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Our Small Suburban Backyard Overhaul with a Deck and Patio Combo and Low-Maintenance Grassless Landscaping

June 22, 2020 / 366 Comments

Living in a suburban neighborhood in the Pacific Northwest area means having a small yard that can quickly become a year-round mud pit thanks to the generous amount of rainfall we receive. To create more usable space in our small yard we covered our deck and replaced our grass with a large stamped concrete patio and low-maintenance grassless landscaping. Our backyard overhaul proves that you don’t have to have a big backyard to have a functional and beautiful space to entertain in. Our whole backyard is designed with entertaining in mind, with lots of cozy neutral farmhouse and cottage style design elements and plenty of defined spaces for hosting and entertaining. This is our small suburban backyard overhaul featuring our deck and patio combination design complete with low-maintenance grassless landscaping.

This post shares every step we have taken in our complete backyard overhaul including building our DIY covered pergola, refinishing our deck with brown stain and white paint, installing our large light grey curved stamped concrete patio in Ashlar Slate, and landscaping with a low-maintenance all green & white grassless design using black beauty bark.

Before & After

There are several stages to the before of our small suburban yard. The first photo shows the yard when we first moved into our home, before we began any of the backyard projects to overhaul our small suburban backyard. The other photo shows our backyard today, after the complete backyard overhaul.

Our Small Suburban Backyard Overhaul

Leveling the Yard – Planting Privacy Trees in a Raised Garden Bed

Our small suburban backyard overhaul took place in several stages over a few years. The very first step in overhauling our small suburban backyard was to level the slope along the back fence. We decided to build a raised garden bed and plant a row of privacy trees to both level the yard and create privacy from our neighbors.

We also leveled another part of the yard and reduced some of the grass in the yard by installing a temporary DIY cement patio as shown in some of the photos.

Creating a Play Area for the Kids

To continue eliminating the grass in our backyard, we next created a grassless play area for the kids. We built a DIY play area box in this corner of the yard and filled it in with wood chips.

This is the original area, soon after it was upgraded with a large cedar play structure as shown in recent photos.

Creating an Outdoor Living Space – Refinishing the Deck & Building a Pergola

The next phase to our small suburban backyard overhaul was to create an outdoor living space right off the main level of the house. To do this we refinished our old deck in a neutral brown stain and gave it a coat of fresh white paint on the railings. Next, we built a DIY clear covered pergola over the deck to create an outdoor living space safe from the heavy Seattle rain.

Creating an outdoor living space right off the main living area of the house added so much space!

Creating Privacy – Building a Privacy Fence

Part of our small backyard overhaul included creating a space that felt private from our somewhat close neighbors, especially for our outdoor living space (the deck). In addition to the privacy trees we previously planted, to create more privacy along the side of our yard that we had the closest neighbor and the least privacy, we built a DIY horizontal privacy fence extending our current cedar fence from 6′ to 8′ tall.

You can see how much privacy this DIY horizontal fence adds here!

Creating a Usable Backyard Space for Entertaining – Adding a Curved Stamped Concrete Patio

While the other phases happened slowly over time, the biggest and final phase to our small suburban backyard overhaul was the addition of a large curved stamped concrete patio. This project took us about a month between demoing the old patio, clearing away rocks and trees, contracting someone to level and lay gravel for the patio, contracting someone to install the new large stamped concrete patio, and finishing the exposed deck by wrapping it with white painted cedar fence boards.

We were able to do most of the prep work ourselves, but hired a local company to level and lay gravel, and to pour and stamp the concrete patio. Check out this post to see a complete guide on what to expect when installing a curved stamped concrete patio, including costs and then check out the final backyard reveal here!

Creating a Low-Maintenance Grassless Backyard – Landscaping with Beauty Bark and Evergreen Shrubs

After the curved stamped concrete patio was installed, the backyard overhaul continued with more grassless landscaping surrounding the patio. Our grassless landscaping included laying black beauty bark around the entire patio, filled with all evergreen plants (some with white flowers) to create a neutral and simple green and white themed landscaped backyard.

The black beauty bark is super low-maintenance, only needing to covered with a new layer every couple years as it loses its color. Using evergreen shrubs and plants in our grassless backyard also creates a very low-maintenance yard because they grow easily in the Seattle area with just rain water and sun, and require very little pruning or other maintenance to stay green and beautiful year-round. Check out the full backyard reveal here!

Using the Backyard for Living and Entertaining

Overhauling our backyard created a large outdoor space that makes living and entertaining so much more possible now. The patio drains the rain properly, preventing the yard from becoming an unusable mud pit ever again. The large concrete patio provides enough space for all of our outdoor living pieces to spread out, rather than be tightly arranged on just the deck alone.

With the additional space, we can now host a large group of friends and family and have multiple living areas throughout the backyard for guests to enjoy. The covered deck makes for a nice outdoor living space off the main home, with a cozy couch and fire pit that can be used year-round. Our BBQ, outdoor dining table, and raised herb garden now all have a home on the functional concrete patio with plenty of space between for gatherings. Our kids also now have a separate play area they can enjoy. Best of all, the grass is gone and our backyard is completely grassless and low-maintenance, with just beauty bark and shrubs that are beautiful and easy to care for.

You can tour our cozy cottage style backyard reveal here and see how I use our new backyard space for entertaining. We love our new overhauled backyard space, and plan to use it as often as we can for years to come. Ready to overhaul your backyard yet?

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