Ironically enough the place our little family spends the most time, is the last space that we have completed in our home. I promise you that the back porch furniture and cushion situation was not a snap of the fingers and it was completed. It has all been collected over the years and then finally came together with the help of my friends at Cush Living.
Okay, I’ll start at the beginning and talk you through everything. The table is from the 1980’s (it was my parents first dining room table). I snagged it from my parents garage when Wade and I got married and had it stained (it was originally a light pine). The dining chairs were purchased through our interior designer 6 years ago, along with the two chairs that are out in the yard (you can see how we used the back porch furniture at our old house here). We FINALLY pulled the trigger on the sectional last summer when we were home (yay 2020) and the umbrella was a random order before a party we threw a few months ago. Long, LONG story short, while we have added all of the furniture over the last 6 years, I was never happy with the cushions and pillows. When I originally was purchasing the outdoor furniture, the cushions and pillows were an “add to cart” item that to be honest, I didn’t really know there was another solution (and was not happy with how they looked) until I was introduced to Sam from Cush Living.
If you’re not familiar with Cush Living, you should be. Cush Living is Dallas based (although they can do EVERYTHING online) and they can design the dream oasis for outdoor living and more. For me, Sam has been the outdoor fairy god-mother I did not know I needed in my life. Sam and I e-mailed back and forth and I explained that I was not happy with the generic cushions and pillows that I had in our backyard. I told her that I love hanging in the backyard with my family but also like the feeling of “not being at my house” (I wanted calm hotel vibes) and that white was calming to me. Her response was simple, “I’ve got you”. Those three words not only made me so relaxed but also so excited to get to work with someone who just gets it.
Two weeks later Sam was at our home (again, she could do this all via zoom if you are not Dallas based) and had pulled fabrics that complimented our interior style. She went through multiple different color stories, textures and styles and we narrowed it down to 6. Guys, I’m not kidding when I say the next part was my FAVORITE part. A couple weeks later Sam sent a powerpoint with pillow style designs, different trims for the pillows and primary cushions and different cushion styles. I knew I wanted to go with white cushions for the chairs and the couch but she insisted I add a leather trim to elevate the look and I cannot tell you how right she was. I finally just told her to just do her thing (picked complimenting pillow designs/etc is not my calling) and I literally cried last week when she installed everything. Guys, she even made the cushions extra thick (aka extra cozy) since we spend more time on the outdoor couch than on our indoor ones!
Cush Living made all of my outdoor design dreams come true and I promise she can help you like she helped me. We now have the most special, serene, outdoor retreat to relax while our babies (wildly) run around the yard and I am forever grateful for Cush Living making this such a seamless but fun process from start to finish.