***This post contains affiliate links. If you click on one and buy something I may receive a small commission*** We had some super big expenses this year when it comes to the house. Big as in, new roof and new siding. Ouch. That means all of our other projects have to be on a smaller scale. I would have loved to have had a new deck built, but since it’s not in the cards this year, I have decided to do a DIY Patio Update on a Budget. And I’m talking real low budget, people.
Here’s what I have to start with:
Ugh, pardon that font please. I didn’t take a new before shot this year because I knew I had this one, but I forgot about the font choice. Anyway, I love the Adirondack chairs and the fire pit, so the furniture pieces are already set. What you can’t see from this view is the door to our garage which lost a battle with a raccoon this year and we repaired it with some ugly plywood. In the doors defense, this is a monster raccoon that it lost to. I think it might be half yeti half raccoon. The door is an eyesore and I needed a way to cover it up. But how do you cover up an entire door that is out in the elements? I would need some type of magical material that would stand up to rain and wind. It would also have to be cool and funky and a worthy chill hang out space for my 6th grader. What could I possibly come up with to solve this dilemma?
Can you guess what that is? A shower curtain! Brilliant, right? It’s waterproof. It won’t easily tear. It’s super cool and chill. I might be the smartest person on earth.
I bought the shower curtain on Amazon for less than $15 AND I got it shipped free in two days because I have Amazon Prime, which I highly recommend. I’ll have to do a top ten reasons to sign up for Amazon Prime post some day. The shower curtain even came with handy plastic hooks that I was able to attach to the trim of the house to hang. Best $15 I have spent in a long time.
I’ve also been trying to decide on a cheap way to DIY some planters and I finally decided on making marbled planters from dollar store trash buckets.
Not bad for $3, am I right? The flowers are impatiens and they were also $3 and will grow into nice full blooms as the summer goes on. Or they will wither and die because I forgot to water them. The planters are super simple to make. I bought $1 mini trash buckets and 2 different shades of blue nail polish, all from the dollar store, for this project. You’ll need some type of a basin that is bigger than your trash bucket as well. I used a plastic toy bin I had from Ikea. You fill the basin with hot water, drip in your shades of nail polish, then dunk the trash cans in and pull them back out. I actually dunked mine a couple of times, rotating them with each dunk to get better coverage. If you need full instructions for nail polish marbling, you can find them in this post where I marbled some vases which came out way better than the pictures show. They are still one of my favorite DIYS.
I have more plans for this little area and it’s patio decor. I want to add some string lights and I would really like to strategically add some more flowers on the cheap. I’ll be brainstorming how to do that all week and hopefully I will have another brilliant idea to share with you!
Sincerely, the smartest person on earth. Because of the shower curtain idea.