Table By The Door

Over the years I've tried to dress up the wall next to the kitchen door. 

I've had the tiered plant stand there, I tried the large white cement colored container with a shrub in it (cuphea once, a failed blueberry once). I put the little bistro chair there. I'm trying to keep it simple.

 

It's blank stucco, punctuated by the hose faucet, although the hoses are around the corner. This corner is our entrance to the back yard, down the walk. 

With the rosemary gone it looks utilitarian. It needs something. But not another large pot or a collection of containers.

Plants would fill out the area next to the chair and hide the hose connections a bit in summer, but I'm creating a collection of containers right across from it by the garage door stoop. 

I don't want to keep solving garden issues with more plants. 

And this is a hot sunny site, with reflecting stones and bright hot wall. It would be easy to water with the hose right there, but I don't want more pots to tend every day.

On a whim, before I placed the black mesh table on the patio to replace the armchairs, I put it next to the door, with the bistro chair. 

That created a vignette that seems nice. Useful, too, providing a place to put things coming and going from the kitchen door. 

It visually fills the blank wall and brings the eye toward the door, not around the corner so much.

But wait. 

I found a southwest tiled table on Wayfair. Smaller, 24 inches across so the size of our living room end tables. 

Note: After I ordered, I noted the table is not supposed to be left outside in cold  --
Not sure how cold or if that matters? I may have to bring it in during winter?

The black metal table is intended to go on the patio. This little mosaic bistro table dresses up the corner without creating more pots to water and nothing to see in winter.

I like the way this dresses up the blank wall, distracts from the faucet while keeping it accessible, and offers a little welcome spot as you enter from the gate. It's a bit of a pause and destination rather than  this area simply being what you go through to get to the kitchen door.

I think the bistro table and chair look a little staged, maybe a little fussy. The black metal table was too big for the spot but it looked more natural, like it just "happened". Maybe a small potted plant on the table to add some greenery will help. But overall I like it.

🌞  Note: 

the colored tiles are probably going to fade quickly

 in the intense sunlight. This spot gets no shade

It was $150. I was happy with staging my alcove furniture without spending any money, and solving the empty spot by the garage door where the mesh table had been by plopping pots there. But this doesn't seem like too much for an upgrade to the kitchen door.