By Tilly Dillehay
My husband and I live in the little rural town of Hartsville, TN. But we live on a street, like real city folk. No winding gravel roads and gorgeous green woods behind our house. We’ve got a cute little landscaped front yard that we inherited, and a backyard that looks invitingly onto a rusty shed and the back of a church building that abuts our property.
This back yard has been a quandary since we moved in. What to do with it? It’s ugly, bare, and useless. Well, this year I’m doing something about it. In addition to planting a little veggie garden on the back edge of this yard, I’ve decided to create a little oasis right in the middle of it.
This is something I’ve seen online that is just the tiniest bit redneck, but seems to really do the job: canopy tents as stand-in for actual covered porch. So when I saw this burgundy 10 x 10 pop-up tent at my local Fred’s last week, I just bit the bullet and brought it home.
Then, to inaugurate the search for outdoor furniture, I purchased a lovely antique cot from a store in Gallatin. The cot looks like maybe early- or mid-20th century, made of canvas and wood. Not only that, but it lays very comfortably, and as soon as I set it up under the tent, my daughter toddled over, laughed, climbed on, and plopped there like it was the best thing she’s ever sat on.
It was $45–a chunk of my very low budget for this project–but it answers for a bench, and now I only need two chairs. I plan to make my own little table out of pallet wood.
Let me know what you think!
