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We’ve had this 10×12 patio in our backyard since we moved in. It’s what the builder put in and we really needed it bigger! A few years ago I got to partner with Safavieh and Overstock and they gifted me an outdoor sectional (I would link it for you but it’s no longer available) and an outdoor rug that fit perfectly on this little patio. We were also able to fit the grill on it but it was pretty cramped. Niko loved the space though!
We’ve wanted to expand this little patio since we moved in but concrete isn’t cheap! We finally bit the bullet and went for it and have NO regrets! This is what it looked like from the yard when we first moved in. Sorry for the grainy photo, this is a listing photo.
We got to work planning out the project. If we were going to do this we wanted to do it right! I wanted a dining area to the right (facing the house) in front of the living room and I wanted an outdoor kitchen to the left in front of our bedroom and a seating area in the middle with our existing outdoor sofa. But then Tyler has always wanted a hot tub so we ended up planning the concrete to go out further to the left to accommodate a hot tub as well. Tyler spray painted the yard exactly where he wanted the concrete to go so we could get a feel for it.
Tyler had to removed the existing stone the last homeowners put on the patio before we could have concrete poured, because in order to have the new slab look continuous we needed a small layer of the new concrete poured over the existing. He got to work with a jackhammer and a respirator mask and got it done in just a few hours and a lot of sweat! While this stone looked nice, it was uneven causing chairs and the grill to not sit flat or to wobble and it would hold water in different places. We also have it on our very small front porch but it doesn’t bother us there.
With the rough framework in mind I put together a little map on paper of what I wanted the patio to look like. I cut out some pieces that were meant to be a dining table and chairs, the sofa we have, an outdoor kitchen and the hot tub. When we were talking about pouring a patio Tyler decided to go look at hot tubs to figure out what he eventually wanted. When he got there and spoke with the sales lady she said the hot tubs are custom made and would take about 45 days, give or take. With that in mind Tyler went ahead and placed his order because he wanted to be able to use it this winter. So we already knew the dimensions of the hot tub for my cut out. We bought it from Master Spas.
This cut out is to scale. The rectangle in the cut out in the middle is the existing patio that we were having expanded in all 3 directions and the square to the top left is the shed we have in the back. The red is the table and chairs, the yellow is our sofa, the black in the middle of the yellow is our fire pit table, the blue L shape is the outdoor kitchen and the blue square is the hot tub. The line under the hot tub is originally where we wanted to pour concrete, but we decided that it should come out a little more.
Since we were planning to have 900sf of concrete poured this was not going to be a DIY project! We hired the pros and they came out and got to work. They first framed the area that we had spray painted and started digging up all the grass where the concrete was going to be and laying gravel.
This is what it looked like from the yard after day one.
Then they came back and laid the rest of the gravel and the rebar.
As they were doing this we realized that the step off into the yard would be really high, so we asked them to add a step and we are so glad we did!
We didn’t want regular grey concrete so we chose a brown color from a sample chart that we thought would look good with the house siding. They came out and poured the concrete, it took them 2.5 truck loads full to get this poured! Then they smoothed it out and rolled on a texture using salt. Not pictured, they also added fracture lines. They do this because this is guaranteed to crack and adding those lines will help the concrete crack in those lines instead of randomly around the patio.
This is the color it was when it was still drying and how it was looking. I had to walk around the side of the house because you can’t step on it for a few days after it’s poured.
And this is what it looked like once it was poured and we put some patio furniture back out. It ended up being way more pink than we wanted.
And from the yard view. Even though this patio is way more pink than we intended, I really love it!!! Although I think it clashes with the siding now, so now I’m planning on painting the siding eventually. I’m also loving the step! We even added some solar lighting for the steps so you could see it at night. Lighting is so important and really elevates a space!
Here’s the texture up close, I didn’t want it scraped because I don’t like the look and feel of it but I’m loving this texture! It also helps it not be slippery. That pipe in the middle of the patio is for the electricity for the hot tub.
What do you think?? I’m loving it so much and I can’t wait to get it decorated!!
Next up, adding some fancy pergolas!
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