One Room Challenge Week 4 Patio Update
This week we killed it and got so much done on the patio! The flooring is installed. That was a huge undertaking! I have now had my fill of floors for a bit.
No rain to hold us back the garden turned patio makeover went into full gear!
First thing first we cemented in the posts we’ll hang the string lights from.
Travis made these light post absolutely stunning by burning them! You can check out that how-to wood burning tutorial here.
Check My Other One Room Challenge Posts for this project here:
Making the patio floor
Friends, this was definitely the hardest part of the whole project. Floors, in my humble opinion, are not fun. But, we pushed though and it turned out so well!
We basically followed Jenna’s floor installation process which she covers in detail here. I encourage you to check it out! She thought of everything.
We made the floor with a slight grade, being higher toward the house and sloping down towards the sidewalk. This helps the rain run away from the foundation of the house.
We also followed these four steps when making the floor:
1. Place down weed barrier first
2. Add sand on top to help level out the floor
3. Place pavers in pattern you desire
4. Pour and level pea gravel
Shop the patio:
Installing the floor took about two days, working almost all of each of day, to complete.
The hardest part for me was making sure the floor was as level as possible. The hardest part for Travis was cutting the pavers. That was a project where the kids and I stayed clear and I pretended not to hear the under his breath cursing when some of the pavers broke. He also said he was done with floors for a while. 😉
We decided to place the pavers fairly close together, about 1 & 3/4″ wide. Any wider and we were afraid little feet would be constantly kicking the gravel out from between the pavers, and I didn’t want to be sweeping them back 24/7.
Once the pavers were installed we decided to paint the foundation from the house black and also trim the window shutters black as well as a few other things.
progression of patio
Where we started:
Before black trim:
After trim:
I was amazed with what you can do with a gallon of exterior paint. Don’t want to paint your whole home but want to freshen it up? Paint the trim! We still have a quarter of the gallon of Behr exterior paint left. A little went a long way.
It’s very important not to overlook small details. Painting the foundation wall and shutters visually made a huge impact on the space. If you’re going to do it, go all in!
Also painting the trim around the door and the stairs polished up this area. Now to paint the door! (Eventually)
I painted the front door lighting a few years back if you’re interested in how to do that. They were an intense gold perviously. Trimming everything up the same color updated this space significantly.
What’s left to finish up the patio
Next up is getting some planters and finishing up this space with final touches. This challenge is almost complete and I couldn’t be more pleased with the results!
