Back Patio Makeover

Our backyard has been a blank slate for some time now, and Brett and I had big plans for it. Big plans, with a little budget.

During the covid lockdown, Brett and I talked to so many contractors about a Back Patio Makeover and what we could do to make it a more enjoyable living space. We talked about extending the roof, building a pergola, or even extending the pavers and getting some beautiful hardscaping. Everything was a little out of reach budget-wise for us, but we still wanted to make a nice space for us to hang out especially with the cooler weather upon us.

So we decided to start our very first Back Patio Makeover DIY project together.

A Blank Slate

Our Inspiration

After we decided that hiring a company to help us was not an option, I thought to myself that there had to be SOMETHING that we can do to spruce up our back patio on our own.

Enter Pinterest. I found this DIY post on CraftedbytheHunts.com for a beautiful privacy wall with planters and knew it would be perfect for our space.

I showed it to Brett and he agreed we could definitely take this on ourselves. And to the home improvement store we went!

Our DIY Experience

We followed the Hunt’s instructions, pretty much to the T. There were really only a few snags for us. Nothing we couldn’t handle though!

The first was that our wall was 10 feet wide, and their’s was within the standard 8ft range. So when we went to the store to pick out the wood, none of them were longer than 8ft. We could have gone to a lumber yard, but since this was our first DIY we decided to just get what we could right then instead of figuring out where to go to get custom planks. This meant that Brett had to get clever and hinge two pieces of wood together to get to 10ft. So that was interesting.

I also learned a lot about staining wood, which I had never done before. I decided to go with the same stain Zoe recommended in her blog post. It was so beautiful in their pictures and exactly what I wanted, so that made things easy. I didn’t have to by multiple stains and test them.

However, I few of my boards definitely have some imperfections—lots of drooping stain and maybe some blotchy patches. But hey, it adds character right?

I learned that you really don’t need a lot of stain to get that beautiful color—a little goes a long way. I did start putting it on with a stain brush and then wiping it down with an old t-shirt and that is when I found that the wood came out best.

We also didn’t pay enough attention to the grains in the planks that we picked out to make sure that they all went nicely together, especially since we had to piece two planks together in our wall. I still think it came out amazingly though!

And finally, the frame fell down one time when we were trying to place it and knocked a big hole in our screen. Good thing the screen was on our list to be replaced, we’ll just have to do that sooner than we expected!

DIY Painted Planters

I also painted the planters in her DIY post here in the same way as well. That was a super fun project and they came out so nicely! She made her own stencils, but I found an amazing pack of stencils on Amazon that I used for mine.

Backyard Patio Makeover DIY Privacy Wall

I love Zoe and Andrew’s projects and Instagram account. There is so much inspiration and I can’t wait to see their projects planned for 2021.

The wall truly makes such a difference in our space. It feels so warm and I love the pop of green from the plants.

Back Patio Makeover Finished Product

From there it was easy to make the space more upgraded and our style. I knew I wanted to keep it black and white with the warm tone of the privacy wall, I thought it would be super cozy.

I even repurposed some old chairs we kept for additional seating by replacing the cushions and adding decorative pillows to give them a refreshed look. (Note they are still a little rusted, but look 1,000 times better)