American homeowners spend an average of $5,000 on their gardens. If you have a $250,000+ house and plenty of money in the bank, it makes perfect sense. After all, that outdoor space is basically another room, and with a modest investment, you can get more out of your house and create a space where you can host parties, invite friends, and catch up with neighbors. But $5,000 is a lot of money and for some homeowners, spending such an amount on outdoor renovations is just not feasible. If you’re in this category, or you’re renting and don’t want to blow more cash on something you don’t actually own, this is the guide for you. What follows is a list of budget backyard furniture options, all of which will allow you to redecorate, redesign, and create the backyard you want without spending money you don’t have.
Build Your Own Deck
A deck can bring your outdoor space to life. It’s the first and most important step in any major renovation and while it can be expensive, there are cheaper ways to get the job done. If you have some basic skills and are willing to get your hands dirty, you can do the work yourself. You just need some treated lumber or paving slabs, along with a little elbow grease, and you’ll be good to go. There are numerous guides to help you out, but if you’re looking on YouTube, we recommend watching the videos and checking the comments before committing to any actual preparation. At the time of writing, for instance, one of the most popular videos about building a deck requires a lot of lumber and numerous steps that might be too challenging for inexperienced builders. Another popular video promises to show you “how to build a deck”, only to zip through the steps at full speed and provide you with instructions that are as useful as the ones that come with IKEA flatpacks. The amount of money that you can save, and the complexity of your deck, will ultimately come down to whether or not you have access to cheap/free materials and how handy you are with cutting, sawing, shaping, and following instructions. If you can’t get any free or cheap materials and your DIY skills are limited to unscrewing lightbulbs, you should give this one a miss. The last thing you want to do is spend hundreds of bucks on lumber just to create something that more closely resembles a landfill than a deck.
Salvage and Build
Anytime you can salvage something from inside the house or at your local scrap heap, you’ll be doing your bit to reduce the size of America’s rapidly growing landfills. The “upcycled” look is also hot right now. Sticking battered signs, stained wooden barrels, and even old wood in your garden can add to the rustic, retro, and weather-beaten aesthetics that seem to be on-trend. If you have an old barrel, stick a large plank of wood on top and you have a makeshift dining table or coffee table! If you have some old crates lying around, turn them into chairs and benches. Once you throw a little fabric on top, even the oldest wooden pallets can be transformed into rustic furniture that is surprisingly durable and comfortable. Alternatively, rest those pallets across the fence or wall, hang flower baskets from them, and turn them into outdoor flower displays! If you have a business or know anyone who does, these pallets are usually easy to come by. If not, drop by your local bar, restaurant, or warehouse and see if they have anything that they need to get rid of. A lot of barrels are resold and recycled, and the same is true for pretty much all pieces of high-quality wood. However, pallets are more of a nuisance than anything else and companies are usually happy to offload them. You’ll be doing them a favor!
Build a Firepit
A firepit is an essential addition to any patio furniture collection. It is a focal point, a centerpiece, and it provides some much-needed light and heat during those dry summer nights and long winter evenings. Fortunately, it’s also relatively cheap. You can buy a respectable firepit for less than $100. It’s a good option to have if you don’t have many DIY skills, but if you’re looking for something a little bigger and more spectacular, something that will impress your guests while keeping their extremities toasty, you can make your own. It’s much cheaper and easier than building a deck. You just need to prepare a small space in your garden where the firepit will go, build a ring of bricks around it, and place a fire ring inside to protect the bricks against the heat. The ring and bricks could set you back between $100 and $150, which is more expensive than the cheapest firepit from your local hardware store, but the end result is much bigger, better, and more impressive. You’re essentially getting something that’s worth in excess of $700 for under $150.
Buy an Outdoor Rug
An outdoor rug or two can really bring your patio to life. These rugs are made for outdoor use, and so they are much stronger and more resilient than the ones you have on your living room floor. A rug can cover up spills and stains, as well as shoddy brickwork and wood damage, so if you built the deck yourself and didn’t do a very good job, bring out the rug!
Beanbags and Cushions
If you can’t afford outdoor chairs and you don’t have the skills or materials needed to make your own, just buy a few beanbags or recycle some cushions instead. The beanbags will need to be made with outdoor use in mind, but if you can find some old cushions from unwanted sofas, it doesn’t really matter if they are weather-resistant or not. After all, they were free and easy to come by—who cares if they don’t last beyond the summer? For cushions that are beyond repair and stained with the detritus of family life, just grab some swatches of fabric, and cover them up.
Invest in Some Lighting
The lighting can make all the difference when it comes to your outdoor space. A patio without proper lighting is like a French fry without salt; a burger without a bun—it’s still good, but it’s not quite complete. But just like the salt on your French fries, it’s also possible to add too much and ruin everything. Don’t go overboard with the lighting. Look for cozy orange lights as opposed to bright white ones. Scatter some candles and electric lanterns around to create a warming and nostalgic aesthetic without blinding your neighbors. Solar lights, homemade candles, lanterns, old Christmas lights—all these options are cheap and can bring your patio to life.
Use the Space to Your Advantage
If you have trees in your garden, stop seeing them as an eyesore and start using them to your advantage. Build wooden benches around their thick trunks, hang hammocks and swings from the branches, and place seating spaces underneath to benefit from the shade during those searing summer days. If you have a fence or balcony, string lights from them to create a magical wonderland vibe. If there is a long and full fence, paint it, hang lanterns/lights from it, or attach shelves and fill them with garden ornaments. Not everyone has the perfectly squared and spacious gardens that you see in magazines. We’re not all blessed with suntraps that have massive patios and immaculate lawns. But you don’t need any of that—your garden is what you make of it, so get creative and turn those eyesores and obstacles into focal points.
Decorate Your Fence and House
You paint and paper the walls in your home, so why not do the same with the walls outside of your home? That doesn’t mean you should rush out and paint Little Mermaid murals on your porch or house, as that will devalue your home faster than demonic possession. But you can definitely paint it and save those murals for your fence. For the less artistically inclined, a simple paint job will suffice. You can also buy decals and stencils that will do most of the work for you. You’re literally painting between the lines—it’s hard to get it wrong, and it could complete the look.
