Brightening Up Outdoor Spaces for a Posh Poolside Dining Experience

This is part of a sponsored series with Kohl’s.

Summer is far from over and if you’re like our family and still spending lots of time at the pool, it’s not too late to upgrade your poolside table with a few key pieces for a more posh dining experience. While your mind may drift to a white cabana with bright plush cushions, a few affordable items will continue to make your outdoor dining experience delightful whether you’re eating hot dogs for the umpteenth time or are meeting your favorite pizza delivery person at the entrance. Tired of paper plates and disposable plastic ware and feeling the guilt about what throwaways do to our environment even though ours are compostable, I welcomed Kohl’s challenge to transform a drab wooden table at our pool into something more fabulous.

Assignment in hand, Little Miss Techie and I went to our local Kohl’s and found a great selection of products that were affordable, came in fun colors, coordinated well with each other, and didn’t violate our pool’s rule of no glass.

In need of other plates besides paper, we picked up 8 striped Sonoma Outdoors Melamine Dinner Plates so we would have enough for our family and when dining with friends. Regularly priced at $5.99 the melamine plates were on sale for $2.70, making them a more eco-friendly and affordable option when compared to the heavy duty paper ones we’ve been using. We also spotted the Sonoma Outdoors 3 piece Melamine Salad Bowl & Server Set (regularly $39.99, on sale for $18). With a screw bottom that holds a reusable ice container and serving utensils that snap right into the lid, this product was a no-brainer. The ice pack feature is great for keeping salads chilled underneath our umbrella but the in-lid serving utensils are sort of genius! I never have to worry about forgetting our salad servers again!

Our in-store finds provided a good start but I turned to Kohls.com to find the other items on my wish list.

• Sonoma Outdoors Melamine Small Bowl (regularly $4.99, on sale for $2.25) to match the plates.
• Sonoma Outdoors Melamine Salad Plate (regularly $4.99, on sale for $2.25) for a matching set of tableware but also the perfect size for younger kids or dessert.
• Sonoma Outdoors Plastic Pitcher with Infuser (regularly $39.99, on sale for $16)to make and bring our own delicious refreshing water infused with cucumber, strawberries, or lemon.
• Sonoma Outdoors 4 piece Highball Set (regularly $9.99, on sale for $4) that match the striped plates but also stack nicely so they don’t take up too much room in the cooler.
• Bobbly Flay Acacia Wood Tri-Server ($39.99) for a versatile serving piece that holds chips and dip or cheese, crackers, and nuts for snacking between dips in the pool.
• Sonoma Outdoors Multi-Stripe Tablecloth (regularly $34.99, on sale for $14). I bought this one for our outdoor dining table at home but I’m on the hunt for a tablecloth with an umbrella hole for dinners at the pool. With so many colors in the striped melamine plates, I know it will be easy to find one that matches.

I’m excited about the arrival of the rest of the items I’ve ordered from Kohl’s to dine in style for the rest of the season!

As you can tell from the prices above, many summer tabletop items are on sale. It’s a great time to stock up since there is still plenty of time left to enjoy using them before the end of the season.

Tips to save even more money when shopping at Kohl’s:

• Kohl’s credit card holders can receive additional discounts when charging items in-store or online.
• Check for online coupon codes from sites like RetailMeNot.com and PromotionalCodes.com before placing your order.
• Shipping is free with an order of $75
• If your order is small, check the in-store availability of items. Right underneath the burgundy “Add to Bag” button on the site is a blue “Find in Store Button.” Type in your zip code to check to see if the item you’re looking at is available at area stores.

I received a gift card in exchange for this post.