We did it! Today marks Week 6 of the One Room Challenge from Calling It Home! At one point, I honestly didn’t think we were going to get our concrete installed in time but we did it. I am SO FLIPPIN happy with how our backyard reno shaped up. Here’s a look at what we’ll be enjoying all summer:

 

Do you remember what we started with?

We’ve reclaimed our yard and created usable space for entertaining. Too often our yards go unused because we ‘think’ our kids will play on the grass or we grew up having a lot of grass so that’s all we know. Ryan and I now have very little grass and actually think we may switch to artificial at some point. We love how low maintenance our space is because neither of us have a green thumb. We’ve got bets that these palms wont last longer than a month ha!

So where do we start…

FURNITURE

We partnered with Patio Plus for all of our patio furniture which you can find at The Home Depot. You can shop our sectional here and our dining set here. We can’t believe how comfortable our sectional is and the fact that it literally looks like something you’d have indoors. The whole point of our Backyard Reno was to extend our indoor living space outdoors and that’s exactly what we’ve been able to do. The South Beach Collection has an aluminum frame and coffee table so the pieces are light weight and rust proof. It is made of Sunbrella fabric so it’s protected from UV rays and is extremely weather resistant. Whoop whoop! We’re thrilled that we can keep both sets outdoors all year round without worry. The dining set has extremely comfortable chairs and the table is reclaimed teak. For those of you that don’t already know, teak is known to have natural oils that help to repel water. This  makes it extremely practical to have outdoors.

LIGHTS

We used quite a few lanterns from Bouclair to give add some ambiance to our backyard. These are great on a dining table, coffee table or just on the ground to illuminate plants and trees. We also used some string lights to create an intimate environment.

*** FUN TIP*** If you want your backyard to feel bigger put lights on the ground pointing upwards. This can help to illuminate areas in your yard. Our eyes naturally travel away from light so by placing your lights on the ground your space will naturally feel bigger. The opposite effect happens when you add lights in trees or string lights above your seating. It can really help to make your space feel cozy and intimate.

When it came to our string lights we had no idea how to hang them. I ended up buying hooks from The Home Depot. We reinforced a long piece of wood to our fence and then placed the hook at the very top. We also screwed the hooks directly into the frame around our window and door (not really sure if we’re supposed to do that but hey… it worked!)

 

PLANTS

We wanted to add some plants to our backyard to make it a bit more lively. We chose some inexpensive Plam Trees and Cedars that were $20.00 each. All of these were purchased at The Home Depot.

 

ACCESSORIES

I LOVE all of our outdoor pillows from Bouclair. Check out these awesome leaf placemats I found. Aren’t they amazing!? I added this bar cart beside the bbq for entertaining. I’m in love with all of the lanterns I picked up and blankets are a MUST if you’re trying to create a cozy space outdoors. I wanted some practical elements as well so we hung a rack for drying towels and the towels are almost too nice to use ha!

BBQ

Our backyard wouldn’t be complete without our brand new Weber BBQ. It’s the Spirit two Series and it comes in four amazing colours. Honestly, I had a hard time choosing. We went with the ‘Sapphire’ and I think the pop of blue is just so gorgeous. Plus, there’s a 10 year warranty!!! You can’t beat that.

What do you guys think of our Backyard Makeover? Did we inspire you to work on yours?

Thanks so much for following along. Don’t forget you can catch up on all our previous posts here:

Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5

Jackie

Find more great One Room Challenge design plans on the One Room Challenge site, or at Calling it Home!