One Room Challenge: Spring 2022 Week 1
Hello and welcome to the blog! Here we go again, another One Room Challenge!
For those of you who don’t know, One Room Challenge (ORC) is an 8-week event where interior designers and DIYers take a space and make it over. Every week the featured designers and guest participants (like myself) link their progress to the ORC Blog so others can follow along. This challenge encourages community building and supporting others. If you have some extra time, check out some of the projects over on the ORC blog. I’m excited to see what others accomplish this season! I had so much fun participating in the Fall 2021 ORC, where I completed my dining room; check it out here if you missed that transformation. For this season of ORC, I am tackling my back patio! It is a huge space in our home that is completely underutilized, so I’m looking forward to bringing it back to life. Now, let’s get into what the back patio looks like and my plan!
The Space
One of the things I was most excited about when we bought our house was how large the back patio was. It spans almost the whole length of our home, and it’s a really nice extension of our living space. I thought that we would hang out there all the time, but we only really use it when we have family over for holidays. Or when my DIY projects require more working space…lol.
I think we don’t use the patio for two reasons 1) it doesn’t feel very homey out there, and 2) it doesn’t have a clear purpose. In the next 8 weeks, we are going to change those things!
The main area of the patio is shown above. It will be considered the lounge and kitchen pass-through zone.
The atrium is shown above.
The hot tub area is shown above. This will become a workout area.
The Plan
I have decided to separate our back patio into four zones, each with a purpose, so we can make it as functional as possible! There are also a few general things that I’ll be working on for the whole patio; cleaning, screen repair, touch-up paint, and grinding the mortar/adhesive off the concrete floor.
SketchUp plan for the atrium. Actual space is approximately 10 ft x 15 ft.
Zone 1) Atrium: This is the patio area that is not under the roof; it’s just screened in. I’ll be adding two raised garden beds to grow vegetables in. I’m also installing pavers and groundcover, so it’s not just a dirt pit. One area of the atrium currently has tile installed over concrete. I will be removing the tile and grinding the concrete smooth, so it matches the floor in the covered patio. The newly smoothed concrete area will become our grilling station.
SketchUp plan for the workout area. Actual space is approximately 12 ft x 10 ft.
Zone 2) Kitchen pass-through: We have large windows that look out to the back yard from our kitchen, and the kitchen countertop continues underneath the window onto the back porch. I’ll get into some details about the state of the countertop in a later blog post (it’s a whole thing), BUT the plan is to make this area look a little cleaner and nicer. I have two ideas; one is budget-friendly, and the other is not, but it would be SO PRETTY. Which plan I can execute will depend on if I can save money in the budget elsewhere.
Zone 3) Lounge area: I will most likely be reusing the current patio furniture, but I’ll be sprucing it up a little bit. The furniture layout of this area is up in the air. I want to see how I feel once the other zones are finished. If I have extra time and supplies, I may build a few things to bring the space together.
Zone 4) Workout area: This part of the patio will have the biggest change. Currently, there is a deck with a built-in hot tub in this area. I’ll be ripping out the hot tub and rebuilding the deck so it can be a functional space. Then I’ll be adding some workout equipment!
Weekly Schedule
I’m hoping to stick to this schedule, BUT if you know anything about DIY, you know that not everything goes to plan, so we’ll see how this goes and be in it together!
Week 1: Share the space & plan
Week 2: Goodbye broken hot tub, hello workout area
Week 3: Screen maintenance and touch up paint
Week 4: Grind those concrete floors
Week 5: Making the atrium come alive
Week 6: Kitchen pass-through upgrade
Week 7: DIY decor and furniture projects
Week 8: The big reveal!
There is a lot I want to accomplish for this project, and I have already had to take a few things off the list due to budget and time constraints. It is a large space to tackle! But I am so excited to get started on this project and share the journey with all of you! Make sure to follow me on Instagram; I post my progress in stories as much as possible. And I’ll see you back here next week for another blog post. Thanks for reading!
