Before + After: Our Patio Gets a Mini Makeover
This post is sponsored by Wayfair. All opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links, which means Mix & Match Design Company earns a small commission from your purchase at no cost to you.
SOURCES: Folding Adirondack Chairs | Fire Pit | Boston Ferns | White Resin Planters | String Lights
The backyard in our new house is going to be in work-in-progress mode for years to come. We inherited quite the assortment of plants, trees, and shrubs, along with a lot of muddy earth, and it’s going to take a lot of work to make it beautiful! In the meantime, we wanted to show our brick patio some love so we can enjoy it as the warmer weather rolls in.
When we moved in, we plopped an assortment of old outdoor chairs here, knowing we’d want to give it an update soon. It was a great way to experiment with how we wanted to set the space up and use it when we entertained. The white low-slung chairs were falling apart though and we wanted to replace them ASAP.
Here’s what our makeshift patio arrangement looked like BEFORE:
It was definitely time to bring some beauty to this space!
My husband and I got to chatting about what our ideal furniture setup would be out there and we landed on a conversation area surrounding a fire pit. In a “know thyself” moment, we quickly admitted that we didn’t want to have to deal with hauling cushions in and out all the time, so cushion-less chairs were key. We also knew that we wanted a material that would withstand the elements without a lot of upkeep.
With those priorities in mind, I started my search on Wayfair for the perfect outdoor patio chairs. I soon landed on the classic Adirondack chair silhouette and found that Wayfair has a bunch of great options in weather-resistant materials like High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)!
I ultimately landed on these Adirondack chairs in navy for a couple of reasons:
They FOLD! Adirondack chairs are heavy and bulky, which is good in some ways (they won’t blow away!), but if we want to move them around or store them easily, being able to fold them is going to make our lives much easier.
They’re a great balance of solid construction and a wallet-friendly price point. We’ve got a lot of projects coming in this house and we didn’t want to invest too much out here just yet. We’re all about investing in good quality pieces when the time is right, but these met our needs at a price that didn’t break the bank. That’s a win-win in my book.
I considered quite a few different ones including the high quality Polywood brand, which my parents have at their river house. They make a few great styles in lots of colors that I’m including below alongside some others we looked at. Don’t miss out on those if you’re looking to invest in chairs for the long haul!
I love how the blue makes a bold statement against the red brick patio! While these chairs did require assembly, it wasn’t bad. It took maybe two hours total? Once you do one, the others follow pretty quickly.
Along with the chairs, I also ordered a couple of white planters for some big Boston Ferns (I love how quick and easy the ordering process is on Wayfair). They’re lightweight and easy to move around, and were perfect for the 12” size fern. I just popped them out of their plastic hanging pot and plopped them right into the planters. No extra soil needed.
After giving the bricks a nice little powerwashing session, I set up our new Adirondack chairs around a Solo Stove fire pit, added my ferns that I potted in my new planters, added some outdoor throw pillows I had on hand, and voila! A mini oasis in our backyard.
Once those were set up we felt like something was missing though - we needed a little more magic. Enter: string lights! Wayfair carries those too, no surprise there. We ended up rigging them up from the house to a giant tree we have back there and it adds just the right amount of ambiance. You can catch a glimpse of them a few photos back!
After we put the kids to bed, my husband and I sat out there over the weekend and it was such a nice, relaxing spot to spend an evening.
(We got a little rain shower while I was shooting these and I love how I caught a few raindrops on the arm of this chair!)
What I love about decorating outdoor spaces is that you don’t need a lot to make it look pretty and function well!
**Quick design tip: When it comes to selecting furniture for outdoor spaces, it’s ok (welcomed, in fact!) to choose a matching set. This is something I avoid when I’m designing a room inside, but when you’re decorating alongside a lot of natural elements that provide a ton of visual interest and variation, a matching set actually allows your eye to rest and brings some order to the organic nature of the outdoors.
I am so glad we spent a little time and effort picking up some new pieces for our patio - we now look forward to being out there and entertaining. Having a space you feel proud of makes extending those invitations just a little bit easier, don’t you think? I hope this inspires you to get going on your outdoor patio and make it a wonderful space you can enjoy with your family and friends for years to come!
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