Home projects are my favorite – I love taking our inspiration and turning it into reality…especially when we can do it on our own inexpensively! At any given moment, I have 10454549 things I’d love to do around the house, but with summertime just around the corner (or is it already here? Let’s settle this Memorial Day vs. June 21st debate), we’ve been primarily focusing on the exterior of our house and the yard.
We have a really nice sized backyard but we’re still working on getting the grass to grow (and getting rid of weeds!), and there’s a spot in the yard right off our covered concrete patio that gets so muddy whenever it rains, causing all of us to track our dirty feet into the kitchen when we go inside. We also have had a brand new outdoor pizza oven in our garage since last year (thanks, Mom & Dad!) and haven’t set it up yet, since we hadn’t spent much time focusing on getting the backyard ready.
While at Lowe’s looking for flowers, we found some basic patio pavers on sale but didn’t love how plain they were – but also didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for the expensive stamped concrete pavers. I went home and started researching inexpensive DIY patio ideas and found an idea I really loved – and the best part is, it only required those cheap square pavers and some pea gravel. We ended up spending around $120 to build a 14′ x 7′ patio area, which was way less than it would’ve cost to buy the fancy stamped pavers. Admittedly, the patio will probably never look neat and clean because the girls are obsessed with picking up the little pebbles and playing with them, but not having to deal with muddy feet has been such a lifesaver!
How We Built a DIY Patio
First, my husband dug several inches to remove the top surface of grass and to smooth the dirt before placing the pavers. This actually took a while and was pretty tiring, at least that’s what he told me 😉 Meanwhile, I lugged the heavy pavers and bags of pebbles into the backyard using the kids’ wagon…and then he finished up the other half of that when I quit. 🙂
To create even spaces between the pavers, we used several pieces of lumber we had in the garage. FYI, I know you can grab scrab lumber from Lowe’s for free, if you don’t have any laying around at home.
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Once all of the pavers were laid, we (I mean my husband) poured the bags of pebbles in the spaces between the pavers. He used a shovel to move it around to fill all of the spaces and then followed behind with a broom to move the rest of the rocks off the pavers. Lastly, we rinsed the patio with the water hose to remove the dirt and dust that were on the pavers and rocks. Super simple!
Pavers we used: Gray 12×12 Pavers
Rocks we used: Pea Gravel
For a 14′ x 7′ area, we ended up using 72 square pavers and 12 bags of pea gravel. The grand total was $119.
If you’re looking for an easy and inexpensive way to revamp your outdoor space, consider this DIY patio idea. A little sweat equity will pay off in a big way with this cost-effective project!
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Love the idea. How has this held up as far as any settling or paver movement? Did you put anything under it like landscape fabric or sand? Do you still like it? How do you like the spacing? Are pavers too far apart or does it work for your purposes. We would want to put some patio furnishings on ours.
It’s held up really well! We did not put anything underneath but I’d recommend landscape fabric because we did have some grass pop through that we’ve had to maintain. It’s actually been a lot more kid-friendly than I expected, too – no one has tripped in between the pavers, etc.! We have sat patio chairs on it as well and it works fine. Overall, highly recommend! 🙂
How much space did you put between the pavers?
How much space did you put between the pavers? Typo in my previous email!
We used two pieces of scrap wood to measure the distance – I️’m pretty sure the spacing was two 2×4 pieces sitting up!
Where did you get the pavers, and how much where they?
We got ours from Lowe’s and they are around $1 each.
How long did it take to complete the project?
It took two days – my husband leveled the surface by removing grass and smoothing the dirt and let it sit overnight and then we placed the stones and filled in with pebbles the next day. It is totally a day project, but we have kids and had to take a break!
Hi!! That’s beautiful, but I keep asking myself how would you keep the pea gravel in place ? I live in FL so I’m afraid with the heavy rain and wind or just my dogs running around it, it will come off from its place, need some help because I have already started something like that .
Thanks
We actually removed the grass and a few inches of dirt before laying the stones and gravel, so it helped keep the loose gravel in place! We got a lot of heavy rain and really didn’t see any of it shift!
I’ve been looking for a low maintenance and cost friendly way to create a seating space in my yard and this is it! Can’t wait to try this. Thank you!