Skip to main content

Tag: creating an outdoor living space

Creating an Outdoor Living Space

I don’t know about you, but around our homestead, it takes a solid 3 weeks to get the outdoors prepped + spruced to enjoy for the coming warmer months ahead.

As the final piles of snow melted only a little over a month ago, work began on Summerizing the exterior.  FINALLY after many trips to the garden center, the last flowers & plants were purchased yesterday, so our exterior living spaces are almost complete and I can’t wait to share them with you… coming soon.

In the meantime, I’ll inspire you with fresh ways + ideas to bring the indoors out with budget-friendly ideas for creating an outdoor living space

Bring the indoors OUT... Helpful budget-friendly ideas to create an outdoor oasis!

Whether a deck, porch, or patio there are ways to bring the indoors out to create a beautiful, serene, and inviting outdoor oasis. With comfortable seating, stylish layers, and lots of flowers and greenery, your outdoor space will become the most used “room” in, and outside, of the home for the Summer months.

BRING THE INDOORS OUT
Surround yourself with what you love by bringing the indoors out. Creating an outdoor living room that is truly an outdoor oasis is similar to designing an interior haven. Surround yourself with things that are most meaningful to you and elements that bring you happiness.  Make an outdoor space fun and unexpected by introducing a pretty patterned table cloth, wind chimes that blow in the breeze, and pops of color through pillows.

Bring the indoors OUT... Helpful budget-friendly ideas to create an outdoor oasis!

Similar to a room inside your home, once you have your basics, add in layers – lanterns, candles, flowers, and plants.

Our Summer Deck 2014Bring the indoors OUT... Helpful budget-friendly ideas to create an outdoor oasis!

COMFORTABLE SEATING
An outdoor oasis isn’t complete without lots of comfortable seating. Once the summer months arrive, almost every waking moment will be spent outdoors soaking up the sun. Be the house where everyone gathers on weekend evenings.

Bring the indoors OUT... Helpful budget-friendly ideas to create an outdoor oasis!Our Patio Paradise 2014

Bring the indoors OUT... Helpful budget-friendly ideas to create an outdoor oasis!

Either individual oversized Adirondack chairs or an outdoor sofa fit for two (or more) is a necessity for outdoor living. Load up on comfy pillows and you may never head back indoors.

Put your feet up by adding a few outdoor ottomans that are waterproof to truly create an outdoor living room.

There are many local furniture stores and online shops that have a wide selection of outdoor sofas and chairs that are similar to the comforts of your living room. Or make your own, like I did with shipping pallets.

Bring the indoors OUT... Helpful budget-friendly ideas to create an outdoor oasis!Tutorial for DIY Pallet Sofa

STORAGE
Similar to the indoors, space for storage is a must. No matter if you’re an empty nester or a family of 5, it’s essential to have a spot to store the outdoor pillows, BBQ necessities, and sand toys.

Many outdoor furniture pieces have built-in storage compartments or a stylish storage box that compliments the setting. Alternatively, try an outdoor ottoman flip top that duals as storage.

Outdoor Storage ideasleft to right: resin wicker box / wicker storage chest / wood storage bench

LAYERS
An outdoor setting isn’t complete without a stylish rug. Adding a rug to a porch or patio isn’t just needed to make a space pretty, but it also provides a comfy spot to kick off the flip flops without the fear of a stubbed toe or unwanted splinter. Kids can walk around barefoot (which most love to do in the summer months) while having a barrier between their toes and the hard surface.

Outdoor rugs are a favorite because they can live outdoors for the summer and be brought indoors during the winter. Rugs made for the elements, are also ideal for foyers, mudrooms, and even under dining room tables (especially with youngsters in the home).

I am loving the outdoor rugs made of polypropylene because they are super easy to clean, fold up tight for storage, and are fairly inexpensive!

Bring the indoors OUT... Helpful budget-friendly ideas to create an outdoor oasis!

A sneak at this years front porch with a new 3′ x 6′ rug (upper left) that I found at Five Below for $5…

Bring the indoors OUT... Helpful budget-friendly ideas to create an outdoor oasis!

FLOWERS
Last, but certainly not least, an outdoor oasis isn’t complete without surrounding it with greenery. Whether your favorite spot is in the sun or the shade, surround your exterior setting with lush plants and colorful flowers in varying sized pots.

Bring the indoors OUT... Helpful budget-friendly ideas to create an outdoor oasis!Potted herbs are a great alternative to flowers. Or try perennials in a pot, then transfer them into the ground at the end of the Summer season so they can be enjoyed again next year.

And there you have it…  5 ways to extend the beauty on the inside to the outdoors.  I’m off to finish up the last potted plants, lay mulch in the side garden, and finally snap some pictures so I can share what I’ve been working on for the last weeks.

Have a wonderful memorial day weekend!

Patio Paradise: Before & After Patio Makeover

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

For the past 2 months we’ve been plotting, planning, shopping, implementing, and transforming our outdoor patio.  It’s been a labor of love to get this space to be an inviting oasis that we always envisioned and now can truly enjoy.

We bought our home in the middle of winter when there was over a foot of snow on the ground.  Once Spring hit, the melting snow revealed what we were up against a lot of work – much more than we anticipated.  In the sideyard, there was an above ground pool, which had seen better days, plus 20+ overgrown trees that made the entire yard look dark & cavernous.

In the last 4 years, we’ve done a lot of work & spent a lot of money to upgrade the area (things that we had to hire out because we couldn’t tackle on our own).  We’ve made progress over the years, but more work to really pull this outdoor space together needed to be done…

If you haven’t seen the before in previous posts (and this is actually after a lot of work had already been done), this is how the outdoor area looked before…

Before

Yikes!

Before

Our objective: To use the patio we already had (no money in the budget for something new) and to create a little slice of paradise with colorful decor!  I’m no expert on outdoor landscaping (or even keeping a flower alive for that matter), but I put my mad decorating skills to the test to transform this space…

If I can do it, so can you!

Before we could sit back, enjoy, and relax, there were a whole lotta steps that went into pulling this patio together.

First, the shopping.

It started with the pergola.  I first spotted it at Lowe’s in late Winter and fell in love.  We’ve always wanted a pergola, but were hesitant on building it from scratch.  Fear sometimes gets the best of us. Anyway, the black steel pergola seemed like the perfect (and much easier) way to go.

Prepping the patio with a new pergola

After that the layers.  Pillows + lanterns + pots + lighting + flowers!  I found all of these beauties at Lowe’s.  They have a great new outdoor collection this year with bold colors & patterns.

Prepping the patio

Once back at the house, one of the first things I tackled was painting the doors to the shed.  I was going for an orange vibe a few years ago, but that idea was ditched and the new outdoor space called for blue.  I started off attempting to spray paint the doors and that didn’t work.  Then I used the HomeRight Mini Paint Stick + a paint brush, and that was just the trick for an easy project makeover…

Prepping the patio with a new color on the shed doors

The patio set we chose was incredibly easy to put together.  So easy that each chair took about 2 minutes and 34 seconds… no joke!  The sides + the back literally snapped into the seat and voila it was done.  No nails, no screws, no allen keys, just wam-bam done!

Prepping the patio with new furniture

The chairs were REALLY heavy, but my man could handle it.  With one hand – WOW.  totally kidding, they are actually incredibly light, but don’t tell him that because he was super impressed with himself.

Ya gotta laugh along the way, right?!

And of course with creating an outdoor oasis, there is a lot of planting involved.  From weeding, planting, and mulching, it took a few weekends to tackle.  Plus there was the cleaning of the pond, the removal of an old fence, and the putting together of the outdoor fireplace – which is a must for a Patio Paradise – so we’ve been busy to say the least…

Prepping the Patio

…but in the end it’s all been worth it because this is the result of our beautiful space.

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

Too fuzzy?  Want a clearer picture?  Check it out…

Come join me on the patio.

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

The garden which was created (not by us, but by a previous homeowner) with a retaining wall sits about 2′ high than the patio and brings nice height and elevation to the patio setting. When you come down to the patio level, you are greeted by a blooming, oversized (not yet, but by mid-summer it’ll be huge) Russian Sage perennial.

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

The pond, which until last week was a muddy, gross mess, brings such a special touch to this area of our yard.  There is nothing like the calming sounds of water.  We’re also still loving the garden sculpture created 2 years ago from an old barrel. It’s such a pretty focal point.

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

The cushions for the chairs & sofa are incredible because the rain beads away instead of soaking in.  I found that out the other day by mistake.  Typically we put the cushions away each night, but they were accidentally left out.  The next day I was super bummed {enter mad-at-myself-face}, but when I touched them, they were completely dry!  They are made of Sunbrella fabric & I’m really impressed.

With the patio furniture set came different pillows, but instead of being matchy-matchy, I swapped them for a few others that I was drawn to at Lowe’s.

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

Lantern Love…

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

Want some drinks? Let’s chill at the table.

I took this beautiful Indian throw that I typically have on a chair indoors and used it as a table cloth.  The colors are so vibrant + bold, so it really brought a fun & festive vibe to the new patio.  Again, using what I have on-handmade makes it easier and less costly.

A simple pallet box that the Mister made is set as the centerpiece filled with colorful annuals.

10

Can you blame me for not wanting to leave my house for the next 2 months?!

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

For the underside of the pergola, I hung a lantern that I purchased a few years ago and draped lights from each corner to the center.

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

Important Info: The pergola came with 6″ stakes to anchor it into the ground.  First, we positioned the pergola on the patio, so the stakes wouldn’t work.  Secondly, I would be reluctant using stakes because I could still see the pergola pulling away.  The pergola has received rave reviews on the Lowe’s site, but the anchoring to the ground has been the only issue.  With an intense gust of wind, the fabric could easily act as a sail.

To make the pergola sturdy and in-place, we first used a masonry drill bit to make a hole into the concrete patio.  Then we used Tapcon concrete screws (see them here) in each of the 4 holes on the 4 posts.  It was a fairly easy process which took about 10 minutes.

Patio Pergola

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

Now that it’s all complete {thank goodness}, we can sit back and simply enjoy!

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

We’ve already enjoyed our first fire.  And within minutes of us starting it, some neighbors popped over.  That’s what Summer is all about…

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

And it melted my heart when the kids grabbed the poufs and started to read side-by-side.  It didn’t last long (I’m not going to pretend we are some kind of ‘perfect’ family where our kids always get along), but for the short moment, it was a treasure which I bookmarked in my mind.

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

If you missed (or didn’t see) the mood board I created for the patio outdoor space, this was the original vision that I created.  It always helps to have a ‘plan of action’ when shopping & executing a new space – either indoors or out.   Sources (with links) for all the elements are in last week’s post: The Plan.

Patio Paradise Mood Board: Creating an inviting, relaxing patio oasis

No landscape expert designed this outdoor room, just lil’ ole’ me & I’m pretty darn satisfied!

Here’s a recap of the before & after…

A revamped patio with new outdoor furniture + a Pergola. This new space is surrounded by flowers & the sounds of water from a small pond. A tranquil & ideal oasis for the Summer!

Want to see another outdoor space of ours that I just finished?  Check out the deck

An Outdoor Deck for Outdoor Living: sharing our outdoor oasis where we'll be spending lots of time over the next few months!

You know where we will be all Summer!  Come join us!!

Thanks for coming over for a tour of our new patio paradise.  It’s a dream that this space (+ the deck) are finished.  I can now sit back & enjoy the Summer days to come!

What outdoor projects have you tackled this year?  Do you have a patio or deck that you transformed or plan on transforming?

Disclosure: I am part of the Lowe’s Creative Team and was provided with a Lowe’s gift card to purchase items for my project.  I was also compensated for my time to use the products.  No one told me what to create, what to buy, how to use the product, or what to write.  All opinions are 100% mine!