Patio Makeover

Hi there! Today I'll be showing y'all our patio makeover. First I'll show you a pretty after pic, then I'll show you the dirty, nasty before pics. :) 

Here is an "after" pic (just to let you know this story has a happy ending.) :)

Now for some not so pretty "before" pics. 

Yes, that's mold you see. Yuck! We just bought this "outdoor" rug in March. The store didn't have any in stock, so we had it shipped "site to store." When we got it home and pulled it out of the plastic bag, the first thing I noticed was how soft it was. That was clue #1 that this was not going to end well. Everyone knows outdoor rugs aren't soft. In fact, usually they're kind of scratchy, but that's because of the waterproof material they're made of. 

I hesitated to even show y'all these pics because they're so bad. :) You can even see how our last rug was turned the other way. Ha! The rug didn't go bad at first because we were pretty much in a drought all summer. Then all of a sudden we started getting regular rains and that, along with our lovely heat and humidity, really did the rug in. 

I mean, just look at how crazy that is!! All it took was a few rains, and the rug went downhill FAST! I'm thoroughly convinced it somehow slipped through the cracks and was mistakenly marketed as an "outdoor" rug when in fact, it definitely was NOT. 

Our patio was in pretty bad shape. The humidity can ruin almost anything down here.

Okay, that's enough nastiness for one day. First, we removed all the furniture and the rug went into the trash. :) Then we wet the patio and poured about 4 cups of bleach on it and scrubbed it in with this old push broom. 

I remember my mom would have to regularly clean our patio with bleach when I was growing up. It really does a pretty decent job. 

Below is the patio after we scrubbed it with the bleach. It only took about 10 minutes. Then we rinsed it off and left it alone for a couple of days. 

We installed new pavers right on top of the concrete pad, purchased a new rug, and added a few new pillows. I also bought some new plants for the pots. I got snapdragons and some dianthus. They're really small now, but I think they'll look so pretty once they get a little taller. 

I don't really have any pics of the paver installation, we just kind of put them down with some concrete mixture stuff my hubby got.

Here's a close up of the new rug I got at Ballard Designs. It was originally $89, but it was on sale AND I had a coupon, so I got it for only $42! BTW...that's LESS than we paid for the moldy one at the other store. :)

Here are some of the new pillows from Garden Ridge to complete the look. 

I kind of wanted a black and white rug, but the green one was the one on sale, so I tried to bring some black and white in with the pillows. I kept the color scheme the same, just mixed the patterns a little. 

I really should have cleaned the glass table before I took these pics. Oh well. 

Love these pillows! I still need to take the tags off. :) 

I'm so happy with the patio now. I'm totally in love with the new rug too. Just to be safe though, we plan on removing all the furniture and scrubbing the patio down with some soap and water every couple of months (especially in the Summer). 

Here's a pic from my phone that shows the finished patio without any furniture on it yet. I think it turned out great! And oh yeah...those pavers weighed 17.5 lbs. EACH, so we definitely got our workouts in on the weekend we installed them. :) 

Thanks for stopping by!

To see more pics of my backyard, click HERE and HERE

~Lisa

I'm joining these parties: By Stephanie Lynn, Dwellings The Heart of Your Home, A Stroll Thru Life, Maria Elenas Decor, Savvy Southern Style, We Are That Family, Imparting Grace, Chic On A Shoestring Decorating, I Heart Naptime