Makeover

Florida House: Patio Makeover

January 30, 2023

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We’ve been slowly fixing up our house in Florida whenever we visit, and on my last stay earlier this month I gave the patio seating area a makeover. Anyone who’s lived in Florida is familiar with the weather patterns there: winters are sunny and mild, spring is perfection, summers are hot and humid, and it rains a ton in the fall. I didn’t want to tackle this project in high heat and humidity so I planned this outdoor update during the best time of year for it, and gave this corner of our patio a makeover while temperatures were in the mid 70s.

I wrote about pale pebble landscape design ideas last year in anticipation of just this kind of makeover. These kinds of low maintenance rock beds with tropical plantings are common in the area, they also complement the style of our older home so I refreshed our sitting area landscaping in a similar style.

Here’s what the patio looked like when I started, you can see there wasn’t much that was exciting going on in that corner. I also didn’t like the shade of cornflower blue the patio had been painted before so I decided to change that too.

This makeover required I dig out and haul away the old rock before I replaced the new. It was a lot of manual labor for me but with the help of a shovel and wheelbarrow I was able to remove the dingy old rocks and blackened pavers to start fresh.

After 95% of the old rock was gone we brought in some sand to support new 24″ pavers I bought for a trio of potted plants to fill the space with greenery.

We bought 15 bags of white rock from Lowe’s and layered over the the old dirt for a fresher look. The last part of the makeover was to paint the patio. I power washed it, then used a cleaning solution to scrub and clean the surface.

I allowed the patio to dry a full 24 hours then painted the patio with Valspar Porch & Patio paint in the color Beach Dune. I painted the edges first then the entire patio with a roller on a pole. I used one gallon for each coat allowing it to dry a full 24 hours between coats.

I’m so happy with the fresh new patio space! This is where I drink coffee every morning now. 🙂

We only have the two vintage patio chairs and table for now, but I’ll be shopping for an outdoor sofa set to complete the space.

I’m also thinking about painting a pattern on the patio instead of using outdoor rugs since it’s plain to me, it needs something more. More progress on this space to come this summer!