The day you realize you don’t have to spend heaps of money to completely reinvent your backyard, the next chapter of your life can begin. All it takes is a little creativity to turn a drab, almost lifeless outdoor space into an area wherein your family and friends will actually want to hang out. If you’re successful, you’d soon be having afternoon tea with friends, or napping in the open air, or doing yoga in your cozy, beautiful backyard.
To get you started, here are some low-cost, budget-friendly ideas for your next backyard makeover session:
DIY Garden Benches
More than any other furniture, your backyard hangout space needs benches. Unfortunately, shopping for new ones or having them especially made for you could be very expensive. Luckily, there are a lot of things that are already in your home right now, which could be repurposed as low-cost backyard benches.
For instance, if you have an old baby crib or several chairs that have outgrown their usefulness inside the house, all you need to do is repaint them and maybe add playful designs that will fit the outdoors more. This is perfect if you have a small backyard.
Patio Umbrellas
Have you ever noticed how fancy outdoor dining sets look when they are covered by huge patio umbrellas? A good one will not cost you much, but will give your backyard a very sophisticated appearance while allowing you to hang out there even when the summer sun is out.
In terms of practicality, you need patio umbrellas to shield your outdoor furniture from the rain, especially if you are still going for wooden chairs or tables that are not supposed to get wet.
Container Gardening
Sure, you can shop for fancy pots if you have the money, but nothing beats upcycling and recycling used containers to be used as pots for your beloved plants. May it be large tin cans, used plastic bottles or papier mache, the most important thing is for you to let your imagination run wild when redesigning these containers to house your favorite plants.
If you don’t have enough space in the backyard for a sprawl garden, you can explore vertical gardening to still achieve that tropical garden look using whatever space you already have.
Colorful Perennials
It’s no big secret that maintaining a beautiful garden could be pretty expensive. But there is one trick you can do to maximize your landscaping resources and efforts — and that would be to plant inexpensive perennials that will bear flowers year after year every spring without asking too much from you. Even though there is still some preparatory work you have to do before planting perennials, they do give you the best bang for your buck and effort by growing and regrowing on its own with proper maintenance.
Fabric Drapes
Whether or not you have a pergola, putting up white, flowy drapes can give your backyard an instant fancy makeover. The best part is that you actually don’t have to spend anything — just upcycle old sheets and old blankets that are no longer being used, and you can have your very own IG-worthy drapes corner right in your backyard.
If you don’t have white drapes, any vintage-looking cloth would do the same trick. After all, curtains in the backyard do not only play an aesthetic role — they can also actually shield you and your family/friends from the unrelenting rays of the sun, especially when it’s high noon or at 3 in the afternoon.
String Lights
At night, though, your backyard hangout place would need its own illumination. Some homeowners have porch lights or lamp posts especially made for this purpose, but if the goal is to undertake the renovation without spending too much money, it’s best to use string lights as accent lights instead of an overhead bulb or lamp that would need its own post.
If you have trees in the backyard, you can simply wrap string lights around them for that soft light especially at night.
Now, are you ready to give your beloved old backyard a makeover? If you are but your huge budget allocation is not, you can just begin with the affordable installations and furniture additions we mentioned in this article.
