My patio has come a long way! The patio isn’t anything special, but it is covered and overlooks our pool area. When we bought this house, one of the things I wasn’t too excited about, was the tile that was in this space. First of all, I didn’t like the color. Second, the first time we got in the pool we realized the water actually made the tile really slippery! I told myself one day I would remove that tile and redo this patio space. That “one day” came almost 9 years later. It’s finally time for a budget friendly patio refresh! Home takes time! 🙂
This is what I spent on this patio refresh:
Tile Removal (earlier this year): $1400
Paint for Patio Furniture (2 cans): $15
Patio Cushions: $250
Hunter Skysail Outdoor Fans: $1000 (gifted)
By the way, this is the same space where one of my little DIY modern planters lives!
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Painted Outdoor Tile Ruined
Painting my tile was definitely a permanent solution to covering up the slippery tile. And it actually worked! The problem is that it didn’t even last a year. I painted this tile early in my DIY journey – about late May or June 2020. February of the following year we had the ice storm in Texas, and when the snow melted, it ruined the paint. Over the next couple of months, 1/3 of the paint completely peeled off. It looked terrible. And worst of all, it was once again a slippery surface.
Tile Removal
Removing tile is a LOT of work – something I didn’t have the tools for, the time for, or the energy to do. My husband and I decided to pay a dustless tile removal company to remove the tile for us. We paid about $1400 but the removal included 2 spaces – the patio space and our upstairs guest bathroom. They had a crew of about 5 guys and had the tile removed in about 4 hours from start to finish. Worth every cent!
Paint is Magic
I love using paint to give new life to anything! And my patio furniture wasn’t the exception. It had really great bones and it’s made of metal so I didn’t feel like I necessarily needed to get rid of it. Plus, I had already spent $1k on the tile removal. In my mind, I was done with the big spending. 🙂 I really wanted to try the new Glidden Max Flex paint, because it claimed to dry in 5 minutes. I’m all about saving time so off to Home Depot I went, to buy this amazing spray paint.
This spray paint IS amazing! And it DOES dry in 5 minutes! I took my patio furniture from sad to beautiful in less than an hour, cleanup and all!
And I didn’t stop there. I spray painted my 10 year old patio chairs I bought at Target for $20. These chairs were the first purchase we made for our outdoor space! They needed some love too and I decided to take the plunge and try and match the new patio furniture cushions. I used the same Glidden Max Flex spray paint in Matte Black, and used Rustoleum 2x spray paint for the Ivory color in a glossy finish. I love how these chairs turned out!!
Patio Cushions
This is the part where I realized how expensive it is to replace your patio cushions! My patio cushions were literally falling apart. The Texas elements have no pity on anything and my furniture had basically been beat up by the elements. The cushions would literally fall apart when you touched them. You would end up with dust on your fingers – yuck! So I set out on a mission to find affordable outdoor cushions that I could replace the old ones with.
I searched and searched for the most affordable option in the size that I needed and the most affordable cushions I found were these patio cushions from Amazon. I got the whole set for my patio chairs (5 seats) for $250! Everywhere else I looked the price was between $400-450. Needless to say, I was super happy when I found these. In a few months I will share a review on how they’ve held up. I put them in my patio space early June and as of right now (early August) the cushions have held up great with minimal fading.
Adding Outdoor Fans
BEST.DECISION.EVER!
If you live in an area with crazy weather, have you ever noticed that some of the outdoor fans get droopy blades? In Texas, we always get very hot summers where the temperature is 100+ degrees and the heat literally melts the blades on these fans. Its a really sad thing to see!
For the longest time I was really hesitant to add outdoor fans to this space because outdoor fans are expensive y’all! I didn’t want to risk this happening to my fans. But as I was browsing through my options, I stumbled across the Hunter fans with Weathermax® technology! These fans are built to withstand harsh outdoor weather and are made with materials that keep the shape of the fan, avoiding any droopiness!
I partnered with Hunter Fan Company and they gifted me 2 of their Skysail outdoor fans in black. The Skysail fan comes with a light which is a feature I was looking for. Another thing that I liked about this Hunter Fan is that it is built with Surespeed® technology. These fans are quiet, provide a good amount of airflow, and are wobble-free!
With the installation of these fans, my patio space is now one of my favorite spaces to hang out, even when it’s hot outside. Nothing better than getting in the pool for a few hours, and then hanging out on the patio with a breeze. And as an added plus, the breeze helps keep mosquitos away! That alone is worth the few hours it took to install these!
Final Thoughts
What do you think about this budget friendly patio refresh? My patio is now one of my favorite places to be! No more slippery tile, furniture that looks like new, and new outdoor fans. 🙂
If you’d like to see the summary of how this space came together, check out my reel on Instagram.
Happy DIYing!
