ORC Week 8: The Reveal!
Thank goodness Linda (host of the biannual One Room Challenge) and the fabulous people at Better Homes and Gardens gave us grace and extended the spring/summer round due to delays caused by the global pandemic we’re living through! My husband Jason and I utilized every last day we were allowed before photographing our finished space and sharing it with you here and on my Instagram account @nest.out.west, and now, we’re excited to show off some before and after photos so you can see what we’ve been up to!
DIY Patio Makeover
Before:
For the first year that we lived in this house, my husband and I rarely ever used this space. The previous owners left us with a sea of concrete and dead shrubs, and it was soul-crushing to hang out down here. When March started showing signs of spring here in the Denver area, we sulked about what a waste of an already-small yard that lower patio area was. It was ugly, lifeless, and didn’t offer much as far as layout and function were concerned. To make matters worse, our then fourteen-month-old baby who had just gained a little bit of stair-climbing confidence took a pretty bad tumble down the concrete step, leaving him with large, bloody cuts on his nose and forehead. I ended up bringing him to his pediatrician later that day to rule-out a concussion (it was a really hard fall, poor baby!). He ended up not being concussed, but that was the last straw for me. This space needed to be made family-friendly, and it needed to be done ASAP!
In case you missed my first blog post explaining the reasons for this transformation and the inspirational images that got me excited about what this space could be, here it is!
Here are some images showing what the patio and pergola areas looked like before we had begun our One Room Challenge project:
Ace Hardware for the Win!
I would be remiss to say that we owe a HUGE thank-you to our friends at the Westwoods Ace Hardware store! Tim, Marcus, Ethan, Rachel, and team, you have all been BEYOND helpful when it came to gathering all of our materials (paint, lumber, a beautiful Weber grill, adhesives, and miscellaneous gardening supplies) and even delivering some of those materials to our house! As our primary sponsor throughout the past eight weeks of this One Room Challenge, #mylocalace has been our hero! Thank you for all of the sponsored materials you provided us, @acehardware and @westwoodsace—we literally couldn’t have made this happen without you!
In case you missed some of my favorite DIYs that Ace sponsored, check out this post on how we painted our home’s exterior from Denver Broncos colors to a palette that better fit our aesthetic (and today’s trends), or this post on how we painted our concrete patio using Ace’s Clark and Kensington paints color-matched to some of my go-to Benjamin Moore colors, or this post on how we built a modern-farmhouse-styled outdoor kitchen on an everyday budget (because like most people paying back IVF loans and trying to make a living during a pandemic with a toddler and limited childcare, we aren’t made of money).
After:
Now that we are finished revamping this space, we have a hard time believing that only eight weeks ago, we didn’t enjoy—or even use—this part of our home (like ever!). Now, it’s our little back yard paradise! We brought in some artificial grass for the lowest portion of the patio so it’s soft for our baby Joe to run around and play on, we power-washed and painted the floor, and believe it or not, the paint actually makes the concrete feel SO MUCH less abrasive on bare feet or baby’s palms. We also brought in a beige umbrella with a tilt option and easy crank-up from Abba Patio to shade the “grassy” area so our little red-headed baby doesn’t fry in the sun.
We also planted an assortment of hydrangeas (limelight and strawberry sundae), grasses, and flowers to bring life back to the perimeter of this area. Our DIY benches tripled the amount of people we can seat when we entertain now (once we’re able to really entertain again), and our outdoor kitchen, handmade shutters, and DIY window box all add dimension and interest to the back side of our home. Would you believe those florals are UV-protected, artificial plants from another generous sponsor of ours? Thank you, Afloral, for not only donating these products to our One Room Challenge patio makeover, but also for guiding me on which items to select! Window box dimensions are 75″ wide x 12″ h x 10″ deep.
For our dining area, we thought what better way to bring some al fresco ambiance than by stringing up some solar-powered lights we purchased from Amazon, and our new dining table—don’t even get me started on how much I love this table…
Pottery Barn generously sponsored this pretty Antigua dining table, as well as our outdoor entertaining essentials for when we are finally able to host a summertime soiree once again. We cannot thank them enough for their enthusiastic assistance with helping to beautify this portion of our patio!
In the end, we are super thrilled to have finished this project, mostly because now we have the rest of our summer to enjoy it! Thank you so much for following along on this journey! Please don’t hesitate to leave your questions in the comments!
For your convenience, here are all of the blog posts with details on all of our DIYs and weekend projects that led up to this finished space:
1: The One Room Challenge Has Begun!
2: When You Give a Mouse a Cookie…
3: Hydrangeas by Mail, String Lights, Turf, and Baby in a Cooler
4: DIY Modern Wood Shutters (that we ended up painting black)
5: Modern DIY Patio Benches and a One Room Challenge Update
6: Outdoor Kitchen DIY, Part 1 (the frame and surround)
7: DIY Outdoor Kitchen, Part 2 (the countertops)
Here’s a photo gallery of the finished space in case you’d like to soak-up all the details!
