When we purchased our St Pete home it came with an empty, boring box of a backyard. That clearly was not going to work for our family’s needs and certainly wasn’t what we wanted to showcase during our first friend gathering this past weekend. So with a party date set, the hubby and I got to work to give our backyard a “rockin” revamp just in time to host a Halloween Party.

With a lot of heavy lifting (thanks, Brent!) and just under 100 bags of marble chip landscape rock, we were able to create a small patio space in less than a weekend. Here’s a quick look at the original listing photos to give you an idea of where we started…

The first update we made to the backyard (after putting up the trampoline) occurred earlier in October when Brent used a day off to add some plants along the back of the house. We used 20 bags of marble chip in this area and loved how clean and tidy it looked (especially in contrast to the many weeds in the yard). Another 10-20 bags of rock was used to tidy up the awkwardly angled side walkway.

Backyard before

Shortly after that, I painted the back door black and added a couple affordable chairs to the patio as well as a layered doormat. Then we hung outdoor lights from the patio to our lovely dead palm tree because there is literally no easier way to give your backyard a “vibe” than cafe lights. (And now the dead tree that isn’t going anywhere any time soon has a purpose.)

To conceal the HVAC unit a bit, we placed a few potted snake plants to side (pots to be upgraded later) and in a genius move (in my unbiased opinion), I placed an oversized connect four game in front of it. Now we have a sweet little yard game to enjoy as a family with the bonus of it hiding the ancient HVAC.

Brent and I had gone back and forth on the ways to add a DIY patio space, but we just didn’t think it was doable to tackle it before our party. Life, work, and travel limited our time to dedicate to the backyard so we had agreed to go ahead and host on the grass and leave the patio space to the next round of updates… that is until around 3pm on Friday.

That’s right, friend, 27 hours before we were to have our home and backyard filled with friends, we decided to build a DIY patio. No pressure, right?

Well I’m happy to report it worked out great! On Friday night we laid out the patio shape with a landscape edging kit and cover the area with landscape fabric to limit grass and weed growth. We then laid our first 20 bags of marble chip and quickly realized the massive amount of rock we were going to need to fill it all in.

On Saturday, Brent finished the space with two additional runs to Home Depot for 20 - 28 bags of rock respectively. Then all was left was to set out our outdoor furniture (all existing pieces) and prep for the party!

We simply added an outdoor rug to anchor our kid zone (a coloring table cloth and lots of glow sticks), set up a blow-up pool with blankets and pillows along with a projector screen for an outdoor kids movie, and borrowed all our indoor chairs for extra seating. And just look at the end result, friend!

And if you’re wondering, YES! The Halloween party was a blast! Here’s a few shots from our photo booth fun.

The backyard still has a long way to go - stock tank pool, lots of greenery, Bahama shutters, sod - so keep popping back to the Lovely Blog to see the latest updates.

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Our Rockin' Backyard Revamp