My sweet husband and I have packed up and moved more times than I can count. Back when we lived in Texas, I oversaw leasing for a beautiful student housing complex, so I was constantly getting new ideas when touring units. This usually led to calling to let Mario know we “needed” to make another move. Bless his heart, he did a lot of heavy lifting. All this to say, he was dreaming of the day we found our “permanent” home and packing up was a thing of the past. Fast forward to today and we’ve been in our current home for over two years, our longest streak so far! We learned so much about functionality and had a list of “must haves” when building our home, but one area we didn’t put enough focus on was our back yard. After thinking through what we really “needed” in an outdoor space, we’re excited to share the updated patio with y’all!
Besides going for neighborhood walks, grilling out is easily our top outdoor activity. We knew the space needed to be somewhat based around grilling and hosting, so a table and chairs were a must. We’ve had these orange and turquoise ones from Target for over 4 years and they’re still really vibrant, so I based a lot of the colors around them. We went with a bench for the sake of squeezing a few extra people at the table and love this one! I ordered the table, bench, sectional, pillows and rug online, so I was just crossing my fingers it would all flow together and fit the space well. I’m so happy with how they all meshed together!
A few other things I need to mention – I highly recommend this sectional if you’re working with a small-ish space. Our patio is actually fairly large, but the gazebo area only covers 14 feet. Something this size didn’t overwhelm the space and still leaves plenty of room for the dining set. It’s also nice because you can arrange it a few different ways, so if this layout doesn’t work for you, there’s lots of options to make it work with your space. This rug is so vibrant and fun! The material is a plastic-like material, which we love. When you have a busy little one-year-old, anything that wipes off spills and stains is a dream. The texture seems like it’ll hold up way better than fabric outdoor rugs, so I anticipate we’ll get a few years use out of it. Lastly, the gazebo seems really expensive in comparison to the metal frame/fabric top options you can get at Home Depot, but this one will hold up forever! It’s insanely sturdy and doesn’t budge during crazy wind/rain storms. We had one of the fabric top ones at our last home and Mario had to re-secure it at least once a week, so this one is a dream!
I hope you’ve gotten a bit of back yard inspo from our new space! If your budget doesn’t permit for a full renovation, I highly recommend starting with brightening up your space! Start by adding some fun pillows to your current dining set and build around that! What are your must-haves in a patio space?! I’d love to hear – we just might have to make some additions to ours!
