diy: painted lounge chairs

So we have been working on our backyard for what seems like forever now. We figure one thing out and then realize we don't like something we had done before. And then we redo it. I think the problem is that our vision started our kind of foggy. The backyard was just this huge slab of asphalt, so it was really hard to imagine what was going to happen back there. We've kind of just been working as we go.

We searched every inch of the universe for lounge chairs that we liked and that didn't cost 2.8 million dollars. We never found any. We settled on these chairs which were $80/each from Old Time Pottery. We weren't crazy about them. so we had this crazy idea to paint them. Well, painting these chairs made a huge difference in the pool area. We really weren't feeling the vibe that was happening back there and we realized the plant organization and the chairs were the culprits. We decided to see what would happen if you spray painted the chairs. After using about 3 cans for one side (and it still looking pretty gross) we explored other options. We bought some really cute cushions that arrived in the wrong size and then we decided to explore the painting again. Not sure why we didn't try it at first, but we ended up just roller painting the seats with outdoor paint.

You will need:

- Lounge Chairs

- Outdoor Paint

- Small Paint rollers

- Gold Spray Paint

- Painter's Tape

1. Paint the seat white with a roller and let dry completely. (We don't have a pic of this step.) We used regular outdoor paint in regular white. Paint a second coat and let it dry completely. Make sure you paint the backs of the chairs too because it'll look pretty crazy when the back is a different color.

2. Tape up the seat/ everything that is white. We used contractor paper and frog tape to cover everything we didn't want to be gold. You will have to do some touch ups on the seat with a paint brush, so get too worried if something is sprayed gold that shouldn't be.

3. Spray all the metal gold, everywhere. We used a Rustoleum Metallic Gold.

4. Remove the tape and paper and use a brush for any touch ups.

We realized after doing all of the chairs that the best order to do this in would probably be to spray paint the metal parts gold and then to paint the seat white. You could get away with not taping at all that way. We just weren't sure in the beginning if we could cover up the gold with the white, but as it turns out, you super can. We ended up adding one more white coat at the end just to really even it out. We probably could've gotten away with two, but just to be safe, we did three! 

We have so many more backyard areas to show you, and if you follow us on Instagram, you may have seen some peeks already. We will be sharing a post about our stock tank pool along with a regular before and after of the whole space soon!

xo, Savannah

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DIY Amy's Mexican Casserole Bowl

Casey really loves the Amy's Mexican Casserole Bowl and when I finally had a bite, I really understood why. They are delicious! But, if you want to serve more than one person, the frozen meal would get a little pricey. This dish takes so little time and can be multiplied to feed as many people as you want. It only requires the one pot, and those are our favorite kind of meals.

I made a little video of the process, so check it out! The recipe will also be listed below.

Mexican Casserole Bowl

Ingredients

- 1 tbs. olive oil

- 1 medium onion, diced

- 1 red bell pepper, diced

- 3 small potates, cut into matchsticks

- 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

- 1 can corn, drained

- 3 corn tortillas, cut into strips

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- 2 cups enchilada sauce

Directions

1. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat.

2. Add onions and peppers and sautee for 5 minutes.

3. Add potatoes and cook for about 5 minutes.

4. Add garlic and cook for a minute.

5. Add black beans, corn, tortillas and enchilada sauce. (I added a touch of chicken broth here because it seemed a little thick. You can use water, or nothing.) Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.

6. Serve hot with a dollop of greek yogurt, if desired.

Hope y'all love this as much as we do!

xo, Savannah

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Hike: Cummins Falls State Park

We have been wanting to go to Cummins Falls for a while now, so we finally just did it! It's about an hour and a half away from Nashville, but definitely worth going at least once. There are two hike options and we chose the one that took you to the bottom of the waterfall. The day we went was a very humid one, so by the time we finally reached this spot we were ready to get in the water. And of course we didn't leave without snapping a few photos in some Hey Wanderer pieces...

You may also like:

- 8 Things You Must To Do In Tulum

- Where To Camp In Florida

- Moonbow Sighting at Cumberland Falls

This is a piece from our old clothing line!

We also just picked up a book called "60 Hikes Within 60 Miles" and have decided to try to do a hike out of the book every week. This ought to be interesting, so stay tuned....

If you liked this post and would like to see more like it, please pin the image below!

xo, Savannah

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before and after // savannah's room

Today we are taking a before and after tour of my (Savannah's) bedroom! When the house was purchased, this bedroom didn't actually exist. It was an open space off of the kitchen and it was weird. Richard built a wall to separate the kitchen from this room and on this side he also built a closet and vanity space. You can see photos of the kitchen side here!

The walls in my room were the same color of the kitchen, green apple yuck. And also, the walls are this thin paneling put up over plaster walls. I know this because everytime I hang something, I can hear the walls behind crumbling.

I had planned on painting my room pink for a while before we moved in and thought that it would look great with the texture of the paneling. I chose pink because we had this great blanket from Be.Vintage and I thought the two would go well together. We ended up painting 5 coats on the walls. It took about 3 coats to really get rid of the green color, but then I realized the pink I had was TOO pink and decided to re-paint another color. I ended up with Ballerina Pink by Benjamin Moore.

I love this shot! My headboard is actually the same one I used in my old room in the old house, and it's actually the footboard of one of Casey's old bed frames. I had painted it yellow for my other room, but it works great here too!

Pillow cases- Urban Outfitters/ Tapestry, Pillow, Plant Hangers- DIY/ Blanket- Be. Vintage/ Lights- Amazon

Small candle- Illume

This room also didn't have a door and when we moved in, I totally lived without a door for a little bit. 

photo by us

But I have a door now, everything is okay!

Since my room is pretty small, I use wall space/ dresser space/ any extra space as storage.

Rug- Urban Outfitters

photo by us

I actually wanted to keep the wood frame of the closet, but when I painted the doors black, it just didn't look right. The wood looked too yellow, so I ended up just painting it pink, as I did with all the trim in the room and also with the ceiling. I basically live in a pink box.

photo by us

photo by us

Richard built the desk and I added the drawer and then I also added the shelves because I really needed more accessible storage. Also, my window sill is big enough to use for things like plants and candles, and that makes me very happy!

Thanks for keeping up with our posts about the house! For more, follow us on IG!

Hey Wanderer / McGavock Manor

xo, Savannah

All after photos by Amber Ulmer, unless noted!

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before and after // hey wanderer studio

We are so excited to be sharing our studio with y'all today! Like we said last week, these rooms are ever-changing, and I wouldn't say we think this room is completely done yet. We still want to do a little decorating, this room has kind of gotten the reject decor. We do love this studio so much and it accommodates our needs very well. 

When the house was bought, this was considered a bedroom, even though it was lacking a closet. It was literally just a huge open room. We knew this would be our studio, but it needed a lot of work to make it completely functional, and that is where Richard came in. (Richard is Casey's stepdad and you will hear about him a lot in our before and after posts, so I will refer to him as just "Richard" from now on.) We were pretty set on painting this room white. It's hard to tell in the photos, but the ceiling was sponge painted white, or maybe there was just one coat of paint, and there was a wallpaper border around the whole room. The walls were also sponge painted a gray-blue color. We also figured out that the walls were actually this thin paneling whose crevices had been filled. Painting this room was a huge task. Actually, there are still place that we haven't been able to reach that need another coat. Luckily, the new beams kind of distract away from those little spots.

Richard installed these beams with track lighting. This room actually had no working lights when the house was bought, which is obviously a huge problem in a studio. We now have all the lighting our hearts could ever desire. We also just got a chandelier to hang in the middle of this room. You can never have too much light in a studio. I basically need it to be as bright as day when I'm sewing in the middle of the night.

Richard replaced these windows with ones a little bigger, and that can be actually opened.

This wall was the biggest surprise that wasn't disappointing. Behind the weird paneling was this beautiful wood wall. Richard discovered this and we agreed the paneling should be ripped off. This is such a great part of this room now, it adds so much, especially since this room would've been completely white otherwise. 

We were actually excited about this white brick wall. This room is clearly an addition to the original house.

These sliding doors didn't actually open. Well, you could open them once you removed the bar in the tracks. So maybe they just didn't lock. Either way, they weren't very functional and they were pretty old/ugly. Richard immediately knew he wanted french doors here, and we had no aversions to that! 

Now the doors let in a lot of beautiful natural light.

Photo by Hey Wanderer

Richard also constructed two closets in this room. The closet on the right houses our washer and dryer, which the previous owner had in the kitchen. What!? The closet on the left is storage for Hey Wanderer. That is also a dining room chair right there, pre-fixing them up.

Richard also installed this desk for us. It is as long as the entire wall, and exactly what we needed. The cabinets provide more accessible storage, and we have room to keep out our computers, sewing machine, serger, printer, shipping equipment, etc. It's delightful.

Guys. Renovations are no joke.

This couch was moved in here temporarily from the living room, but it's pretty nice having a seating area in the studio, so I think we will keep it in here.

Thanks so much for reading about our studio renovations! We love this room and I, Savannah, probably spend most of my time in it. To see more, follow us on Instagram and add yourself to our e-mail list at the bottom of the page!

Hey Wanderer Instagram
McGavock Manor Instagram

All after photos by Amber Ulmer, except when noted.

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