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Creating a Cozy Cottage Style Backyard Oasis Designed for Entertaining – Our New Stamped Concrete Patio

June 22, 2020 / 222 Comments

Backyard spaces in homes can really add additional living space to your home with the right design elements. Over the years we have spent a good amount of time working on our backyard landscaping to create a neutral cottage style backyard oasis that we could use and enjoy for years to come. Our goal was to create a beautiful low-maintenance and grassless backyard with simple landscaping and lots of space for entertaining to make the most of our small suburban space.

Finally, we decided to ditch the grass and add a large stamped concrete patio to our backyard, and couldn’t be happier. Today I am sharing the full reveal of our cozy cottage style backyard oasis designed especially for entertaining with a new curved light grey Ashlar Slate stamped concrete patio.

Our Cozy Cottage Style Backyard Oasis Reveal

Our yard is about 1000 sf, tucked between two other homes and backed against the back of a small business facility. Needless to say, creating privacy and a space that we could use for entertaining in our backyard seemed like a challenge when we first moved into our home.

You can head to this post to see the complete transformation of our small suburban backyard, where I share all the DIY project details we have done in our yard, before and after photos of every step in our backyard transformation, and the tutorial for our DIY clear covered pergola shown below in this post. You can also check out this post for more information on what to expect when designing a curved stamped concrete patio, including costs.

Take a peek below at the reveal of our cozy cottage style backyard oasis and how I created a space for all my outdoor entertaining needs in our small suburban backyard.

Covered Deck & Cement Patio Combination Design

I knew I wanted to create lots of usable, defined areas in our yard when we designed our concrete patio, so I created this rounded design that naturally created little nooks in the patio at the curved ends.

The patio is designed to flow directly from the covered deck area out and around the deck to create one large and open outdoor living space. This makes the backyard feel larger and more open. This also creates lots of spaces to entertain!

To pull the whole design together this outdoor space is designed with all cozy farmhouse neutral tones. The covered deck is brown and white, the patio is light grey, the landscaping is green and black, and everything else is either a wood or cement toned piece.

Covered Outdoor Lounge & Fire Pit Area

Under the covered deck is our cozy lounge area. More neutrals are used in this space to create a cozy cottage farmhouse look. I wanted this space to feel like an extension of the home, so everything is super plush and cozy in this space. By adding a large stamped concrete patio, this cozy covered deck is now much more open to host guests. There is plenty of room to stretch out on large furniture pieces in two defined seating areas.

A black and white striped rug, a light wood framed outdoor couch and chairs set with linen cushions, neutral cream and grey pillows and throws, a black and wood side table, and a cement gas fire pit complete this space. And to keep it simple, the pillows are actually just my regular indoor pillows that I use outside during the summer.

With our DIY covered pergola, they stay dry! To add some color I have also placed a couple potted trees and succulents around the deck, and keep a few citronella candles handy for the evenings.

This space is so cozy in the evenings – we love to use the gas fire pit and roast s’mores while we watch an outdoor movie. The couch is actually large enough to fit my husband and I and our 3 kids all snuggled up!

Cozy Relaxing Reading Corner

One of the chairs in our outdoor furniture set is placed in this little corner to create a defined reading corner separate from the fire pit area. I like having this space for anyone that wants to simply relax and not necessarily participate in the group setting by the fire pit.

A cute framed farmhouse sign and a teak tea cart full of terracotta pots and plants add a little cozy cottage charm to this corner, and provides another surface to store tools or place a drink.

Large Outdoor Dining Space & Plenty of Seating

With the new concrete patio, we no longer have to try to mix our outdoor dining space with the lounge area on the deck, nor do we have to limit the size of the table! Now there is plenty of room for a large farmhouse table that can seat everyone. Combined with a large, neutral patio umbrella to shade the table in the hot afternoons, this space is both a comfortable and functional outdoor dining area with enough room to host a party.

To add some cozy cottage charm to this space, I simply layered some terracotta potted plants over a vintage flower crate as the centerpiece. I love how the green plants and the terracotta pots look here next to the rest of the yard. The colors are so perfectly neutral and farmhouse inspired!

I also have an old wine barrel placed at the end of the patio to use as a side table to place food and drinks while entertaining or for guests to use to place their drinks while they gather here. Having a large, open outdoor dinning space with a large table and plenty of seating makes entertaining so much easier.

Open Grilling and Cooking Space

Previously, we had to squeeze our outdoor grill on our deck because our yard was too wet and dirty most of the year to walk on. Even our old patio would puddle so badly and become such a discolored mess that it was difficult to actually use the space. This patio drains so well that we can place our grill on the patio down at the end of the deck without worrying about dealing with muddy puddles. This frees up space on the deck for a much more open and cozy lounge on the deck.

And with nothing else in the way, and plenty of room to stretch out, this space works well as a defined grilling and cooking area. It gives the chef much more room to prepare food when we entertain! The green shrubs also make a pretty border for the patio here to create a sense of division from the play area.

Sunny Raised Garden Corner

Our backyard is partially shady all day. Some areas receive sun for a short amount of time, while others receive sun nearly all day. This sunny raised garden corner was designed to hold our raised herb garden and other potted garden plants because the sun shines here most of the day. The herbs grow fantastically in this raised garden bed. I also grow cherry tomatoes each summer in this large pot – my kids and I eat them like candy and garden fresh is truly the best!

I can easily access my little garden now thanks to the new stamped concrete patio – before I had to trudge though out muddy yard if I wanted some fresh herbs for dinner or a little cherry tomato snack! And my garden is carefully placed out of the way off in the corner of the patio to maintain adequate space for entertaining.

Simple Green & Black Low-Maintenance Landscaping

In addition to our new backyard oasis having plenty of room and defined spaces for all of our entertaining needs, we also designed the area around the patio to have easy, low-maintenance, grassless landscaping. Having grass in this space always led to mud and unusable space, it was a headache to grow and to mow and always looked terrible. Who wants to entertain with a trashed outdoor space?

After we installed our new stamped concrete patio, we landscaped the entire border with black beauty bark and planted hardy evergreen shrubs. With less time spent fussing over the yard, we have more time to enjoy our cozy outdoor oasis! Plus, evergreen shrubs take little to no effort to grow, and look beautiful year round, creating a simple yet pretty view for our guests while we are entertaining.

I hope you have enjoyed the tour of our cozy cottage style backyard oasis, designed specifically for entertaining. Don’t forget to check out all the other amazing and inspiring outdoor spaces created by some of my favorite bloggers next. The Summer Outdoor Spaces Blog Hop continues with Jessica from Itty Bitty Farmhouse. You can find links to all the inspiring outdoor spaces below!

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