Transform your urban garden or patio into an outdoor oasis with these little backyard ideas and help from our sponsor, Lowe’s!
We bought our current home, an urban semi-detached house, 8 years ago. Our villa is in a building with 3 other villas. Land is scarce in Las Vegas and most homes have small backyards like ours. Our backyard is more than the size of a large patio at just 200 square feet.
When we bought our house, the backyard was a big pile of unfinished dirt and rusty nails. It’s not exactly a place where we let our kids play or want to spend a lot of time.
Two years after we moved in, my parents gave us the gift of finishing the yard with grass. It was a big improvement! Our kids were only 1 and 3 at the time so the backyard was their domain with toys and slides and mostly everything for kids.
Our kids are now 8 and 10 years old and lost interest in the little slides a long time ago. Our little yard was full of old toys; a table he didn’t love; and was hardly used, except for grilling.
I had a vision that our backyard could be a colorful and inviting oasis that would add another living space to our home. Instead, we had an exceedingly small brown table and chairs; dead plants in ugly pots; well-pressed laundry shelves and lots of miscellaneous rubbish.
We bought a small gas fire last summer. While it added some atmosphere, it wasn’t quite what I expected in our small backyard. Now that spring is in full swing in Las Vegas, we went to Lowe’s and did a total backyard makeover.
I couldn’t be more excited about the results! I had three goals in creating an outdoor oasis: 1) bright colors; 2) plants and flowers and 3) amazing ambient lighting. I was able to achieve all three goals simply by shopping at Lowes.
3 Small Backyard Ideas to Create an Outdoor Oasis
Use Bright Colors
I happen to love bright, vibrant colors. And with a walled-in backyard, I knew I needed a lot of color. I added color to our backyard starting with the chairs I chose for the table. Lowes had bright blue or red chairs and I went with blue. Added lumbar pillows colored in shades of green, purple and pink.
A 7.5ft umbrella is the perfect size for a small backyard. We tried a 9ft umbrella and it was too big for our space. Lowe’s has many different colors and patterns in this size. We chose stripes to match the pillows.
He didn’t just want blues on the patio, though. So I looked for ways to incorporate the pink, green and purple that are on the pillows. This colorful welcome mat looks just outside the sliding door of the house.
I had planned to hang vases of flowers on the cement wall, but I placed them on the floor next to the welcome mat as a staging area. I liked it so much that I left them there. I purposely chose green and purple vases and added brightly colored pink, yellow and orange flowers.
Use Lots of Different Plants
I don’t exactly have a green thumb, but I really felt like I needed live plants in the garden. So, in addition to the flower pots, I also chose hanging plants to place in the opposite corner of the garden. We put a metal hook in the corner to hang the plants.
I chose plants that could withstand the heat of summer and did not need direct sunlight, as most of the garden is shaded. The flowers in the vases near the door are actually from the cactus family.
Hanging plants are made up of succulents and cacti that are well suited to our desert climate. Both were available in Lowe’s garden area. Lowe’s gardening experts were very helpful in finding the right plants for our garden. Be sure to buy flowers and plants that work well in your climate.
Add Mood Lighting
The only original lighting in our backyard is a very bright, sticky lamp. It’s more of a spotlight and it wasn’t exactly an environment. Thanks to a few strands of Edison lights and the help of a Lowe associate and a masonry drill, we now have beautiful outdoor lighting.
Don’t be afraid to hang lights or decorations on a concrete wall. It was actually pretty easy to do with a masonry drill bit on a regular drill.
OTHER IDEAS
