A Fall Inspired Backyard Patio Makeover

Sometimes procrastination gets the best of us…. this is a project that should have been done the first week of summer so I could have enjoyed it every single day of summer. Then again – it rained A LOT this summer (I’ll use that as my excuse). But! The important thing is that I did it! I finally have a beautiful backyard retreat. Somewhere I can go kick my feet up, enjoy weekend days in the shade, and cool evenings under the twinkle lights. This makeover was really easy and pretty inexpensive too. The only investment was the furniture – but it was about time we finally bought some quality furniture anyways.

I’ve hinted at our HORRIBLE backyard before. It was BAD. Like PWT (poor white trash) bad. Take a look -

Right?! I HATED going back there, not just for it’s embarrassment factor but because there was ZERO shade. It was SO SO HOT. It’s where I cut up most of my wood so there was sawdust everywhere. And I think every spider in the world thought I was providing it free apartment space.

But then I saw my good friend Liz’s backyard transformation and I was finally inspired. I IMMEDIATELY got into action to makeover my patio in a “very similar” fashion. I also got her permission to be heavily inspired by her space

The Hampton Bay Arrow Gazebo was the same one she bought from Home Depot. I needed an affordable option that would create the overall atmosphere, instead of just a concrete slab. Originally I always wanted to break up the concrete slab and lay new flagstone, or even create a new floating deck. But those were all costly, and timely, projects that I just wasn’t able to do on my own easily. This gazebo was the perfect option. It is inexpensive but really frames the patio and creates a nice retreat. Plus my favorite feature – the sides zip up to be a bug free area. Since our backdoor doesn’t have a screen door we get A LOT of flies in our home on the weekends going in and out. Zipping up the netting makes the perfect “extra big” screen door effect.

As I said the only real costly investment was the furniture. We picked the Ragan Meadow 7 piece set (on sale right now so if interested – score it now!) set from Wal-Mart (they actually have really great outdoor living furniture and accessories). I chose it because initially I wanted a love seat with two additional chairs. I couldn’t find any sets that I really liked though. This set ended up being exactly what I wanted because each section of the sectional is it’s own piece so I can arrange all 5 chair pieces to the set up I want. It also came with two ottomans that you can have separate or attach together. I choose to go a different route…..

I kept one ottoman as a soft place for our feet to land. The second I turned into a reclaimed wood top table! It was perfect because I didn’t want to go purchase a new table, and I (as usual) had lots of reclaimed wood available.

Tutorial to come!

Then I just bargain shopped to fill the area with accessories to make it a comfortable and cozy place to relax. Which actually was really nice to do towards the end of summer because I scored most things on sale or clearance. I shopped the aisles of TJ Maxx Home Goods, Garden Ridge, Wal-Mart, and Target.

I love coming home from a long day at work and relaxing back here during dinner with the kids… or even the few moments of sunset time once the kids are in bed. I turn on the twinkle lights and the LED candles/lights and relax with a nice class of wine. Since the days are starting to become shorter than the long summer days I filled the space with fall decorations and beautiful color mums.

On the weekends we still enjoy the shade it provides from the sun and the kids love having a space they can take a break in and relax.

So what do you think???! Do you feel inspired to create a space next year that you and your family can retreat too during the summer days? Or maybe you can wrap up this project in a weekend and still enjoy the crisp beautiful Fall evenings in your backyard.

Wish you all could come over and relax in our backyard patio transformation with us!!! If you enjoy the space I’d LOVE it if you shared it or gave it a good Pin to spread the space! VIRTUAL BACKYARD PATIO!