Patio Makeover

 

Usually when I get an idea in my head for a project or makeover I want to do, it needs to happen NOW.

This patio makeover is an exception. Oh the idea was there.. it just didn’t happen instantly. In fact, it took a year and a half!

When we moved here we built a deck onto our house, on the west side. The house sitting the way it does, the deck ended up being 10 feet off the ground. The question always was, what do you do with the space underneath the deck?

At first, I had a flowerbed, complete with a stone path running though. The only rain my flowers obtained was a little through the deck board cracks above, so they were often lacking in water. Also, any flowers that wanted some sun, would pull towards light until they sometimes fell over. It ended up looking like a plant prison.

One day hubby and I were talking about the dilemma under the deck and came up with a plan that wouldn’t cost a lot of money. We would start out by getting the area level. At this point everything was still at a slope. Then, we would use flat stones out of the woods to create a floor.

I envisioned a beautiful garden room, complete with little fountains of running water, vines and comfy lounge furniture. Hubby, I’m pretty sure, pictured a ton of sweat and labor.

Sweat and labor he did. He carefully laid in every stone in that floor. The boys and I would at times go flat stone hunting for him, but most of the time he searched for them himself.

 

I know if I would have doing this project, I would have rushed through, just to get it done, and I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t have the nice, flat stone floor we have now! It was definitely worth the wait!

 

I did manage to snap a few pictures after I had most of the plants dug out.

Here are a few “before” pictures…

Now a peek from the outside looking in…

 

There’s three different vines at work providing nice privacy for this space. There’s a wisteria, a bittersweet and a porcelain berry vine spreading to their hearts content!

We used treated boards to hold the dirt that would make the area level.

Hubby’s nice work…

I made this patio sofa out of pallets. To read more about it click here.

You may recall earlier this year I had posted about the beautiful old barn door that we salvaged from a junk treasure heap? It finally found a home in this outdoor space. I still marvel at how I didn’t need to do a thing with it to get it to look this great!

I used stencils to create the sign hanging above the sofa.

She took it to the next level and came and slept a little.

I hung a section of an old ladder from the beams & hung some old jars on it.

We had a screen section that fit our garage door in the shop that wasn’t in use so I used that as space for vines to climb up.

Every outdoor space needs a table, so I painted this wire spool for that purpose. I was impressed with the stamps on the top, so I gave that a coat of polycrylic.

I also spray painted an old bench that will provide more seating. The color is Ocean mist, by Rustoleum.

Growing up, my sister and I had a toy box that my dad built for us. It was still stored in our shop, so I put that to use. I tore off the frayed fabric & foam from the seat and added the wood top. It also got a coat of paint.

Of course, I needed that sound of water trickling, so I quickly constructed a potting bench and my dad kindly fixed a built in sink into the top and plumbed it for me.

 

A few years ago I found the old spigot in a garage sale for $1.00 and had plans to use it someday for a trickling fountain. I quickly put it to use in this display.

Okay, I had a hard time quitting with the picture taking. There’s something about a mirror hanging outside that brings wonderful effects into your outside.

I also wanted some sort of lighting for the evening hours, so I did what I’ve been wanting to do for a while and keep seeing on Pinterest.. Ping pong lights..

 

To read the tutorial on how I did this click here.

So again the “before”…

And now the “After”… (or some of it)

There’s still some things I want to do with this spacious area.. there’s definitely some opportunity still beckoning. With time, I will probably be adding things.

The best part is we spent hardly anything with this makeover! The priciest thing being the sofa cushions, which I stuffed myself.

Now all we need is a lots of spare time to sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor. And while we do it, we’ll be tuned into the trickle of water, the birds singing from the nearby trees and the scent of flowers drifting by every now and then.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

-Mary