Patio Makeover (for cheap!)

One of our projects this summer was to spruce up our sad, sad patio in the back of our house. I'm a bit embarrassed to even show the before pictures, but here you go!

The patio was made of concrete blocks that were falling apart, the grass needed to be re-done, the concrete steps needed to be painted, and it badly needed some landscaping.

before

You can see how terrible the patio looked here. Just gross.

another before

after

Some inexpensive things that we did to give the patio a facelift:

1. Painted the iron banister a fresh coat of white and the concrete steps brown. We also removed the screen door and painted the doors and trim.

2. We poured pea gravel on top of the concrete blocks. It's not an ideal surface for a patio, but it is much less expensive than brick or stone. Someday we want to replace it with stone pavers, but it works for now. It definitely looks better than the concrete!

3. We did buy some stone pavers to surround the patio.

4. We planted perennials and annuals around the patio.


5. I found this cute little patio table at a yard sale and it was already repainted and the seat covers were recently replaced, so I didn't even have to do any work to it!

6. We are working on reseeding the lawn. It's been a work in progress and a learning experience for hubs!

All in all, we spent several hundred dollars and the difference is huge! Although, I must admit, lots of our sweat went into it! It feels immensely satisfying knowing that we did it all ourselves!