Patio Transformation -

We have lived in our home for three summers now and thoroughly enjoy our backyard. We have a large patio that every year I tweak because it has never looked or functioned the way I wanted it to. I always imagined having a patio that looked like this:

source

You can entertain, eat outside, relax, and sit on those cushions enjoying summer.

But instead my patio space looked like this:

The reason is because although that first picture looks nice, it finally dawned on me it is not how we use our patio space. The big DIY table restricts use of the space, the numerous chairs I tried were difficult to store, the cushions would always get wet (who remembers to bring them in EVERY time it rains?), and no shade meant more summertime sweating than summertime relaxing. Often our patio was barren like the picture above, left neglected because I couldn’t figure out how to design it. In fact, the main person who used our patio was not me, my husband, nor our guests when we entertain. It was my 2 year old daughter, who was annoyed the chairs took up her space on the cement to draw with chalk. When I thought about it, I realized having an outdoor eating space was not for our family and was the main roadblock to my successfully designing the back patio space. After I figured this out, the doors opened and it was like ideas just started popping into my mind. I made my back patio into a fun place for my kids!

I kept two of my chairs that stacked and were comfy as a place for my hubby and I to sit and enjoy watching our kid’s play (that we actually do). These chairs are comfortable enough you don’t need cushions!

patio fire pit wicker chairs and potted plant

I found a toddler swing at a garage sale for $2 and brought it home to hang under the stairs. Both my kids love it!

I found a basketball hoop at a garage sale for $3 and put that back there as well. My husband used to play basketball, so it is a sport we love to teach our kids.

We were given a toddler picnic table that my daughter loves to play on and eat her afternoon snack amidst playing.

Patio umbrella cement slab deck fire pit

I found a patio umbrella for $15 (steal!) at a garage sale and replaced the canopy for $30. Now we had some shade!

The fire pit my dad gave to me as it was given to him. It’s a great pit and we really only use it when the kids are in bed, so it was safe to set up an area for fires on our patio. This is one thing Stephen and I would do together outside!

I use a turtle sandbox we were given with water instead of sand for a mess free alternative. It makes a great kiddie pool!