Your kitchen is beautiful! Very inspirational to me :) Are you familiar with Ballard Designs? They have a huge selection of "outdoor rugs" (although I can't imagine using one outdoors where I live!) But we have a few as door mats and one in our Dining Room, and they are perfect! Easy to wipe down to clean. But they look really, really nice! Take a look--they are all on sale right now. And maybe one or two will inspire you? Just a few examples... OR Now, under your eating area, I am going to just caution that it will get MESSY under there one your little eater is eating independently. But you can enjoy the rug until then, and then see how you feel. It's just hard to get under there and clean, with the built-in there. Also, I had wooden fabric seated chairs, and they will be getting re-upholstered in a few more years--they are trashed! Even the wood backs are "gunky" from so much wet hands/jelly/cereal/yogurt/etc. I switched to industrial style metal chairs from World Market (so not very expensive!) and I love them. Sooooo easy to wipe down--even easier than wood! And I have the coordinating wood table, so it does look good with wood tones, too. And my kitchen is white, Here they are: Finally, go into stores, like World Market or Pier One or anything that floats your boat. Find some napkins or placemats that inspire you. They are a good way to bring in some color in an inexpensive way, test it out in the room, and use it as inspiration for your room. Here is a link that might be useful: Outdoor rugs

Thanks!- My whole purpose was to end up with dog friendly - easy care furniture and when I saw that post with the wood chair and the HB photo I thought bingo that will do nicely so I was thrilled to find similar chairs with good cushions. I am not sure i like the table there between them although it is convenient- it is painted Revere Pewter but it photos white with the flash. I can paint it or begin looking for another vintage table. I want to do burlap curtains to replace the cascades and jabots that I made years ago but I want to be more cottagey and not transitional so I am trying to figure out curtain rods.

OK, let me start over. I make a lot of pillows, but not many cushions, and in looking over my notes, I was wrong. I make the cover the same size as the foam, but I DO add seam allowances to that. Sorry! But that would be also adding batting, which makes it thicker, so making the cover the same size as the foam without using batting, seems like it should fit. So, it could be the foam you're using. Anyway, if you decide to use batting, you can get upholstery batting at an upholstery shop, or if that's not possible, try to get 1/2" batting at a fabric store, or at least the 4 oz. batting. Put your foam on the batting and trace around it to make two pieces. You can either use foam adhesive spray, adhere the batting, then press the edges together all around, or you can sew around, preferably hand stitching, but you can use a machine if you want. Make the cover the size of the foam and add your seam allowance. I think using the batting will help firm your foam to avoid the buckling.

Everything I've read about slate indicates it carries special installation and has maintenance issues when placed outdoors. I am getting mixed reading on how frost resistant it is--I gather this is more a question of grouting that is necessary for tiling but of course not in nature. I don't know whether those criticism are well-founded or not, but porcelain tiles definitely are low maintenance in comparison. Like Anglophilia, though, I hesitate at the idea of faux stone and would rather something not trying to look like nature when it isn't. I found this frost resistant 13 x 13 porcelain tile while researching this weekend and am wondering whether it would be crazy to go in this direction: