Summer Outdoor Spaces (Home Tour Part 2)

In summertime we live outdoors. Today I’m sharing our summer outdoor spaces to give you some inspiration for your own homes.

Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly

Van Morrison

All year long I look forward to summertime by the sea with our boys. We got our first taste over the weekend where the temperatures soared to 90 degrees and we spent ALL day by the pool – swimming, playing, and reading. Summers here in Scituate Harbor are magical. Time slows down enabling us to catch up on our day dreams.

I shared part 1 of our Summer Home Tour last week in case you missed it.

My husband built this walkway to our pool gate last fall and we transplanted the peonies here from the backyard. They love the sunshine and the crushed shell beds. I’ll share the tutorial for this walkway soon.

Poppy wanted to help me welcome you!

So come on in through the pool gate and see our outdoor spaces.

Our yard is broken down into various zones or outdoor rooms. I wanted to give you a glimpse of our outdoor spaces through our eyes. How we actually live and enjoy our spaces. So you’ll see images of all of us enjoying our home. These photos are “as is” as much as possible and I tried not to style them. So they’re are stray towels and weeds etc.

Our Back Deck

We love having coffee and family dinners on our back deck. The wisteria makes it feel very private. The deck is very old and we’re thinking we’ll need to do something different next season. We’re thinking of a wrap around patio and maybe creating a trellis. We’re trying to decide if we keep the wisteria (it’s beautiful, but very invasive) or if we should do something else climbing. Would love to hear your recommendations.

I love using ornamental grasses and flowers in all our outdoor spaces.

My husband built the table and bench a few years ago. You can see the build plans here and here. I created a faux verdigris finish on the compass rose which you can see here.

This space looks beautiful at night:

Pool Area

We put our pool in two years ago and absolutely love it. You can see the reveal here and some tips if your considering putting a pool in here.

Each morning Luke and Conor swim laps together. We always dreamed of a pool for our children but had no idea we would be quarantining here this year.

The lounge chairs are from Ikea and the teak set is from HomeGoods.

All our plants are thriving this year, which makes me so happy. Luke and I did all the landscaping and built the retaining wall.

I took these photos a few weeks ago around lunch time so it gives you a better perspective our home and pool:

You can see our firepit, adirondacks, and hammock which I’ll share more about.

The hammock was a Father’s Day gift to Luke several years ago. We all love spending time in the hammock reading. The dogs love resting in the shade. Poppy is very scared of the water and won’t go in the pool, but Max loves it.

Often times, he’ll sit on the top step.

We love to entertain and sip cocktails by the pool. The other week I shared this delicious Paloma cocktail recipe.

Here’s a glimpse of this area at night:

Pool House

Down by the pool is a little coastal pool house. It used to be my she shed, we converted it to a pool house last summer. It’s a great place to relax inside and out.

There’s a small teak table and chairs outside which I found at Christmas Tree Shoppes last year. Luke built me the window box, you can get the build plans here. I’ve planted potato vines, rosemary, pansies, and snapdragons in the window boxes this year. This when I first planted them and they’ve really taken off in the last month.

I planted some pansies in a reclaimed wood tote for the table:

A pink climbing rose growing on the outside of the pool house. I’m hoping that roses will grow up the whole side of the shed and look like a cottage in Nantucket.

Here’s a glimpse inside:

I shared more about this space here and you can print off that watercolor free printable for your home 😉

Finally, the last space I’d like to share with you is the Fire Pit.

Fire Pit Area

This area is new this year. It’s the perfect space to hangout with the kids at the end of the day.

It’s mesmerizing to watch the flames. You can read more about this space here.

Here’s a peek of the fire pit the other night:

The marshmallow is actually on fire there…

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of our outdoor spaces as much as I did sharing it with you.

Be sure to check out all the spaces by my friends below as part of the Seasonal Simplicity Tour hosted by my friend Krista.

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This week, some of my blogging friends and I are sharing our summer outdoor spaces. Just click on the links below the images to be taken to see their full posts.

The Happy Housie // My 100 Year Old Home // Modern Glam // Cassie Bustamante

Craftberry Bush // Joanna Anastasia // Life is Better at Home // Inspiration for Moms

Clean & Scentsible // Finding Silver Pennies // Grace in My Space // Maison de Cinq

Life is a Party // House by Hoff // Zevy Joy // Two Twenty One

Taryn Whiteaker // Maison de Pax // Amber Tysl // This is Our Bliss

She Gave it a Go // My Sweet Savannah