Outdoor Patio and Pergola 2019 Update

My backyard is definitely my sanctuary in the summer, and it is one of the only places I am when it is summer and at home (except when it is raining!). I was lucky to have had a great yard to work with when I bought my house, and each year I’m here it keeps getting better!

Last summer, I wrote a blog post about how you can have a great patio or deck on a budget. This still holds true, and after reading it, I really did not think I could write it much better. If you want my original tips and tricks (that still hold true today), be sure to check out that blog post here.

Instead of re-writing my post last year, I decided just to do a quick update, as I did change a few things out and did some things differently.

BISTRO AREA

I added this Bistro table last year, and I am still loving it. It is the primary place I sit when I am eating outside on my own or relaxing with a glass of wine in the evenings. It was definitely one of the best purchases I could have made.

I did not change up much in this area but wanted to emphasize my bistro set, as it is STILL available at Wal-Mart for a great price.

One thing to note is that instead of doing the hanging petunias, I changed out my hanging plants for begonias. Although I absolutely love the grandeur or the flowy, hanging petunias and do kind of miss it, I got tired of them looking dead by early July. Once they got hit with major heat and kept growing, mine would always get super straggly and thin looking. By the middle of July, I was getting ready to replace them to last the rest of the summer! I did not want to deal with that again this year and decided to go with begonias, as these were very healthy for me last year and looked nice for a longer time.

Shop my Bistro Set here. Note that my exact one is the high top table chairs for $99.00. I did link the exact same one with the smaller chairs.

My dining set under the pergola is a Hampton Bay set and is older, but I was able to find a few similar styles at an AFFORDABLE price!

CORNER BY DOOR

Every year, I always plant some flowers in the shady corner by the door going out to the patio. I changed it up this year by breaking out the welcome hanging pot and adding a fun new plant I saw at the local nursery! This pink grass type plant is a Cordelyone. I had never seen or heard of this before, but I loved the hot pink color.

OUTDOOR DINING TABLES AND UMBRELLAS

As you can see from the photos above, I kept the layout and ideas of my two patios similar to the years past. I updated the space with two new umbrellas with LED lights out on the stone patio from Amazon. I am loving these umbrellas with the lights. They lights work great, and the umbrellas are great quality.

It was time to replace my chair cushions and per usual, I headed to Old Time Pottery to pick up a new set. Old Time Pottery continues to have the best deals and selections on chair cushions, just as I wrote about in my post last year! I refuse to pay more than $15-20 for a cushion, and Old Time Pottery is at that price point. Since I wanted to keep in the theme of using red, I picked out these red, white, and blue cushions for a different look yet ensuring I keep red a central color.

If you were wondering, I bought this bar cart from an estate sale (it was tan and rusty). I cleaned it up and did a fun bright green color. I also bought my fire pit from Big Lots on clearance, although in the future, I would love to replace it with a gas fire pit.

As I mentioned, I picked up my outdoor chair cushions and my hanging lights at Old Time Pottery, since they are the cheapest. I could not find anything similar online with the same price point, but I did link up my exact umbrellas and my grill!

AROUND THE PERGOLA

I had this small bed around the pergola made last year but never really had a chance to finish it. This year, I added some Japanese Forest Grass (Above) along with some grasses and annuals like coreopsis, marigolds, and petunias. This year, I was not exactly sure how I wanted to finish it, so I added temporary annuals to give it a polished look with a pop of color. Stay tuned next year to see if I add anything else!

BACK BED

In my back bed, I cleaned up the grass, redid the rock around the bench, and added some begonias, my newest favorite flower this season. It adds a pop of color and being able to clean out the rock around the bench really cleans up the area.

That wraps up some of the minor changes I made to my backyard area this season! As I mentioned, I did not change a lot and only wanted to make sure I replaced old umbrellas and cushions.

I’m doing more with landscaping this year, so I will be sure to share about those projects and may even do a small tutorial on how I do my decorative pots this year.

What do you think about my backyard? Do you like the small updates? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!