to be set up for entertaining a large group. I really want it to just be a cozy place for the four of us to enjoy family time. I want this deck to feel like an extension of our indoor living space, so I’d like to create an outdoor family room with a couch and chairs. And you know I love color, so of course the deck would need to feel bright and energetic! Blue and green seems like the perfect color scheme, since we’d be surround by blue sky and green treetops.
The big, white stucco wall {above the current lounge chairs} has always provided a design challenge in my mind. I would like to make this wall feel like a focal point by hanging a large piece of canvas art above an outdoor couch and hanging black and white striped outdoor curtains on either side. I would weatherproof the canvas art using this method that I came up with last year so that we could leave it up all season and just bring it inside for the winter months.
For relaxing summer evenings, I would orient the furniture so that we were looking out at those treetop views… but after the sun goes down, we could quickly flip the couch and chairs around to transform the space into our very own outdoor movie theater!
When movie time rolls around, I would reverse the couch and chairs to face the white stucco wall and would hang a make-shift movie screen {which I think we could easily fashion out of a white banquet-sized table cloth} between the striped curtains. We already own a movie projector {a Christmas gift from my parents a few years ago} – so we’d be all set!
What do you think?! Now that I have an idea of how great this rooftop deck could be, I’m going to start saving my pennies so that I can head to my Denver Cost Plus World Market and turn these plans into a reality! Here’s my shopping list:
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JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content.I can’t decide yet whether I would also want to keep the small dining table that we already have on the deck. I don’t really envision us eatting meals out there, although I could see us setting up a buffet of popcorn and movie snacks. And once this space is much more stylish, I might even use it as an outdoor office on nice days {the perks of working from home!}.
If we do decide to keep the table, I would definitely want to get a coordinating umbrella and these matching serving items:
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JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content.What plans do you have for your backyard or deck this summer? Definitely start by checking out World Market’s Outdoor Guide packed with great tips for everything from decorating and entertaining to recipes and even gardening advice! If you’re ready to create an outdoor retreat of your own, World Market has tons of fabulous furniture, dining, decor, and lighting options this year to help you bring your favorite indoor styles to the great outdoors! You can always shop online, but I prefer to checking out all of their new outdoor styles in person where I can see and touch the textures and sit on the furniture! You can find your nearest Cost Plus World Market using their store locator.
Here’s a little more inspiration to help you create your dream space by bringing your indoor style outdoors:
If you love what I picked out, or if you’re wanting to create an outdoor movie theater of your own, be sure to pin these plans so you can find your way back to this post and my shopping lists:
Melissa @ Polished Habitat says
I LOVE the idea of being able to flip the room around for enjoying the trees or watching movies. Plus, the whole movie space idea is so brilliant for the whole family to enjoy the deck together. I'm loving all those green pieces from World Market too.
Anonymous says
I wonder if investing in an inflatable screen would make more sense. Then you wouldn't ever have to flip the furniture around. I like your ideas for the space, but it seems like a lot of trouble to have to rearrange everything. Also, wouldn't it be fun to get a couple of those outdoor heaters for the cold months so you could enjoy the space year-round?
Angela, Blue i Style says
I've thought about an inflatable screen, but all the ones I've seen are really a bit too bulky for the size of our deck, and also need to be staked down to the ground to not catch the wind, which wouldn't work on our Trex deck. We move the furniture around in our backyard often and it's so light and easy to move. Flipping around a lightweight couch and two chairs will only take a minute or two, so I think it will work well for our needs. I do like the idea of outdoor heaters for the spring and fall!