Round And Round The Garden #5

It has been a couple of weeks since I have managed to do my Round And Round The Garden post, mainly due to bad weather, the three peaks walk I did and my birthday. But this week it is back and with a lot to show you!

You may have noticed that we completed the front garden thanks to the Money Supermarket challenge - as usual I used the good old spray paint on the pots and I think they came up a treat.

Over the last couple of weeks we have finally been able to finish painting the decking. We were supplied a primer and top coat from Farrow & Ball.

After much deliberation - should we pick a bright colour to reflect the rest of the garden, should we go for a green which matched many of the other items, or should we pick a more muted tone for our adult space. In the end we went for Pavillion Gray - a soft, understated grey we felt would blend in but still have an impact. The decking is such a large space we felt that with anything bright on it, it would just take over the outlook.

Farrow & Ball's paint is gorgeous. Thick and creamy, it glided on beautifully and you definitely felt you were applying a high quality product onto the wood. It took one coat of primer and top coat to cover and I definitely feel it will last us a while.

Decking progress

Complete

The only part I'm slightly concerned about it the floor - already Mr H has trodden his great dirty feet across it and even the rain leaves a mark, so eventually we may decide to paint this a slightly darker grey. However if you are looking for great coverage, easy application and a high end finish then Farrow & Ball definitely meet this criteria.

Once the decking was complete, Mr H's next big job was the play area. Of course, having had the Wendy House in the garage for a few weeks, he couldn't wait any longer and when he had a day off he scurried off to build it.

The Wendy House is from Big Games Hunters. They have a huge selection and it took us ages to decide, but in the end we chose the Whacky Range, with its bold green and its off-set shape it looked fun and inviting for our children. It comes already treated with the stain, meaning we didn't need to do any painting (for once!) and it would last us for years to come.

Mr H set to work build and readily admits it wasn't the easiest job to do on his own - mainly because all four sides needed to be held in place at once. He had to carefully balance them on the decking rails, which made for an amusing scene at least! All in all it took him two hours to build on his own, so with an extra pair of hands it would have been less. He felt it was pretty straight forward to put together and had clear instructions, and with someone to lend a hand it would have a quick job to complete.

As soon as the children saw the house their eyes lit up - it really was lovely to see. They both ran over giddiliy and ran inside and outside, round the back of it, opened and shut the windows and had a little chatter about which toys they would put inside it (well H chattered, J just babbled along). They were nearly as excited as Mr H!

That afternoon we couldn't drag them away and even the call of the bath wasn't enough to tempt them! I think they could have stayed in there all night.

To complete the play area we needed to decide on what to put down on the ground. After seeing rubber tyre chippings in a friend's garden I was reluctant to go with anything else. I'm not a fan of bark chippings - they are dirty, messy and certainly not easy to clean when you have a dog! The rubber chippings were safe for the children, definitely not as messy (unless your kids like to throw them, as mine did the first time they went on them!) and of course, eco friendly. They come in a huge array of colours so you can choose whatever suits your mood. We chose a grey to match the decking and ended up with 20 kilos to cover a 10m2 area. After pricing up a few sites, Re-Bound came up the best price, so we ordered with them. The delivery was prompt and the driver friendly so we would use them again.

After putting the Wendy House in place, Mr H emptied all the chipping into the play area and raked them out until they were level. We then finished the space off with a low fence to create a boundary and it was complete.

It finally feels like we're getting to the finishing stages of our garden project and I'm thrilled everything is coming together so well. Left to do is those damn tyres that have become my nemesis and then some lovely homemade stepping stones, which I will fill you in on next time!