Patio Makeover Using 20 Thrift Finds Budget Outdoor Refresh.

You're not going to believe this patio transformation. I used 20 thrift store finds, plus pieces I already had to decorate everything. Some thrifted items were perfect as is, but others needed some serious help. It's amazing how a few budget-friendly changes can make such a difference. I can't wait for you to see the final reveal. But before we get to the patio, let's add some decor to my side yard. I am so excited to have thrifted this baby buggy. I was actually on the phone talking to my daughter-in-law about being at Goodwill and looking for things to upcycle, and one of the Goodwill employees overheard me and said, would you like to upcycle an old baby buggy? And I said, yes, and he said, well, we just got one in the back. I'll go get it. $5.99, amazing. I think I'm going to put it here because it hides these pipes and whatever that little thing is down there, that little window. I just need to decide which direction I want it to go. I don't know what those pipes are either because that's not my dryer vent. It does have a plywood bottom, but I want to make sure that my plant pot doesn't leak and warp that wood. This fern is so root-bound, I'm going to have to cut the plastic pot off. There we go. This fern is so big, you can barely see the buggy, so I may have to get something a little smaller. I thrifted this glass vase with a woven covering for $2.99, which seems a little overpriced. I put some old styrofoam inside so I don't have to use so much dirt, and then I'm going to add this lemon ball sedum, which may not be the best plant for this, but we'll see. Then my thought was to cover it with a Dollar Tree cocoa liner so it looks like a mushroom. Let's see if we can feed this little sedum through the holes. It's so delicate though. I'm just going to have to trust that a plant is going to do what a plant does by searching out the sunlight because I'm not going to be able to pull all of this through. All right, well that did not do as good as I was hoping, but like I said before, I think it will eventually look better once the sedum finds its way to grow through the holes. I decided to move the mushroom to a pot on the patio, and I trimmed a little off the cocoa liner and added a landscape pen to help hold it in place. I thrifted this resin snail for $2.99, and we'll just put him here next to the mushroom. So I got these stones off Facebook Marketplace for $2 a piece. They had some bigger ones, but unfortunately I went by myself and I couldn't carry the bigger ones, and there was no one there to help me. So I'm going to try to use these stones to make the downspout look more attractive. This was one of the bigger ones that I could just barely lift. I had this idea of creating this kind of waterfall effect, but I think I need to buy some more pea gravel and river rocks. I thrifted this two years ago, and I have never done anything with it. I think I was attracted to the chippy green paint, but I feel like parts of it are missing. I'm not really sure what it was, but then I got the idea that I could put solar lights in here. So these are just solar lights, either from Dollar Tree or Walmart, and I just popped the bottom part off, and they fit perfectly in there. To hang it, I just attached a hanging basket chain from Dollar Tree. Then to dress it up, I popped the butterfly off of a Dollar Tree S hook, just by bending it back and forth. I don't care for the bright colors on the Dollar Tree butterflies, so I gave mine a coat of spray paint. Then I just used the metal flap on the back of the butterfly to clip it onto the chandelier. I was so happy to find this nice copper-looking bird feeder at Goodwill for just $3.99, but I wanted to dress it up a little bit, too. First, I spray painted a piece that I had previously taken off of a lamp. Then I spray painted the lid to the bird feeder. To put the parts together, I just screwed the lid back on the bird feeder, then slid the lamp part onto the hanging wire and clamped the metal butterfly to the wire just above the lamp piece. And I used the S hook that came with the butterfly to hang it from a tree branch. I thrifted this concrete rabbit a couple years ago, and one of the ears was broke off. Yeah, I think it was this one, and I don't know, somehow I just molded him a new one with some concrete mix. This pot used to have a pedestal. It was really pretty. I had the dog bowl sitting in it last year, but as you can see, the bottom broke off. So I thought it would be fun to put it here next to this rabbit. This is myrtle. It's a ground cover. I wanted it to look like the myrtle was growing in the pot, but actually be in the ground. What do you think? I think it's kind of cute. Hopefully I can just water it like this. As you can tell, that is not a concrete bird bath. I want to add a little more weight to it and just make it a little more decorative. So I bought some decorative stones at Dollar Tree. I don't know if I want to use this bird or a smaller one because he is pretty big. I feel like I kind of need to weigh him down with some rocks. I think it would be fun to have a little plant in there too. Now I'm going to turn off the camera for a minute while I plant this speed well. And I got a lilac bush back there and it was under $20 and look how big it is. Next up on my to-do list was unpacking all of the patio furniture and figuring out the layout. I always like to switch things up a little from previous years. Even though I'm not planning on buying anything new this year, I still enjoy playing around with the arrangement and giving the space a fresh look. If you've watched my past patio makeovers, then you already know I have a large dark gray outdoor carpet remnant under my pergola. Then I like to layer a smaller colorful outdoor rug on top to bring in some extra color and personality. I'm not very handy with a leaf blower so for me, I've found the easiest way to clean the furniture and rugs is using an old vacuum cleaner. About five years ago, I attached curtain rods to my pergola and bought some tab top outdoor curtains. They're definitely starting to show their age so I'll probably need to replace them next summer. To tie them back, I just picked up some blue ribbon from Walmart because if I don't secure them to the post, they really fly around on windy days. I have tried planting live trees on my patio in the past and they always die. Luckily for me, this year I was able to thrift this faux tree for just $20. It has a really nice shape and it's covered in twinkle lights. Unfortunately, the lights are not solar. Oh, do the lights not work or is it just still too sunny? Oh, I think it's just still too sunny. To keep the tree from tipping over, I added a couple of big stones on top of base. Then I filled in the empty space around them with some empty water bottles and then I finished it off with a layer of dirt so it looked natural. So this large blue pillow and these two pattern pillows came from Goodwill. $2.99 each. These aren't outdoor pillows so I'm going to them with this Scotchgard Outdoor Sun and Water Shield. I got this at Walmart. If you're trying to find this at my Walmart, it was actually in the crafting supply aisle rather than in the garden section. When I get home with my plants, I go around and I place them where I think they would look good and just arrange and rearrange until I'm happy before I start planting them. And I don't know about you, but I never seem to buy enough. I always buy these vinca vines because I like having something droopy over the edge of my pots and they grow really fast and they're hard to kill and they're super cheap. I am no master gardener, but I do know that it's important to water your plants right away after you transplant them. To add something whimsical to this planter, I'm using this thrift store bulb planter. First, I'm attaching a rusty metal bird cutout I bought from Amazon. It's easy to add to any wood piece with just two small screws. I simply drilled two small holes in the handle then secured the bird using the screws that came with it. I bought this concrete planter off Facebook Marketplace for just $10. As you can see, there is some concrete missing and it looks like somebody tried to patch it and didn't do a very aesthetic job. But for $10, I think it'll make a great little planter and I can just turn the ugly part to the back. Concrete planters and statuary and bird baths are so expensive, so anytime I can find one at the thrift store or on Facebook Marketplace, I am definitely going to take advantage of that. Okay, I think this says this is an asp fern. Is that right? I guess so. Oh, oh my gosh, I am such an idiot. It's asparagus fern. Yeah, I remember my mom had some of these. One day, I'd like to have one of those fancy concrete wall fountains on this brick wall, but since they cost about $2,000, this summer I'll just be using this $5.99 mirror from Goodwill, but I am going to dress it up with some faux flowers that I also thrifted at Goodwill. Because of the metal design of the frame, I was able to weave the stem securely through it and in a couple of spots, I added a little florist wire just to make sure everything stayed in place. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I sprayed the faux stems with the Scotchgard outdoor sun and water shield. I'm hoping it helps protect the flowers and keeps them from fading. I set aside some of the other really nice stems that I thrifted, but I also decided to tuck a few into some empty spots as fillers until my plants grow. I thrifted this metal stand at Goodwill for $9.99. It was actually a side table and there was a heavy round piece of clear glass that sat on the top, so I took the glass off and put a cocoa liner in instead. I've already added some dirt in my cocoa liner because I want to sit this little statue in here. I thrifted this for $4.99 and then I'm going to put this creeping genny here in the front. I think this is going to be such a cute little outdoor vignette. The dirt that I put at the bottom of the cocoa liner was dirt that I had shoveled up when I was planting the lilac bush, but now I will fill in with some Miracle-Gro potting soil. This little statue was an old Goodwill find. Whatever was in her hand was broken off, so I just used some kind of adhesive and glued that little bird on there. I just love how that looks. This is a pincushion plant and this is just some inexpensive vinca because I love having plants that grow over the edge of the pot. Do you hear that bird chirping at me in the background? It's because a little songbird built her nest in my patio chandelier and she doesn't want me to disturb her eggs. This was a really nice lampshade, but when I picked it up from the Goodwill shelf, I noticed a tear in the inside fabric, but I decided to buy it anyway. I went ahead and ripped off all of the fabric, which wasn't easy because this was a really well-made lampshade. Then I grabbed my glue gun and started gluing little clumps of reindeer moss all over the metal frame. Surprisingly, it went pretty fast. To create a faux outdoor lamp, I placed a solar light inside a tall skinny plant pot filled with dirt. Then I used the sides of the lamp harp to secure the lampshade into the dirt and position it over the solar light. If you don't have a tall planter like this, you could just attach the mossy lampshade to a regular lamp. I thrifted this large vintage lamp for nine dollars. It was so heavy, I knew it would work perfectly as outdoor decor. First, I loosened the screws on the socket, disconnected the wires, and pulled the cord out through the bottom of the lamp. Then I started removing the rest of the lamp hardware. Usually, the threaded pipe inside comes loose pretty easily, but this one had actually been glued in place, so I had to grab my angle grinder and cut it off. Eventually, I may add a wood round or some other type of tabletop to turn it into a small table, but for now, I simply covered the hole in the center with a leaf design candlestick that I thrifted last year and added a solar light on top in place of a candle. This little snail solar light is from Amazon, and I just thought it was so stinking cute. I thrifted this heavy metal hanging basket for $4.99, and then I bought a cocoa liner and a drip tray. I like putting the little drip tray in there so the plant doesn't dry out. This large fern from Walmart fits the hanging basket perfectly, and I still have room to add a little bit of Miracle-Gro potting soil around the sides. I love this blue and white flower pot that I thrifted for $4. I just added some styrofoam and a thrift store faux flower to create a table centerpiece. I thrifted a pair of two wrought iron stands for $2.99 each. I feel like they were meant to hold a gazing ball or maybe a hurricane shade of some kind. I freshened up the metal with a coat of dark blue spray paint, and I also thrifted a box full of battery-operated candles that are smaller than most pillar candles, but they fit perfectly in the openings of these iron stands. I want to get this clematis off of this little cheap plastic trellis that it came with, and I don't want to harm the plant, so I'm going to cut it off. I have a much nicer trellis that I can put it in. I've never had a hummingbird feeder before, although I have seen hummingbirds in my yard a few times, so when I found this one at the thrift store for just $2.99 and in perfect condition, I thought I'd give it a try. This little bowl was only $1.99, and I knew it was the perfect container for some outdoor twinkle lights. I use solar twinkle lights. When I use them in trees, I simply clip the solar panel to an outer branch that gets plenty of sunlight. Then I can place the lights wherever I want. I hope you enjoyed today's video, and if you want even more ideas for repurposing thrift finds for your yard and patio, here's another video I think you'll like.