Create an Oasis in an Afternoon

Feeling the pinch of sky-high lumber prices? What about service providers such a builders and patio creators with months-out start dates? If anything, the pandemic has gotten us all wanting to spruce up our spaces. Now, the only problem is that everyone else also has a deep need to design. So what’s a person to do who desperately wants an outdoor place to hang and entertain? You get creative!

HOME Editor, JoElle Knight, was in the same situation waiting for a new concrete patio to be poured and a pergola built. With a start date months away, she didn’t want her family to go through summer without a space to sit outside and entertain. Her solution? Barrels, café lights and potted plants.

Using the same space intended for their future patio, she bought four outdoor barrels and fitted them with large screw-in hardware to hold heavy metal poles on two corners of the space. Large potted plants provided the other two corner anchors, where she found some old copper poles and stuck them into the bottom of the pot’s soil.

Then she bought outdoor-grade café lights, zip-tying them to each top of the corner poles. Two other barrels were set against the house and an old slab of painted wood set on top to create a make-shift buffet table. A patio table and outdoor umbrella provide shade during sunny days and two cedar benches were set to provide extra seating and a boundary for the space. Extra plants and large pots give the space color.

Now her family can enjoy al fresco dinners and watch the kids catch lightning bugs while lit by the glow of her stringed lights.