Now that we’re done with the House Milk kitchen, it’s time to move on! Let’s take things outside…
We have two matching exterior lights – one at the foot of the driveway and one closer to the house. They wouldn’t have been my first pick, but we can’t afford to replace them right now and I can live with them. What we can afford to do, is make them prettier.
Each one sits in a planter, of sorts, made of brick, both of which are falling apart at this point (we’ve already repaired them once). The brick really doesn’t go with the house at all; we don’t have any brick on the exterior. On top of that, they’re basically a haven for weeds.
Pretty pathetic… and our repair job doesn’t really make it much better…
The lamp posts sit in about a 14″ circumference of concrete a few inches below the surface of the planter. This means, we can’t completely remove the bricks and call it a day. Who wants to stare at two giant mounds of concrete – this isn’t a parking lot. We’ve thrown around a few ideas – maybe putting a hole in the bottom of a wooden planter and sliding it over the top, or maybe building a concrete planter around the light post and filling it with gravel or stone.
This little weed is about 100 times larger now! Time to yank him out.
What would you do if these were your lamp posts?
dtonn on 08.18.2012 at 11:46 AM
Use traffic cones as molds for concrete, cut them away, then paint the entire pillar a color complementing your house, like that red.
Barcelona on 08.18.2012 at 12:10 PM
For a start, plant some bedding plants at the base that would
Grow up and over to hide the brick. As for the pole, some garden netting?
And plant some annual climers such as sweet peas, that would climb
Up to cover up the pole. Easy solution.
anon on 08.18.2012 at 12:19 PM
Kill myself.
Greg La Vardera on 08.18.2012 at 12:20 PM
I’d remove the brick and create a planting bed at the area around each post that included a slight rise or terracing, build up enough earth to cover the concrete lump. Then you will have just a nice clean post coming out of the mulch, and gain some interest from breaking out of the flat ground.
Amy on 08.18.2012 at 14:52 PM
I would make a cairn around it. I have never seen that done but it would look great :)
Kelly Raver on 08.18.2012 at 17:38 PM
I would pill the bricks away, put down some heavy landscape fabric, and put a trail of river rock going down and ending at your pole to make a dry creek bed. You will have to build up with the rocks at the point of the pole to cover the bottom. Make the creek bed slightly S shaped to give it a natural look. On the sides of the pole plant ornamental grasses staggered at various places and lavender, salvia, or Russian Sage.
Another idea is to plant boxwood around the pole and keep it meticulously coifed. You could plant them around the pole in a circle and keep it cut low to the ground in as one bigger circle leaving about 12 inches between the shrubs and the pole.
I used to do garden designing. Now I study graphic design.
Kelly Raver on 08.18.2012 at 17:47 PM
Oh- one more suggestion. Put a coil of linked rat wire around the pole after you remove the brick and get something attractive- porcelain vine, clematis, honey suckle, or even an annual like morning glory or moonflower. There are limitless selections of climbing vines, that could cover the entire pole. You can link rat wire with connecters you get for rabbit cages at tractor supply. This would be beautiful. It would hide the base and also the pole, leaving the globe to pop out at the top.
SamDS on 08.19.2012 at 02:45 AM
first of all, fix the grass around it.
then create a slightly higher planter made out of corrugated metal with the colors matching the exterior of the house.
Jasper on 08.19.2012 at 04:09 AM
stack bircks until it almost reaches the top. Then you will have redbrick lamposts with a glowing sphere on top. If you dont have money or time for that. Find some nice lamp hoods. Somethign like this > http://design.kitchensatlanta.com/2009/09/ikea-range-hood-free-hanging-lamp-with-extractor/ but better for outdoor.
Etc. on 08.19.2012 at 07:20 AM
What about replacing the bricks with sheets of steel that would rust naturally with the weather. You could also look for an interesting kind of steel mesh roping that you could wrap the poles with.
Jaime Derringer (post author) on 08.19.2012 at 07:58 AM
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I never thought about the idea of metal, but that sounds very intriguing.
Also, the idea of climbing vines/plants sounds really cool, but we’re pretty low-maintenance over here so I’m afraid that planter beds and any kind of foliage would quickly turn into a mess. However, if we were to fill planter beds with something we don’t have to maintain, then that might work OK.
Mosmith on 08.20.2012 at 10:43 AM
You guys are designers… you can’t do anything so boring!!! And time consuming (vines take time to grow people!) Your light post is beautifully simple…. here’s what you should do…
Paint the post a colour you love, take an Ikea Garbage can (FNISS
or RUNDEL… $3-$17 here in Canada), cut the bottom out and put it in place upside down flush with the ground…where the nasty brick is. Fill with soil and plant fountain grass. Looks great in the winter and it sooo low maintenance. You will have and instant Dr Suessian focal point.
Jaime Derringer (post author) on 08.20.2012 at 13:25 PM
Cool idea.
RMo on 08.19.2012 at 13:43 PM
Honestly, I feel that you are focusing too soon on the lamp posts. I have made this mistake myself, focusing on the superficial instead of the foundation. I believe the best place and cheapest way to start would be to remove all that landscaping at the front of the house. Tear it all out and clean the entire area so that the architiecture could be seen and more readily assessed as to new landscape design and house paint color. I would most certainly remove the brick boxes at the base of lamp posts as part of this process. When all was clear, this would be the time to make decisions about further actions to the lamp posts considering the exterior as a whole. Down the road…I like the idea of large pavers extending the perimeter out and around the exterior of the house, possibly incorporating the design to or in the lampposts and filling it with rock and low growing succulents or boxwoods. What you have done so far with house looks great.
Jaime Derringer (post author) on 08.19.2012 at 16:09 PM
Perhaps, but we can’t afford to do any landscaping any time soon. Conquering that is a huge undertaking both financially and also from a DIY perspective – a lot of time and sweat… none of which we have right now. What we *can* do, is fix the unsightly bricks in the meantime. It might take us 3-5 years to get to where we can do what we want with the yard, especially since we’d likely want to do the front and back at the same time in addition to fixing our driveway, repairing and replacing exterior doors, gutters and restoring the original siding… obviously we have big plans for all that but only in due time :)
Linda@DesignInMyView on 09.24.2012 at 15:16 PM
Hello! Very late to this comment partay…but, must agree here. You have lost sight of the unsightly existing plantings as you struggle to find time to maintain them but know that you’ll be pulling them out in 3-5 years.
Why have that constant visual reminder (and the mental stress associated with it) pull it out, encourage the lawn to grow into the beds, remove the brick around the lamp posts slope the soil that is there and let the lawn grow there too. The empty look will be more peaceful than the hodge podge of dying shrubs and broken brick planters.
It will be easier to begin the next phase when (your ready) the clearing has already been taken care of – let your siding and stonework details be the stars!
Cheers!
Linda@DesignInMyView on 09.24.2012 at 15:23 PM
Oh! And just concentrate on seasonal color in the stone planters near your beautiful red front door. Everyone in the neighborhood would enjoy the impact of that detail!
And since it is a small area, your budget won’t suffer either. I am in the same landscape disaster, but 4 years ahead in the timeline of getting to begin.
Linda :-)
rmo on 11.18.2012 at 10:17 AM
;)
lucianna samu/Really at Home on 08.20.2012 at 08:39 AM
I would find a good carpenter and design a wood frame to go around what you have. This gives you lots of flexibility as far as materials. Probably the least expensive, yet most creative possibility. Look me top if you’d like some specific ideas.
Leticia on 08.20.2012 at 15:53 PM
If you don´t want to spend much, or have any trouble with plants to take care of, I´d suggest you take off those bricks and earth (make a little table,fireplace or bench with them), and display some nice big round-shaped pebbles around the post like a little island. They can be white , dark, or colorful, or you can just catch them on some river nearby.
here-s some inspiration : https://www.google.com.br/search?q=pebbles&hl=pt-BR&safe=active&prmd=imvns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=GZIyUMviBYHC9QSog4GACg&ved=0CFQQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=911#hl=pt-BR&safe=active&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=big+pebbles+stones&oq=big+pebbles+stones&gs_l=img.3…28829.28829.22.29603.1.1.0.0.0.0.452.452.4-1.1.0…0.0…1c.v7I2GO8Js4g&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=53ad307a39e0a18f&biw=1280&bih=911
Stubenville on 08.21.2012 at 07:34 AM
Lighting designer by trade here. If you’d like to replace the sphere with something from the same era but a bit sexier, look at W F Harris lighting. Perhaps a clear sphere, cube or soft cube with a clear lamp? All pretty affordable.
http://www.wfharrislighting.com/decorative-posttop-lighting/?colorid=35
As for the base, keep it dead simple; demo the brick and replace it with some unfinished cedar planking staked and part buried as a moving edge. Fill with gravel, river rock or any of the many of the great plant suggestions others have made.
Kelly on 08.21.2012 at 11:37 AM
Not to link to another site (but hey, I’m going to link to another site)… I’d do something like this: http://retrorenovation.com/2012/04/30/diy-midcentury-modern-mailbox-post-and-address-sign-gabe-explains-how/
Jaime Derringer (post author) on 08.21.2012 at 11:38 AM
Cute – very retro! and no worries – we love Pam over at Retro Renovation :)
Willie Pheeler on 09.04.2012 at 14:39 PM
Wrap them with burlap, add some palm leaves and a monkey and voila! Instant Island theme!
CCB on 10.02.2012 at 10:40 AM
Draw smiley faces on them and then they wont be sad :)
Andy on 10.17.2012 at 23:52 PM
Just came across your website through a google image search for “mid-century lamp post.” I have the solution to your problem: sell me your lamp posts!! I live in a 1963 mid-century house and have been looking for a lamp post just like yours… do any manufacturers still make these for residential use? I remember these from the 60s, and my house is full of globe pendants- would love to have one of these in front of my house…
nicholas on 10.21.2012 at 18:10 PM
how about a galvanised steel wire basket filled with quarry stones, and perhaps you have a local quarry? this will sort your weed issues. In you photos I see stone work on some lower sections of your house.
http://www.google.com.au/imgres?q=steel+baskets+filled+with+rocks&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1192&bih=561&tbm=isch&tbnid=Qn0D3XsHADg7nM:&imgrefurl=http://www.oberste-gmbh.de/show.php%3Fseitenid%3D52&docid=0i8kzXo9FsWbGM&imgurl=http://www.oberste-gmbh.de/images/products_big/g_gabionen1.jpg&w=400&h=303&ei=CHCEUJzVCMmOiAe-uoCICg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=232&sig=103187959318324060787&page=3&tbnh=127&tbnw=158&start=40&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:30,s:20,i:223&tx=79&ty=58