Creating a Patio Paradise...on a budget!

One of my "nesting" obsessions while pregnant became turning our empty downstairs patio into a relaxing oasis. I'm not entirely sure why this became an obsession, but pregnancy does some weird things to your priorities and timeline. (Around the same time I became obsessed with organizing the fridge.)

We had a hot tub installed on this patio last Fall, but the rest of it was just completely blah and blank. It's under our 3 season sunroom, so it's covered, and I wanted to make it feel even more like an outdoor room so that it was more aesthetically pleasing to look at from the hot tub and could also be an additional entertaining space (or a place for me to sit and relax at while Evan went in the hot tub since I couldn't while pregnant). With the baby on the way though, I didn't want to splurge too much on the furniture and decided instead to invest in a few key decorative pieces to keep the project stylish but still affordable. 

The furniture is typically going to be the big ticket item for a patio, but because I wanted to add so many decorative pieces to give it more of an outdoor room vibe, I selected something in a more affordable price-range for the patio set. (Items linked at the end of the post for your reference.)

The other place I saved money was on outfitting the support columns. They are just standard skinny support columns and not pretty to look at. I considered wrapping them in more decorative column wraps, but would still have wanted to add curtains for pops of color and more of a room vibe anyway, so I decided to skip the column wraps and just opt for the outdoor curtains. I could have gone a size longer with the curtains, but for the sake of making mowing the lawn around the patio easier for Evan, I got a shorter size that kept them off the ground. (Though looking at these photos, I now realize I took them when the lawn hadn't been mowed in a while. Haha. Oh well. That's #reallife for you.)

I think the curtains really enhance the space with their pops of color and help hide the plainness of the support columns, and make it into more of an outdoor living space. (That's what I was going for, anyway!) Evan installed a fence on the other side of the hot tub to make it feel even more like a room (and to hide the lawn mower that he stores on the other side!) The next step will be to extend the ceiling material over to the fence. 

For the sake of some year-round (and zero maintenance) greenery, I added some faux plant accents and more pops of color with the outdoor throw pillows (which were HomeGoods finds). I love sitting out here (when it's not too humid) and staring out into the greenery of the trees on our property while I schedule out my weeks. Of course it's all a matter of personal preferences, but for me, I felt like my mission for a patio paradise was accomplished. It really is a relaxing oasis for me now and I love sitting out here more than on my deck for an outdoor space because of the overhead shade. Excluding the fencing and hot tub (and vintage bicycle!), the whole project was a little over $1200. 

My favorite piece is probably the topiary flamingo. Would love to know if any of the pieces in this post inspire you, so feel free to drop me an email or leave a comment below!

Item Links for Your Reference:

Patio Set​
Outdoor Curtains
Urn Planter
Faux Urn Filler
Hanging Succulent Arrangement
Faux Boxwood Flamingo
Light Up Palm Tree