My Backyard Oasis: The Plan, Process + Shopping List (2/3)

Once the tree mound filled in and flattened, I overhauled my gardens, tossed some junk, and installed a new fence, I could finally muster a vision for the backyard which first led to sourcing and designing a mood board.

(If you haven’t seen the before photos of my backyard, check them out first.)

As much as I love browsing home stores in person for inspiration and ideas, I often opt to shop online a lot of pieces in my home. So when it came to sourcing furniture and decor for my backyard, I visited my favorite online shops for home goods: Wayfair (which just launched their Canadian store which means no duties and free shipping over $75), and Unison Home (who always has great variety and a fresh rotation of product for great prices).

(Shop the entire source list at the bottom of this post!)

Online shopping aside, the reality back on the home-front was that there was still lots to do, so I put pen to paper to figure out what could be done while working around and coming to terms with the things I couldn’t change: A). My yellow brick; B) The overall layout of the backyard; and C) My budget.

Painting the brick and moving the shed crossed my mind, but I simply didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg on this makeover (or receive a lecture from my parents who don’t think painting brick is ever a good idea), so I chose to work with my existing layout and keep the brick as it was. After all, if we all had an endless supply of money, we’d all make very different design choices in our renovations, but alas, money doesn’t grow on trees — and if it did, I just cut one down, so…

In the end, this was a little plan I created for the layout:

Small changes already made, now came time to make decisions on the bigger ticket items, namely the patio.

Patio

As much as I wished I could have gone with a grey, neutral, more modern stone, it would simply have looked far too cold against my yellow brick and contrasted against the house in a bad way, so I went with Permacon’s Rosebel Slabs in Margaux Beige (which in real life is far less colorful and much lighter than the photos online). My biggest tip when it comes to stone is bring it to the space you plan on installing it. I almost pulled the trigger on another colour after seeing them online, so make sure you get a few sample pieces from each option and take a good, hard look at them in the environment.

I went with Duralock who removed my old patio and concrete and installed my new patio in one day. Here are some photos of that process and a first glimpse at the after:

As you can see, the patio stones made a huge different to the overall appeal of my backyard! And they ended up making a few mistakes, so as an apology for the headache of the day, they actually gave me an extra 200 square feet of patio free of charge!

Paint

Next came some simple paint. I painted the windows in a very light cream, and painted my shed in a mossy, yellowish green colour using Rustoleum steel paint (which I also used to paint my staircase leading into the backyard from my side door). Here’s what my shed looked like after the first coat:

At this point, the end is finally in sight, and it’s just a matter of waiting for the grass to grow in, filling in the gardens, and styling the entire space with my goodies from Wayfair and Unison Home once they arrive! Speaking of which, here’s the source list of everything to come below:

Source List