thinking outside the box with outdoor deck placement

I have been feeling very unproductive while I am healing my sprained ankles, if you missed that update you can read about it here. 

After reviewing all the work that we have completed here in just over 2 years I am just feeling relieved to have so many projects completed.

Like this sun deck or party deck we completed just before I hurt myself, phew!

I thought I would revisit how this space was transformed. 

Lets go back to last year when I bought a lovely Japanese lilac tree for this space behind our garage. 

I considered a hot tub for this space early on but it turned out to be too costly to create what I had in mind...$50,000 for a hot tub... I don't think so...I have great taste in my mind.

So I added a tree to soften this area and to add privacy, I had decided this was the perfect spot for a sun deck to have a nice lounge spot as it is sunny for nearly the whole day. 

The norm is to place decks along the back of the house but I wanted to think outside of the box and utilize more of our unusual yard.

 I use this app on my iPhone called Home Outside Palette , it is so much fun...the image below incorporates all elements we are looking for in our perfect backyard , eating area , fire pit, sundeck, kitchen/bar and even a potential space for a hot tub. Lots of fun, I don't get anything for mentioning this app I just like it.

That back fence that is old and tired looking needed to be dealt with so I attached thin pressure treated fence boards horizontally to help it blend in with our newer fences. 

I also filled in the gaps on the fence to the right with the same boards and added horizontal boards to upgrade the look and to block my dogs view of the neighbors dog to stop some of the barking (my dog doesn't like other dogs).

Here's what happened, I found a nice conversation set on sale 50% off and we bought it but had no where to put it so we moved forward with the sun deck ahead of schedule, that's why it's good to have an overall plan for landscaping so it can be tackled in phases. 

 Grass removal was not the most fun, but we used a Bagster available at Home Depot to dispose of the grass, disposing of this kind of material can be the biggest pain in the butt. It wasn't cheap but it is part of the cost of the project.

And here we are today I am calling it my little happy place...the birds gather under the tree and in the tree , I've seen bunnies on the deck and even a couple of toads have made this space under the deck home...

I added an overhanging umbrella for shade a must for those really hot days.

 I look forward to staining this deck next spring with some Australian Timber oil.

I picked up a little round table from Target as our set only came with one side table. I also added a little palm tree for a bit of a tropical feel.I am looking forward to hanging out here this weekend.

I have been thinking about re-arranging things a little and adding a bar cart/table to the wall...but then the coffee table won't work? and as it is now we can add the wicker arm chairs and comfortably seat 6 or more I need to get a couple of poufs I think. 

Maybe I will just add some hangers to put up my big lanterns on the wall.

So I say think outside the box when it comes to outdoor planning. 

You should check out Jen's backyard project, I am drooling over this back deck transformation, I am looking forward to using the same sprayer to paint our fence next spring all fresh white....

It turns out my husband wasn't so sure about having a deck behind the garage but it is a really nice and he loves it as much as I do. 

Do you have an outdoor space I should see , leave me a link and I'll check it out.