Want to see some of my Outdoor Patio Ideas

Outdoor Patio Ideas

 

Do you have an area in your outdoor space that is never used because it it overgrown or just ugly.  I will look at four outdoor patio ideas that I have used at my house and at my lake property.  Most of these spaces are small, so they just have a few items, if your space is larger when you finish you will be able to add more items.

I purchased this home in 2001, none of the outdoor areas were very useful.  This will show you what I have done with my outdoor space to give you some ideas or inspiration to update your space.  Now lets look at each space one at a time.

Back yard jungle to a nice pave stone patio

 

The pictures cannot tell the whole story.  This space was bordered with a small fence and was overgrown in weeds.  It did have the lid for the septic system for my house, I would have to work around this.  The first step was to remove the fence and chop the weeds out.  I removed the birdhouse and post that it was on.

I wanted a nice flat area for a patio, so I looked at several pavers until I settled on the interlocking kind that both of us liked.  I had to build a retaining wall with stacked paver stones on the lower side for a retaining wall.  Next step was to level the dirt, lay down a layer of sand and smooth to a flat surface.  I installed the stones and cut as needed.  It did turn out very well and has lasted for over 10 years with little work.

Next was what kind of furniture will work best on this patio.  Look at this post here as I have several types of metal table and chair sets on display in this area for examples.  I settled on a 42 inch table with four chairs and an umbrella with stand.  For more information on Umbrellas see my post here.  For more information on umbrella stands see my post here.

For using this area after dark we added some solar post lights to give some light.  For more information on solar post lights look at my post here.

Overgrown front porch to a nice sitting area

 

As you can see in the before picture with the lock box on the front door, even if you sit on the front porch you could not see anything because of the overgrowth.  First thing was to cut out the on bush and then move the Hibiscus to another location.  Took several attempts to find the right seating for this area as it was very small.

We looked at several chair sets, the sling swivel rockers felt the most comfortable for this are.  We add some cushions for seating comfort and a small side table for

drinks and snacks.  When the fall arrives we decorate for Halloween and In the winter this area is used for a small tree so we store the chairs in the basement.

I added a hook so that we could have some wind chimes for that soothing outdoor sound.  I have several wind chimes that we change out for the seasons.  I have a bracket that a Hummingbird feeder hangs from during the warmer months, it gives many visitors while you are sitting out relaxing or reading.

This area is very comfortable and versatile for us.  It is used year round for something.  I have more information on wind chimes here.

Basement patio area to a BBQ station

 

This are required the least amount of work to setup.  I jsut had to clean out the leaves and install the BBQ pit, chair and side table.  This area lets me grill outside with a place to sit and wait for the meat to get finished.  I added a motion sensor light to the outside to give me some light after the sun goes down and the meat is not done yet.  For more information on this light see my post here.

The one good thing is that the door goes to the TV room in the basement and when the weather is bad, I can watch something while grilling.

In the future you can look for a some kind of open enclosure to make this space a little more pleasant to the eyes and keep out some of the evening sun, it does get hot grilling on some summer nights.

Build an 8 X 8 deck at the lake

 

This year I purchased a little property to go to on the weekends.  It has a couple of small lakes and we can use the four wheeler at the dirt park at the back.  I have owned the camper for several years and wanted to park it somewhere because it was difficult to haul on the highway.

After a couple of months, she decided that we needed an outside area for morning coffee and afternoon tea.  I told her that the concrete patio are could support a small deck for seating.  I built the frame for the deck out of lumber that was removed from another deck.  I had to purchase the flooring boards and railing.  This small deck took me and my son one day to build.

We already had this bistro set sitting on the side deck at our current home and it fit very nicely.  The small 24 inch table with two metal chairs are just what this space needs and we can look out at the water while we relax.  For more information on bistro sets look at my article here.

Conclusion

 

This is just some of the outdoor patio ideas that I have done at my home.  In the future I will be looking at adding some more outdoor spaces that have been updated with seating, heating, lighting or other accessories for your areas.

If you have an outdoor space that you would like to share here, send me a short story, some before and after pictures and I will publish it here on my site to inspire others.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article.If you have any questions, comments, stories to share, use the forms below and I will get back to you shortly.