The Backyard Evolution: One Room Challenge Week 4

With four weeks under my belt, I thought it would be a great time to recap on what has been accomplished during the One Room Challenge so far.

1. In week one of the Better Homes and Gardens sponsored One Room Challenge, we debuted our designs and the room selected to receive the makeover. We decided to give our backyard a much-needed makeover. We have been living in our Queens New York rented home for the past 4 years and we never utilized the backyard. 
2. The design plan consisted of creating 3 separate zones in our backyard without making any permanent changes. A zone for cooking, eating, and sitting where the primary functionality goals.

A custom outdoor grilling station was created using a pressure-treated fencing panel. Once the cooking zone was created, we began building our outdoor dining table along with a custom-designed table arbor. The movable arbor will serve as the perfect spot to hang plants and outdoor lighting when needed. All newly built designed pieces were given a protective finish and painted using The Handy Pail. 

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While creating the cooking and the eating zone, we noticed our upper patio needed some tlc too. We quickly gave the small area some tlc. All we did was clean the area of any dirt and debris added an outdoor rug and built a privacy screen that will serve the dual purpose of housing our herb garden. We thought it was the perfect location to add personality and style to our otherwise quite boring patio. Shade was also a consideration since this area gets direct sun around noon each day. To get the shade needed without sacrificing foot space, we zipped tied an outdoor patio umbrella to the balcony railing. Now we got the shade we need and an area just off the kitchen becomes the perfect location to have a morning cup of coffee or tea.

Next week of the One Room Challenge, we will begin making decor decisions such as flooring, patio decor, and other styling options. Be sure to check out the One Room Challenge and all participants here. The widely popular Better Homes and Gardens sponsored challenge runs for another four weeks. You can support other One Room Challenge participants by reading our weekly blog posts found on the One Room Challenge website below.