Interior Ideas: Modernising our Garden on a Budget
The sun is beginning to shine in Manchester (believe it or not) and as much as I can't wait to spend many a day and evening in our garden, I know before I'll really enjoy spending time there, it needs a bit of an update.
We got the keys to our house in Manchester just over a year ago and during the past 12 months, we have been painting, wallpapering and giving the inside of the house a bit of a face lift from the plain magnolia colour scheme it had before. As we were so busy decorating last summer, other than a mow and a weed we haven't touched the outdoor space since we moved in. It wasn't a priority and we know to get it exactly how we want it it's going to cost some serious money.
In an ideal world, we'd like the paving slabs removed and replaced with moroccan style outdoor tiles which would run in a big rectangle all the way to the grass and we'd remove the front two flower beds and re-plant the flowers elsewhere. We'd bi-fold the back doors and have Soho House-esque striped awning above them. We would get rid of the round paved area in the middle and the big trees at the back and just have that whole area as grass. Then around the sides we would box the plants and flowers in with concrete or wooden beds in a dark grey colour. Basically if you look at my Pinterest board for garden inspiration, that features all of what we want!
(Excuse the fact the lawn needs mowing and the paving needs weeding...!)
Of course we are very lucky to have a garden and one as spacious as this and there are elements we do like such as the lovely flowers and plants as it's a very mature garden. It's perfectly liveable but for us, it needs modernising. Until we can afford to give it an overhaul (probably not for a few years yet) the cheapest and simplest way of us updating it is with some new furniture, furnishings and paint. A bit of a restyle is never a chore and you all know how I love to style a space!
Here is what we currently have in our garden, all of which we still love and want to keep in the new garden restyle:
And here are the items I've currently got my eye on:
You might be wondering what the paint is for on the image above but my idea is to either go for a table and chair dining set or buy a basic picnic bench and revamp it with bold paint, patterned cushions and a bright umbrella. Decisions!
What do you think? It could look pretty cool couldn't it with some pops of colour, lots of little details and a lick of paint here and there (we want to paint the shed and the little bit of fencing we have too). I won't reveal where the above items are from and their cost just yet as I will run another blog post when I've decided what to buy and how I've styled the items together in our garden!
