Thrifty Deck Decor and Rescue It!

 This is our back deck. Almost everything on it was free (from friends or curbs or alleys on trash days... Sometimes I happen upon trash items and sometimes the kids and I just drive around "to see if there's anything cool") ...or from yard sales.

 I love this copper bucket. I was tempted to scrap it at the metal recycling place down the street, since I got it for only $2, but it's just too pretty! My whole gardening and decorating budget is about $25/month, hence the temptation. I don't normally like the color red, but I really like this cute rooster.

 These little shutter thingies were sliding doors in an awesome old headboard left out for the trash in an alley. I hate to see lovely real wood furniture going to the landfill... At least I had room in the car for these little doors. More colored glass knicknacks and a sea biscuit. The stick is from a vacation in Oklahoma.

 I think this plant is an Autumn joy sedum. The dried flowers stayed pink most of the winter.

Our deck is old and looked awful and splintery. Since I'm always barefoot, and the kids often are too, that just wouldn't do. Plus I don't want it falling apart. I cleaned and painted half of it last fall, and plan to do the other half next week. I used Oxyclean to scrub the old dirty wood (I need to find the blog I read about that on!), which worked amazingly and didn't hurt the surrounding plants. Then I painted it with 2 coats of Olympic Rescue It! from Lowe's. It took probably 3 gallons just for this small area, and a lot of work, but so far I'm very happy with it. It feels great under bare feet!

Thanks for looking!