Summer time is the best time to get outside and enjoy your home’s outdoor space. An outdoor entertainment space can be perfect for patio parties, cookouts, and warm, peaceful summer evenings spent chatting with friends over a bottle of wine. Even when you are not entertaining, you and your family can enjoy your outdoor space, whether you are relaxing with a good book, grilling some hot dogs for dinner, or playing a few rounds of ladder ball.
If you do not have an outdoor entertainment space or want to make the one you do have more inviting, never fear. It is easy to create your own outdoor entertainment space for cheap. Just follow these tips:
Cut Paving Costs
If you are starting from scratch to create a patio, you may want to keep costs down by looking into alternatives to having concrete poured or even using traditional bricks or pavers. For example, perhaps a pea gravel patio could give you all the benefits of paving at a fraction of the cost. Or, you could put down paving stones spaced further apart to create a patio space while saving on pavers. Make sure you remove the sod where you put the pavers, so that you can run your lawn mower right over the top of them for easy maintenance.
Create Shade
There are plenty of cheap and easy ways to create shade and privacy in your outdoor entertainment space. Hang fabric panels made from yards of weather-proof fabric or for an even cheaper solution old curtains or sheets. Train some beautiful, blooming vines to grow over the top of your pergola, creating dappled light below. Stretch a large sheet or wall hanging over your deck space, tying or stapling it to walls, poles, or trees. Purchase a deck umbrella to shade your outdoor dining table, lawn furniture or bar.
Build Your Own Seating And Table Space
If you want to entertain outdoors, you are going to need a place for everyone to sit. While there are tons of beautiful, durable, and comfortable lawn furniture sets available today, these can get pricey. Save money for other improvements by building your own outdoor furniture. Use a double layer of dry-stacked concrete blocks, topped with a thick, weather-proof cushions, as an outdoor bench or build your own outdoor bench using wood or repurposed furniture. Stacked concrete blocks and lengths of decking can make a great outdoor bar or table or you can use an eclectic mix of vintage pieces from secondhand stores to spice up your patio, deck, or porch décor.
Decorate With Container Plants
Some nice container plants can really make your outdoor space pop. Choose low-maintenance varieties, especially if your outdoor entertainment space gets a lot of sun, so you do not have to worry about wilted or dead plants making the space look uncared-for. Mix things up with colorful containers, hanging baskets, or a mix of ornamental and edible plantings.
Containers allow you to bring plants right up onto a deck, porch, or patio space, and offer you more control over what you can grow than you might have with beds. Use containers to decorate your outdoor space with shade-loving perennials or bright, showy annuals. Complete the look by keeping your lawn green and healthy. Use a lawn service to help you keep the grass neat or to address lawn issues such as sprinkler system repair that might cause lawn death or other problems that make your outdoor less appealing.
Cultivate A Living Fence
A vertical planter, trellis, or espaliered tree can create a living fence that adds privacy and interest to your outdoor entertainment space. If you do not feel like cultivating an elaborately trained row of trees or building a vertical planter, consider showcasing a collection of interesting container plants on a few wooden shelves made with concrete blocks and planks of wood or salvaged from a secondhand store.
Get Creative With Lighting
Every entertainment space needs lighting, whether indoors or out. Yours might have plenty of lighting, especially if it is a back porch or patio area with access to wall-mounted fixtures. If you need to enhance the lighting situation, consider string lights, candles or a fun DIY bottle chandelier. Solar-powered lights and tiki torches are also cheap, easy ways to add lighting to an outdoor area.
When you have an outdoor entertainment space, summer get-togethers are that much more exciting. DIY your own beautiful, fun space, so you will still have plenty of money to spend on food and drinks for family and friends!
