My Tiny Backyard: Lights, Plants, Cats… (ORC Week 5)

Hey all, it’s week 5 of the One Room Challenge! The last week to share progress before sharing your finished space. My tiny backyard is looking fab if I do say so myself. (Here’s week 4 if you need to catch up!)

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So this week’s update is going to be pretty brief just because we did a few things, but those things don’t require a ton of explaining. 🙂

First off, we hung three ferns and the globe string lights. The only lighting in this area was the little light by the door, and that just doesn’t cut it once the sun starts setting. I think I’m going to do a separate post about these lights and hanging them. Not gonna tackle that today, though. For now, just behold:

Love. Absolutely love. They provide the perfect amount of soft light in the evenings and at night. And Ramona quite likes staring at them.

We also put up cat climbing perches along one of the second-story deck footers. I cannot take credit for this idea…it was all Mike’s! Like most cats, Henry and Blanche want to be Very High Up at all times. Henry jumps the fence if we don’t leash him or watch him closely. So we devised a plan for these kitty climbers using scrap wood and regular ol’ shelving brackets.

Here is Henry on the top perch doing some bird watching and general neighborhood spying. We cut an angle out of the top perch so it would fit around two sides of the footer. You can also see the two smaller steppers they can use to climb up to the top.

For these perches, we just finished them with Minwax stain in “natural” and the same spar urethane I used for all of the other outdoor wood pieces. Two coats.

Then, for the brackets, we got some regular metal brackets from the hardware store and spray them down with a rust-proof white spray paint for extra protection.

Everything is pretty much done except for adding some more plants and getting around to cutting the grass! Next week is the big reveal 🙂