Entire DIY Backyard Makeover
This has been our longest and biggest project to date. Dylan and I are completely making over our back patio with the help from The Home Depot. Now, you might have seen our previous projects of some of the process of creating our dream back patio space, but today we are putting everything together and taking you start to finish with all the little details of our back patio makeover.
Here is what our back yard looked like before and even back in February, we knew exactly what we wanted to do and all the hard work that needed to be done. First off, we needed to take down several trees for the house's sake, but particularly a massive pine tree so that we can pour our new concrete pad. We have five acres out here so we really wanted to take advantage of the space and go big with patio. This was the most time consuming part because of how massive the stump was and poor Dylan I think it took a week of going through multiple chainsaws with sharpening the chains a ton, digging out the area and trying to pull the stump out, but eventually we were successful. Once the the hole was covered, the ground was graded and compacted, it was time to get the concrete pad poured. This was our first really exciting day because it was the first time we are getting something added and not chopped down or removed.
The next order of business was to get the area next to the patio graded and ready to build a privacy fence. This fence will serve a few purposes, hide the AC unit and give the back area a little more privacy from our side yard.
We went with more of a modern horizontal style fence using deck boards. This beefed up the fence a bit than using your traditional fence boards, but strong and durable is what we are about for this project. In the nook of the fence, we added 89 bahama gravel, this is just a really nice white pea gravel and easy to walk across.
Behind the fence we did 57 bahama gravel, we went bigger here to help with water drainage and this gravel actually goes out behind the other side of the fence and down the side of the house. So far, we have had no issues with each type mixing or blending into each other, so that is a major win and looks great.
Now for probably the most dramatic change to the overall look of this makeover. We are painted the house white.
Dylan used our Wagner sprayer and masonry, brick, and stucco paint from Behr. We went with the color Alabaster because it's pretty much a good all around white. Not stark white and not too much on the yellow tone. We painted the eves with the same color and it turned out so good. The blue was just not the right color for this house so we painted the back door as well in the color Broadway to match the window trim.
We had a few builds within this transformation. One was the fence, next is our raised garden bed to grow all kinds of vegetables and herbs.
We made this out of fence boards and deck railing that obviously already comes to the right size in width, we just needed to cut to make the right lengths. Totally an easy way to go and it turned out really awesome. Now time for plants! We used all Bonnie herbs from Home Depot and chose some fire burrito peppers, red bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, basil, spearmint, and rosemary. These are great because you can buy them harvest-ready and it's a quick and easy way to start your herb or vegetable garden. We are so excited to have herbs that we use all the time be grown right here in our backyard and this will save some money in the long run.
The next build is honestly to hold the show of this patio, a grill station for the Traeger Pro 780 Grill.
We have a separate video/blog post on this build, so make sure to check that out. This Traeger is a beast of a grill. You can connect your phone via WIFI and control the temperature to cook your food perfectly. This is a wood pellet grill and with TurboTemp which allows an ultra fast startup. You can also connect this grill to Alexa, Dylan is the most excited about this because he has been turning our house into a smart house and he will get some good use out of this feature. This is definitely a garden-to-grill situation by growing our veggies there and grilling them up here.
Now, my favorite part, the furniture and decor. I will start this section off and say all the furniture is from The Home Depot and it is all linked down below for you!
Oakshire Sectional: https://homedepot.sjv.io/yRyzdy
Oakshire Loveseat and Chairs: https://homedepot.sjv.io/qnA1bO
Hampton Bay Natural Poufs: https://homedepot.sjv.io/9WAN5Q
Hampton Bay Dining Table Set: https://homedepot.sjv.io/XxXD0o
Hampton Bay Natural Indoor/Outdoor Rug: https://homedepot.sjv.io/Ea9kon
Hampton Bay Firepit: https://homedepot.sjv.io/NKzgdN
Coral Vista Lounge Chair: https://homedepot.sjv.io/JrJ1EN
Place Mats: https://amzn.to/2Wqtluu
White Blanket: https://amzn.to/3eZODW0
Grill Accessories: https://homedepot.sjv.io/5bAReD
Home Depot has all the top quality products and we can attest that these products can take your patio up to the next level. My goal for this patio is to have plenty of seating, so we went with the Oakshire wicker sectional with tan cushions. After moving lots around, I finally landed on this layout with the 2 matching Oakshire chairs angled in and I am loving the contrast with the white house and darker furniture with lighter colored cushions. I added the Hampton Bay outdoor poufs on each side of the sectional and they help break up all the grey with the natural color and can be pulled out if we need more seating or to act as an ottoman.
No outdoor space is finished without outdoor dining in my opinion. I can't tell you how obsessed I am with this color combo of the Hampton Bay Crenshaw Park Dining Set! The smoked glass adds a lot to make it not incredibly see-through and compliments the white fabric chairs in my opinion. The wood accents on the arms of the chairs are beautiful as well and we grounded this space with the Hampton Bay natural indoor outdoor rug.
I would say this gravel area is my favorite, but I might be lying, it all looks too good. We have the matching Oakshire loveseat to the sectional out here around the Hampton Bay fire pit that we actually found in-store while shopping around and love it so much. You can open and close the grated top which is super nice and it totally matches what is going on everywhere else.
On the side of the gravel area, we added a Hampton Bay Coral Vista lounge chair with the cane pattern on the sides and back and I am a sucker for wood colors and white put together, so I will be taking advantage of this chair for the rest of the summer.
If you follow our Instagram and have seen the renderings of this project you would notice that something is missing. There will be phase 2 of this project later this year, so we aren't completely finished yet.
This fall we will be building two covered sections with an outdoor see-through fireplace in the middle of this patio. Dylan and I are super excited for the rest of this project and for the heat to die down and more grass to grow.
It has been a struggle for grass to grow back in this area so we will be working out that until we are back out here later this year for completion.
Thank you so much to Home Depot for helping us with this project, I can predict many many dinner parties out here and just hanging out during these summer nights and into the fall.
