Making A Backyard Come Together On A Dime (+ some)

Nobody can make a fire pit area on a dime. Let's get real. And if you can, please let me know how you did it. I'd be amazed by your abilities. The only way we were able to get away with making our backyard what it is today is via a few freebies, repurposed items, sale items, and gifts. 

Curious how we did it? Check it out below!

(PS-things aren't officially complete back here. However, we figured we'd share our tips on how to
get an inexpensive DIY backyard gathering area)

Welcome to the Stanley backyard!

The Fire Pit Area

"The Lounger"

-made of 6 pallets, given to us free by Ty's Dad

-old wood to cover the pallets from Ty's childhood home's fence (again, free)

-1 ikea twin mattress pad ($79)

-8 various sized ikea pillows (2.99-6.99)

-fabric from Joanns (used 50% coupons, various prices depending size of pillow) made by Ty's Mom

-casters from Home Depot (8.99 each)

The lounger is in full use, but it still needs to be stained...

it will happen sometime. When...who knows?!

Display the wood in a fun basket. You can always change the color with spray paint

or in this case, I left it like this to bring in some more color around the fire pit!

-giant basket: Home Goods ($35)

S'mores Table!

-ikea table ($15)

-mason jar with flowers (free from our wedding)

-Solar powered mason jar light (free, housewarming gift)

-milk bucket (Home Goods, $15)

-fire pit sticks (free, a wedding gift package from my parents)

-s'mores basket, not shown (free, was a gift package)

Fire Pit

-the "pit" and cover (free, part of the wedding gift from my parents)

-stones from Lowe's (free, used 15% coupon and gift card given to us from a housewarming gift)

Fire Pit Seating

-tree stumps (free)

The story behind these is that they are called Trees To Heaven, a tree that originates from

an Asian country. Ty was driving through the neighborhood and saw all these stumps in our

neighbor's driveway. He knew we'd eventually get around to finding some stump seats to place around the fire pit, but God decided to place this lovely gift right in front of us! Ty knocked on our neighbors door and asked what they planned on using them for and their plan consisted of nothing...so guess

who got some free, neat, old tree stumps!

And for the kids...

-adirondack chairs (6.99 from Ace Hardware), then spray painted black

The Deck/Eating Area

This whole area still has some updates to come...things such as eventually getting around to

making or finding neat old stools for the table, staining the deck, getting a new umbrella for the

table, and the list seems to continue on. It has served it's great purpose is providing an outdoor

eating area for us so I suppose we're in good enough shape for the time being.

One day, some day we'll show you how it turns out once it's complete. 

Until then...here's the DIY deck and eating area!

This is the upper level area of the deck. One step below is another part of the deck (where I'm standing)

where we like to utilize the space for our beverage area for gatherings...

-umbrella (gift from a few years ago; someday we'll get a new one to go with the table)

-potted flowers (gift from my mom; she found them, pots and all, on sale at Fred Meyers for only $20!)

-table (see below)

"The Table"

-this table once belonged to Papa Joe. My dad had stored it in their backyard for quite some time,

unsure what he had planned on using it for. Well he found it's purpose and a great new home.

-needless to say, it was a free, wonderful gift to be given as we will cherish it and 

the memories from it!

-it was partly painted and need a little fixing up, but you can see that DIY blog post another day!

-bench (free/repurposed)

-this bench was once the "bar" to the hot tub cover the previous owners had on the side

of the house. We had no intentions in getting a hot tub, so we've repurposed all the wood and

it's frame for other things...one of them being a bench for the deck. More seating = bigger parties!

The Beverage Deck

-ikea beverage cart ($89)...great for a lemonade bar, a mixed drinks bar, or serving cart

-large tin ($20, Home Goods)...great for keeping beverages cold as a giant ice bucket!

And a sneak peek to our "one day, some day" chicken coop...

-wood frame, eventually our chicken coop (free; repurposed from the old hot tub cover)

We've covered two spaces. One large fire pit area and two parts to our deck. The grand total was approximately $375, which I must say isn't too bad. Sure, it's not dimes and nickels but I like to think of it in a bigger picture...some people buy really nice outdoor table furniture anywhere from $200-$500 and that's not including the fire pit, additional seating, and serving/catering pieces. A big thanks to all those who provided a way in making our backyard on a budget!

Hopefully you not only got a little insight on what our backyard gathering area looks like, but maybe a few extra ideas on how to pinch pennies to get your backyard ready on a budget! 

♡T&C

DIY Outdoor Lounger

I had this vision of a giant lounger for the fire pit area when we first moved in. All I knew was that I wanted a large piece of furniture either several people share or a couple people could lay on it. I called it a lounger because I have no idea what else to call it. It's almost like a couch, but there's no back to it since we put it up against the side of the garage. And it's almost like a bed since I did use a twin mattress pad for the cushion, but I didn't want to call it a bed. Instead, I called it a lounger because it's not a couch and it's not a bed. Fair enough?

I envisioned pallets stacked on top of each other, somehow having armrests on there, and some wheels on it so we could move it if we ever decide the firepit area needs to be elsewhere. Then we'd put a nice cushion and pillows on it to give it that comfy feel. With no idea of how to put it together and my poor explaining of "my idea," we somehow managed to pull something together. Check out our DIY lounger and how we scraped it together to make it work!

DIY Backyard Lounger

6 pallets (3'x4' -ish)

6 swivel caster wheels (your choice in size, we chose a medium size)

2 locking/swivel caster wheels (again, your choice in size)

scrap wood (mostly 1"x6" cedar plank fencing, taken down to 4")

nail/brad gun

nails/brads

stain

1 twin mattress pad

1 piece of scrap plywood (cut down to size of mattress pad)

enough fabric to cover the size of your mattress pad/plywood (you can make a slip-like cover for it or get just enough to wrapped around the nail to the other side of the plywood)

pillows (ikea/used and washed)

fabric to cover pillows

The How To

Step 1:

place casters on bottom pallets. Four on each pallet with the two locking wheels on the front far right and front far left of the lounger.

Step 2:

stack all of your pallets, three high and side by side 

(so two pallets added onto each of the wheeled pallets)

Step 3:

if you haven't cut your cedar planks down to 4", do it now. If you have, proceed to step 4.

Step 4:

begin placing the cedar planks around the stacked pallets, nailing them into the pallet boards securely.

Step 5:

build your armrests, one on each end. (from my perspective, it looked like making a box but what do I know. I can't find the dimensions of the armrests but essentially you want to build them a size in which your twin mattress pad will still fit and there won't be space between the pad and the armrests. You'll have to do the measuring, sorry!)

(hopefully this will at least give you an idea of what it looks like up close and in the process

if you decide to make the armrests, but like I said...sorry for no measurements at the moment!)

Step 6:

you can stain your finished product now or wait until another day. 

You choose.

Step 7:

cut your piece of plywood if you haven't yet. This is where you can decide if you want to make a slip cover for your mattress pad or in my case (I obviously didn't want to), so we wrapped the fabric around the mattress pad evenly and nailed it into the other side of the plywood.

Step 8:

make pillow covers for your pillows. If you don't know how to, Google it or find someone 

who can make them for you. Either will do.

Step 9:

place your mattress pad and pillows on your now homemade backyard lounger, take a picture of your work, and show it off.

Step 10:

start a fire, toast some mallows or get toasted (either or is fine, we won't judge), and relax!

(for those of you who know us, we both will eat many, many more s'mores before we

ever reach for a drink. But for all our friends who enjoy a drink or more, our fire pit

area and lounger are meant for whatever you so wish to do with your time back there)

I have to give my husband and his dad lots of credit for building the main structure of the lounger, of course. However, an even bigger thanks to my mother-in-law for making the pillow covers for me 

in a pinch when we were getting ready for our party. Couldn't have turned into a lounger without the

work of the whole clan!

♡T&C