Budget Backyard Makeover: Help us Choose the Space!

Summer is right around the corner, and we’re excited to be working on a budget backyard makeover. But we need your help to choose the space we design next.

To say we’ve been busy is an understatement. Swamped is more like it. From installing the new floors, designing the bathroom, working our way through our first One Room Challenge, and working with design clients (more on that coming soon). Oh, and did I mention we’re having a baby in less than eight weeks! But we couldn’t say no to a very exciting collaboration with Wayfair to create an outdoor oasis!

When we bought this home one of the first things I noticed was the beautiful landscaping. The previous owners spent a lot of time and money on creating some curb appeal. Since then I’ve attempted to maintain it though I’m not exactly blessed with a green thumb. But I knew I wanted to make the rest of our property match the beautiful front yard.

So today we’re going over three outdoor spaces that we think would be perfect for this budget backyard makeover. The best part is we would love you to vote on the space you’d want to see the most. The idea behind this collaboration is to give our readers inspiration to create their own budget backyard oasis. We want this to be relatable but still inspirational.

Option 1: The Fire Pit

I have a lot of hopes and dreams for the fire pit. Mostly because when I wake up and go to sleep it’s the first thing I see. I picture four or five Adirondack chairs, sitting on a tiled surround and a stone fire pit. Eventually, I want the kids to have a cedar play park in the back corner. A few raised garden beds on the opposite side of the yard, and a bit more landscaping.

The good news is that we have already begun working on a design (for an upcoming collaboration). So even though we’re going to be making over this area already, I still would love to get a headstart on the design and share some ways we can make this area look a lot better.

The pros

We will be doing this space anyway so there is a plan in place.
Pretty much a blank space to do anything we want.
Stone is expensive and so are the Adirondack chairs.

The Cons

We’re going to be making this space over anyway, so is it a waste to do it now?
There’s a lot of stones that need to be removed.
Weeding, landscaping, and a lot of time.

Option 2: The Back Deck

We have this giant deck in the back of our house, with two french doors that open onto it. When both doors are open it feels like an extension of our home, which is exactly what I want. But we have a few issues, like the size of the deck which makes everything look like toy furniture. The deck itself needs to be cleaned and maybe even stained. Another issue with this space is the lack of shade, especially in the afternoon sun. It gets hot back there and things tend to fade in the sun. We’re looking into building a pergola (a project for next year), but for now, I think a big umbrella would be a fairly affordable solution.

The design for this outdoor space is based on creating zones or areas on the deck itself. Specifically, we need an area for outdoor dining and one for lounging. In a perfect world, I would have a large sectional with an outdoor carpet and a coffee table for entertaining.

The pros:

We have a lot of space to create something amazing
There is an outdoor table we have from a previous collaboration with Bouclair.

The cons

We have a lot of space…
We will need to figure out the best way to create shade on a budget.
Creating an outdoor living room will take a lot more money.

Option #3: Front Porch

I spent a lot of time gardening and maintaining the front yard over the past two years. But no matter how good it looks, all I see is the missed potential of our front porch. It’s an enclosed area, that is barely functional due to the width of the patio. The roof gives some relief from the hot sun and protects the deck from rain and other weather conditions. But it’s also where our recycling sits and builds up over the week. Again, in a perfect world, I would love to have something custom-made to conceal the recycling bins. I highly doubt we will be investing in changing anything structural, so I will need to source some sort of seating or something interesting in that area.

Recently, I made a few changes to try and spruce up space, but I feel like I can only do so much there. So far we have our old doormat (which suits this time perfectly), two beautiful ceramic pots filled with flowers.

THE PROS:

It’s a small space and I always get questions about styling small outdoor patios.
To style the front patio, we wouldn’t require a huge budget to do.

THE CONS

The width of the patio makes it very hard to put any furniture there.
It’s where our recycling bins are, and I would need to create something that is still functional.

So the plan is to choose an area, create a plan, order from Wayfair and share it all with you! Let me know what space you want to see for this budget backyard makeover? I’ll be sharing it on Instagram as well, more of the process (are we friends over there yet?).