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Our DIY Patio Area (with "Texas Lamp Posts") is finally complete. We brought it to life with lots of colorful flowers and decor. We're really proud of how this space turned out. It has brought us outside so much more! Come see how this DIY Patio Area came together.

We put the finishing touches on our little DIY patio last week. I'm in love with our new Sturdy Planted Posts (or "Texas Lamp Posts" as a friend named them). Adding hanging baskets and vintage strands of lights to them have really brought the entire area to life. We absolutely love hanging out here and are thrilled that it's ready for summer entertaining and relaxing.

DIY Patio Area with Texas Lamp Posts

This DIY Patio has really come together as a fun and playful expression of our eclectic tastes. For years, we've avoided the backyard (like the plague, I tell ya), but now, we just can't get enough of it! The flowers and plantings really completed the space. And it's now a much larger space, too.

Creating Your Own DIY Patio Area:

We started out wanting to make the space next to our existing covered patio more functional. It was water-heavy due to the poor placement of a French Drain from the previous owners. It was honestly a muddy mess. This patio area was a solution to the problem. 

DIY Patio Options

Our first step was to create an actual area that would serve as our patio. And we knew we needed a new surface (besides the muddy grass). Concreting this area would have cost an arm and a leg, so we DIY-ed it with pea gravel. You can see our entire tutorial for How to Create a Pea Gravel Patio Area.

Just FYI: we use Round-up Extended Control Weed & Grass Killer on the DIY patio area to keep stray sprigs of grass from peeking up through the pea gravel. This is a great product but it really kills everything, so be careful. Shield any plants you want to keep!

Good DIY Options for Patio Areas:

• Pea Gravel 
• Again, see how we created our patio using pea gravel.
• Pavers 
• Dreams and Coffee has a budget-friendly tutorial for a Pavers and Pebbles Patio.
• Quickrete 
• Charleston Crafted shares a clever Quickrete Patio.
• Floating Deck
• This is a bit more skill-level-incorporated, but still a neat option. House by the Bay has a great DIY Floating Deck tutorial.

Simple Ideas for a DIY Patio

We showed you how we constructed our Texas Lamp Posts here. They are really an interesting set up...the posts are "planted" into cement to withstand our crazy Texas storms. My husband just added brackets to each one of them to place some beautiful hanging baskets. We predrilled them, then just screwed them straight in. With the way we weighted these planters, we're not worried about the weight of the hanging baskets.

Decorative Elements

I dressed up the planted posts we made with a few "prettier" items (including a bird feeder on the post to the far right in the above photo). Find these items (or similar ones) through the links below (they are all available on Amazon):

• party patio lights
• We now have a new style of party lights that we love, love, love! They're these color-changing lights from Jasco found here on Amazon. You can see them on our new patio (at our new home) here. They're a bit pricier, but definitely worth every penny.
• decorative plant hooks
• decorative hanging baskets
• Please note that the exact beaded baskets I have in these photos are no longer available, but I did link above to a great alternative.
• bird feeder (or make a simple DIY Bird Feeder like we did at our new place)

We have always used the Miracle Gro LiquiFeed All Purpose Plant Food to give our flowers all of the goodness they need. My patio flowers always look lush and beautiful! 

These big barrels of bright flowers bring so much life to this little DIY Patio Area of ours. We used standard whiskey barrels (halved for planting) from Home Depot. Again, see how we planted the posts in them here. 

You can see in the above photo, as I previously mentioned, I also tucked that little bird feeder against one of my Texas Lamp Posts. This is probably why I can't keep a few squirrels away from this area. But, I love seeing all of the birds swing in for a bite, too.

The lights give it such a lovely glow. I love sitting out here in the evening and just enjoying the space, in all its party light glory. I also created that Texas State Art on the right brick wall using a homemade projector. I just really thought the space needed something extra right there.

Above is the entire before & after (I had to use my phone to grab a panoramic shot so it would all fit). I'm so happy with this area. It's such a great extension of our living area. And in Texas, we're pretty much able to be out here nine months out of the year. We etched and painted the patio floor, too (it turned out FANTASTIC!). 

And along the lines of a budget-friendly patio, we grabbed the wooden swing off of Craigslist. I often sit out here and enjoy my morning coffee. 

More DIY Patio Ideas:

• I love this DIY Patio Area Pergola from Bless My Weeds.
• This DIY Patio with Firepit from Recaptured Charm has such a great shape to it.
• And be sure to check out our bright and colorful patio at our new home, too.  
• I also recently shared 7 Patio Decorating Ideas on a Budget. It's a great resource for sprucing up your outdoor space.

Happy Summer from Texas, y'all! 

Want more ideas for your DIY Patio Area? Check out my DIY Window Boxes (featured in the video below):