I am exactly where you are in terms of switching from pastels to more vibrant colors. I originally planned the garden of soft yellows, blues, pinks and white. In our summer intense sun it looks washed out. In the Spring I love the pink peonies and delicate Amsonias but as summer comes I find myself more satisfied by richer colors. It came to me by accident -sort of. I started getting in to daylilies and purchased some red ones and bright yellow. I planted them on the border facing the street and outside the fence to the backyard. When everything started to bloom I was overjoyed by the color! It was so pretty IMHO. I have realized that the colors I really like are the magenta pink, bright lemon yellow, purple, red and Orange! I love my orange daylilies. My favorite combination this year was White Liatris, Yellow Helenium, Poppy Mallow and Balloon Flower mixed among the daylilies, including a really screaming red/orange one called Alabama Jubilee. I've decided to start moving these colors into the back yard and moving away from the dreamy soft pastel look. The peonies can stay but for summer I want knock your socks off color! I say plant whatever colors are making you the most happy and release yourself from the burden of any rules you imposed on yourself about what colors you will not allow in a certain part of your garden. Enjoy!

I saw a Vintage Windsor arm chair I like from fifthroom.com but don't know anything about the quality. You can pick out the finish which I liked in an antiqued barn red. Has anyone ordered from this site?

I was hoping to find a sofa quickly for my daughter, who moved into her first apartment couchless. Before ordering the Ava, I called Grandin Road to ask about availability and was told that the blue sofa was in stock and would be the quickest to ship. Once I placed the order, I was given a delivery window of December 6-13. Each time I checked the order status the estimated delivery date was postponed. I called customer service to ask about the order status and, each time, was told the sofa would ship out that day. However, the order status continued to show as "in process" with a new delayed delivery date. I then found a sofa locally that was in stock and available to deliver the same day, so I used the Grandin road chat feature to cancel the order. The chat agent said they would email the warehouse about the cancellation. The next day, the order status still showed as "in process" with a new delayed delivery date. I then called Grandin road to cancel the order again with the same results. After canceling by phone the second time, I received a text message saying my order had shipped. I emailed Grandin road to let them know I had canceled the order, and the next day they charged my credit card for the sofa I had canceled four times. When I asked for a refund, I was told they would request one, but it could take a few weeks. Thankfully my credit card company was willing to reverse the charge, as I don't have confidence that grandin road would have handled the refund any better than they handled the order or cancelation. I am also relieved not to own a product from them. I recommend something other than Grandin road.

We recently bought steel patio furniture brand new. I know the downside is it will rust vs aluminum. I didn't know that after 1 month and some rain there is rust spots all over our cement patio. Can anyone recommend what we can do to avoid this? Should I buy deck tiles, patio tiles, etc...? I would have the same issue though wouldn't I? For example when I move a chair after rain the water slowly pours out on the cement patio and leaves a rust spot that is very hard to clean.