Outdoor Oasis: An Affordable Backyard Makeover

By Natural Home & Garden Staff
Published on March 14, 2012
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Blogger Kate Riley of the blog Centsational Girl turned her barren backyard into an outdoor oasis on a budget.
Blogger Kate Riley of the blog Centsational Girl turned her barren backyard into an outdoor oasis on a budget.
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Kate adorned a steel gazebo with curtains she made from linen sheets she found at a local outlet. Indoor/outdoor cushions allowed her to reuse her outdoor furniture set. She added an FSC-certified wood slat table, a coffee table she made from a secondhand trunk, side tables made of two reclaimed wine barrels and handmade accent pillows.
Kate adorned a steel gazebo with curtains she made from linen sheets she found at a local outlet. Indoor/outdoor cushions allowed her to reuse her outdoor furniture set. She added an FSC-certified wood slat table, a coffee table she made from a secondhand trunk, side tables made of two reclaimed wine barrels and handmade accent pillows.
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Before she created her cabana oasis, blogger Kate Riley had a drab patio overlooking gorgeous views of her backyard vineyards. She and her husband wanted to transform the 13-by-16-foot space into a spot for relaxation and entertainment, creating an open, breezy outdoor room.
Before she created her cabana oasis, blogger Kate Riley had a drab patio overlooking gorgeous views of her backyard vineyards. She and her husband wanted to transform the 13-by-16-foot space into a spot for relaxation and entertainment, creating an open, breezy outdoor room.

With the motto “Fabulous for Less,” Northern Californian Kate Riley, writer of the design and remodeling blog Centsational Girl, knows the value of combining DIY elbow grease, thrift-store finds and wise shopping to create beautiful home makeovers on a dime. To transform her backyard patio from drab to darling, she combined her penchant for secondhand shopping, a knack for clever reuse and a few American Express points to create what her family now refers to as their “outdoor oasis.” Use her example as inspiration for your budget backyard makeover.

Wine enthusiasts, Kate and her husband grow grapes in their backyard vineyard, a lovely view they hoped to enhance by making their patio more appealing. Their goal was to create an outdoor room that was protected from the sun and offered the feeling of an enclosed space but still felt open and breezy.

Using American Express points, Kate ordered a 12-by-12-foot cabana and indoor/outdoor seat cushions from Home Depot. The durable cushions match the house exterior and allowed Kate to reuse her formerly lackluster patio furniture. Rather than using the utilitarian mosquito netting that came with the cabana, Kate made her own breezy white curtains out of linen sheets she found on clearance at a local outlet for just $5. She simply hemmed them to the height of the cabana and hung them with curtain rings, making it easy to take them down in rain storms.

Creative Furnishings

When it came time to furnish the outdoor room, Kate started the hunt for repurposed and responsibly made items. She found a wine barrel from a nearby vineyard for $20 at her local Ace Hardware (the joys of living in wine country!) and cut it in half to create inexpensive rustic side tables. For the coffee table, Kate searched her local antique and thrift stores and found a wood trunk for $15. Although the trunk was covered in stickers, it was made of solid wood and had a great shape, so Kate took it home, peeled off the stickers, and sanded and whitewashed it (find her how-to instructions in “How to Whitewash” later in this article; read more at Basic Whitewashing Technique). Now she has a beautiful hardwood coffee table that doubles as storage for outdoor supplies. She rounded out her furniture collection with a Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood bench from West Elm.

Unique Accents

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