Jennifer Laura
Backyard Makeover Reveal!
Updated: Mar 9, 2022
I am so excited the backyard is finished!! This is a space we use all year long, but of course the spring, summer, and fall get overtime.
Psst. All of the sources are linked at the bottom of this post for you! When we first moved in our backyard patio area looked like this...
And then last summer it got a slight upgrade with this affordable seating set I purchased, but we still had a long way to go!
I'm a big believer in making things better/livable right now even if you can't do the big (usually expensive) makeover you ultimately envision (example: see our kitchen). That little patio set served us well for the past year and we even ended up keeping the chairs for our new setup! You can see my plan for the backyard space right here and I would say I stuck pretty close to my original vision with a few curveballs along the way (like the outdoor coffee table I wanted which sold out or the sofa I purchased from Amazon being a total scam). But enough about all of that, let's get into the reveal!
I planted a garden and did some DIY garden labels, added a potting station, hung some string lights (a full post on that project coming soon), bought some new furniture, and ultimately the rug was the biggest game changer (I think)!
Oh and we also ended up adding a dining table and chairs out here, which I wasn't sure we were going to do, but am so glad we did! I also decided last minute to swap out our bug riddled flush mount light for this white ceiling fan. It's nothing special or flashy, but when I was looking for a light fixture the only thing I could envision was a fan, it will be so nice to have a breeze out here in our hot Texas summers. I think it's the only space in our home where I wanted to add a fan and not remove one!
Fun fact- I took all of these photos out in the rain over the weekend. It's been raining here for a week straight with probably another week of rain ahead of us. I knew if I didn't get the space shot this weekend it would be another week (at least) before it happened so I was determined! Thankfully I had several pockets of no rain and the overcast skies made for nice soft lighting.
But when you see the wet patio surface or the wet fence, now you'll know why!
I set the dining table for the photos, but now I'm just counting the days until we can invite friends over to have a real party out here! Thankfully my kids didn't let the lemonade go to waste!
I got most of my planters and decorations from At Home and Target. I didn't have a lot of luck thrifting/antiquing things for this makeover, which you know is where I like to find a lot of my decor. Outdoor furniture was a total scarcity on Facebook Marketplace when I started looking in early April. I think I must have started looking a bit too late into the season after everyone else had already jumped on it. After all, the backyard wasn't a space I was even planning to work on this year!
I've shared this potting station area before, but I did switch things up a bit over here, my favorite new find out here being this little green bicycle I snagged at my aunt's estate sale. The brass watering can was a fun addition as well.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this space evolves- I dream of someday adding a pool and redoing all of the red tile to something a little more neutral and pretty, it's reddish/orange brick overload out here right now.
I originally planned to remove the pond when we first moved in, but we now plan to work around it with whatever we decide to add back here. We love our koi fish and have become quite attached to the soothing sounds and entire ecosystem that exists out here. We have beautiful lily pads that are currently in full bloom, they die off in the winter, but always come back.
We also have an entire frog village and right now the baby tadpoles are thriving. We love watching them grow and turn into the cutest baby frogs every summer. The lizards will come back soon too and our kids love catching them and building little houses for them that they inevitably run away from and cause heartbreak, but there's always another lizard to catch!
We have already enjoyed several nights out here eating dinner under the string lights, and I can't wait for the long summer nights stretching out in front of us to enjoy out here! Let me know what you think and I'm curious to know- is your backyard a space you've prioritized this year? I certainly almost didn't!
Sources
Want to read more about how we got here?
Comments