Outdoor Patio Spruce Up

I entered another design challenge over at Fresh Nest.  We were supposed to spruce up our outdoor living spaces.  The prize is a headboard and I would really, really like to win it.  I've wanted a headboard for over 10 years but it just isn't something we could justify spending money on just yet.  Winning it would be great!  Vote for me here! 

Our outdoor space was in need of some rearranging.  Here at the left you can see the area under our deck.  There is a small patch of paver stones under there that we installed two summers ago.  Our plan was to put a table and chairs where it could be shaded. 

Instead, a playhouse was put there because we got it when the weather wasn't that great so we didn't want to put it in the yard. 

Our table and chairs were on our other patio right outside our sliding glass doors.  Not very efficient, that's for sure!  Do you see that huge weed?  Those bags of rocks from our patio work from TWO YEARS ago?  We definitely needed to get to work on this space.

The first thing we did was cut down a huge branch off our neighbor's pine tree.  Don't worry, we asked first.  It was over our fence and crowding our own tree. 

We cleaned up the playhouse and placed it back in the corner of our yard.  That picnic table was behind the playhouse in the before picture.  We cleaned it up as well and made a great little play area for the kids.  They played out there for a long time on Saturday and the neighbor girls enjoyed it as well.

 

Once we had the space under our deck cleared off, we moved the table and chairs over there.  We won this patio furniture by participating in a year long event put on by the city of Lincoln. 

We added our hammock, as well.  We still have one more row of pavers to put down and we have some timbers to frame it with but with the rain we've been having lately, that had to wait!

I really love the backyard now and hope to spend some time knitting at that table soon!