Patio After

Back in August I posted about repainting our concrete patio and I promised some "after" photos. And here they be. I'm looking forward to the day when I can casually drop a few hundred dollars on a new patio set, outdoor rugs, plants and all the lovely things I have in my head. But right now I'm finding thrifty ways to create a space we love. (My apologies for the dark photos - one nice thing about our patio is that it's always shady, but that doesn't lead to great photos).

The patio table was purchased from a neighbor's garage sale for $2. We spent about $9 on spray paint, first priming it gray, then adding a couple of top coats in purple. The chairs were headed for the dump. The squirrels had been after the stuffing in the original cushions and my dad was sick of it. He finally gave up and was carting them to the dump when I intervened. I used some fabric given to me from my mom and mother-in-law's stash to recover two of them, and two had been neglected by the squirrels and stayed as-is. The pretty silver bucket is from the paint department at Home Depot (about $4) and the kalanchoe is from Kroger ($6).

This little corner is Hugh and Rosemary's space. Their stuff only stays in this area for photos though - normally it's all over the patio and yard. The plastic kitchen it really ugly, but they love it. I'm thinking of trying some of Krylon's Fusion line of spray paint to do a little make-over.

The little chairs are from Ace Hardware last summer ($5 each) and I LOVE this little brass table (thrifted, $4). Hugh likes to eat leaves from the potted Rosemary plant. The cute kid-size rake and spade are from an end-of-summer clearance at Joanne Fabrics (about $3 each). So far the kids haven't hit each other with them.

This full-of-potential patio love-seat was $10 at a garage sale. I'm just waiting to find some gently used patio cushions to recover and make it usable. The grill? FREE! I was driving through our neighborhood last week and this was on the curb with a "free" sign. But was free good enough? No! I knocked on the door and asked if the nice gentlemen there would help me get it into my car. They went above and beyond and actually drove it to my house in their truck! Turns out the grill is in great shape - it just needed a good cleaning. We'll have to invite our neighbors over for dinner some night to thank them.

Taking these "after" photos was a great excuse to clean things up a bit. After writing this post, I realize that we spent well under $150 for everything here (including the patio paint and $7 easel for the kids). I usually don't set out with a budget in mind for these projects. They just come together a little at a time. And this is definitely still a work in progress, but I'm happy with our little space so far.