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Our Patio and Pool Reveal // The Finished Project

September 14, 2017

By:

Erin Schrader

After months in the making, our patio and pool area is finally finished! I was starting to think the day would never come because as soon as one project was finishing up outside, we would think of another. “Oh! We should make the concrete slab bigger!” “What about some stamping?” “A rail would be nice!” “Ooooh, I like pools, how about a pool?!” “Certainly we need stairs down to the yard now right?” “Landscaping. Landscaping would be nice!” “Maybe some more concrete space..” “Speaking of concrete, concrete borders would be a nice touch wouldn’t they?” “Should we have furniture on here? Right, we need furniture” and the projects would never stop. Finally, just finally, we are DONE. At least for the next several months until spring rolls around and we get the itch for more concrete, more stairs, more landscaping or heck, maybe a different house altogether [please Lord, no]. Before we dive in, I think it’s important to take a minute and reflect on what this outdoor space looked like when we first moved in…

And well, here it is now…

You could say we’ve done a couple things. As you can see, we painted the entire exterior of our home [white duck by Sherwin Williams if curious], added a lot [a lot] more stamped concrete space, tore down a few trees [RIP], added a shed, threw in an inground pool, enclosed it all with railing [props to Lowes for that one] and as you’ll see as we continue, added stairs down to the channel and landscaped all over the place [props to my mom for the help on that area]. Our backyard truly feels like an oasis to me and we love spending time back there. The unfortunate part of loving your own backyard so much is that you quickly become a homebody and never feel the need or desire to leave on the weekends. We used to have friends. Now we have a pool.

If it’s okay with you, I’d love to share one million and twenty photos of our completed patio and pool area complete with links to what we furnished it all with [hint: it’s 99% Hayneedle] and take you on a little tour of sorts. Ready to jump in? Let’s go.

First things first, the main patio area – this is our entertaining center. Because we host our family and friends often for dinner, we wanted to upgrade our table this year to something larger. After months of searching, we finally landed on this table and chairs that we couldn’t love more. There is so much space for all of the food and wine possible! The chairs are nice and wide as well and sit very comfortably. We’ve only had it for a few weeks now, but I approve big time.

The umbrellas you see [one at the table and one over by the chaise lounge chairs] are our absolute favorite. We’ve gone through so many outdoor umbrellas over the years and discovered this one last year and have purchased multiple since. They are nice and big, crank up and down easily, tilt to your preference AND light up underneath [they have an off/on switch for the solar lights]. For under $100, you can’t beat them.

Now, one thing I have discovered is that if you are going to be entertaining outside you need an entertainment center. As in a place to house your food and drinks and allllllll of the pumpkins possible. Many people would think of purchasing an outdoor bar for this, however, when I saw this potting bench all of the light bulbs in my head went off. I mean if you’re into gardening or whatever that thing is people do, I’m sure it would look great for that purpose too 😉

Moving on, our sitting area where we do exactly that….sit. And pretend to be an egg. Pretending to be an egg is actually a lot more fun than you may think. We got this conversation set last year and it has held up wonderfully [side note – we do store our furniture over the winter either in the shed or garage] and added this sweeter than sweet egg chair this year. In addition, we added a fire table because what’s a patio without a fire? While I can’t find our exact one, here are a few [hundred] to choose from.

egg chair found here

Okay, enough just hanging around…let’s get a little wet and head over to the pool area. That sounded highly inappropriate. Sorry not sorry. We had this little thing installed last fall and it has been hands down our favorite addition to our home since moving in several years ago. I was a little nervous that we wouldn’t use it as much as we assumed we would and I gotta say, we have used it way more than any expectations. The water fountains add such a cool touch and I turn them on nearly every day just to listen to. We did go the saltwater route and after going back and forth multiple times decided on the automatic cover which OH MY WORD, has been the biggest time and life saver of all time. If you’re considering putting in a pool, I would highly recommend going for it. Who needs to worry about covering and uncovering a pool all day when you have lounge chairs you could be laying in?Oh yeah, those stairs and landscaping I mentioned….

There they are. We finally don’t have to worry about grandparents rolling down our yard and right into the water [yaaaaaaay!] all while my butt still gets a good workout from going up the things [double yaaay!] Alright friends, that completes our patio and pool tour! Next time you come, make sure to bring a cocktail and floaties with you. Thanks for hangin’ today…sweater [true to size, wearing in small] // jeans [true to size] // booties [33% off, true to size] // photos shot by raina jo photography

That was an egg chair pun. Get it? I’m getting so good at those…

Disclosure: Thank you to Hayneedle for partnering for today’s post.

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