So pleased to be part of the Styled + Set blog tour today hosted by Lory of Designthusiasm!  For all those coming over from My Soulful Home, hello and welcome!  We are coming together to show some simple and beautiful ideas for summer entertaining, so be sure to visit the talented bloggers listed at the end.

Today I’m showing y’all the outdoor dining touches we’ve added to my she shed office area in our side yard!  This section of our property is heavily treed and thus much cooler in the summer.  We find ourselves over here so much these days, and my husband and I thought it was high time we invested some time and energy into our “backyard years” as we’re calling them.  Our home has such beautiful outdoor spaces, but we’ve barely had the brain space to try and utilize them to the fullest these past few years of adding to our family, starting a business and just the swirl of life with four kiddos.  But….now we are ready!  Pull up a chair and join us for some outdoor summer dining!

The area over by my she shed office has so many beautiful trees and is much cooler in the hot summer months because of them, so we decided to spruce things up and add a little outdoor dining area for our family of six!  A fun farmhouse table made to withstand the outdoors, a few stackable and funky-fun outdoor dining chairs (that we can put away easily during the colder months), and a few twinkle lights did the trick!  I hope to get a few battery-operated candles soon that we can place in the lanterns while dining, but for now…those string lights are adding a peaceful, magical glow!  This area gives me serious “Parenthood” vibes…remember that show?!  Loved their outdoor dining area.

For our GF strawberry shortcake dessert table, I used a mix of vintage Jadeite and newer jade-colored dish ware, along with some sweet little hobnail glasses (from the Target dollar section–score! 🙌🏼), tea towels used as placemats and white scalloped dishes.  Of course, our summertime outdoor dining table won’t always be this cute-ified, but for it’s inaugural use, I thought it would be fun to set a fancy schmancy dessert spread for my little ladies and hubs!

For a dramatic yet simple “centerpiece,” I went with an assortment of suspended outdoor lanterns of all sizes and shapes, and I love that while they don’t technically rest on the table, they can sort of serve as a visual centerpiece for the table.  That way, I don’t have to always set something out for it to still look “done,” you know?

Moral of this story is….when it doubt, string up some twinkle lights for total summertime outdoor dining magic.  😉  Be sure to check out my blogging buddies, including the next in the blog tour Bless’er House, below for some more summer styling and entertaining ideas, and thank you for taking a sec to stop by today!

SOURCES:

(*Some affiliate links used in this post)

Hosted by Designthusiasm

Cedar Hill Farmhouse

My Soulful Home

Cotton Stem

Bless’er House

Taryn Whiteaker

Monday’s posts:

Maison de Cinq | Town n Country Living
Celebrating Everyday Life | Maison de Pax | Zevy Joy

Tuesday’s posts:

Designthusiasm | Shabbyfufu
So Much Better With Age | On Sutton Place

Wednesday’s posts:

Cedar Hill Farmhouse | My Soulful Home | Cotton Stem
Bless’er House | Taryn Whiteaker

Thursday’s posts:

StoneGable | CitrineLiving | Life on Virginia Street
French Garden House | ZDesign at Home