Reader Question: Pretty Patio from a Concrete Slab

Hey there Remodelaholic readers! Dawn here, from AD Aesthetic, and I’m back this month with another reader question mockup to hopefully inspire some creative ideas for your outdoor space. If you’ve missed any of my previous reader question mockups, you can always see all my posts here.

If you follow Remodelaholic on Facebook, you’ve probably seen several of the reader questions that are submitted every month. Well each month here on Remodelaholic, I choose one reader submitted photo to offer my two cents on, and I create a Photoshop mock up of what I would do if I were in your shoes! (Pssssst— you can submit your reader questions by messaging Remodelaholic on Facebook!)

First though, my disclaimer: While I can recommend ideas that I think look nice, I have never seen this house in real life and don’t have accurate measurements. I am also not an architect or landscaper and do not know the planting recommendations for your area- I just like to make things look nice. I can’t guarantee that any of the items I put in my ‘virtual’ design will actually work in real life (or that they’ll fit your design style for that matter), and this is not intended to be a professional design consultation. So think of this as a just-for-fun rendering that hopefully gets your wheels turning and provides some inspiration!

READER QUESTION from Vicki —
We moved to a desert location. Backyard walls and planter are concrete blocks as you can see. We will be building a pergola on the cement slab. Ideas for making these walls and planter more attractive?

First of all, I’m super jealous of this great space! The moment I saw it, I had visions of how beautiful it could be and so perfect for entertaining! To get my thoughts in order, I scoured the interwebs for inspirational patio spaces, and was not disappointed:

Beautiful patio inspiration — Image Source & Photo Credit: Blackbird

If those patios don’t make you want to get outside, I don’t know what will. With all that inspo in my mind, I got to work on Vicki’s patio area. Here’s a quick reminder of what the space looks like now:

And here is my mockup of what I would do if this was my patio area:

Sources for this mockup:

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Outdoor Furniture
Rug
Planters

It’s a pretty amazing transformation, right? Don’t you want to make friends with Vicki now? Cause I do. Here’s what I did to get this look:

• Modern horizontal slat walls – I absolutely love the look of horizontal wood walls and privacy fences. It just gives such a clean and modern vibe to the space. Camouflaging the walls and planter with wood instantly warms the whole patio area up and makes it look about a million times more inviting and pulled together. Paired up with a pergola (which Vicki mentioned they already have in the works) it creates a stunningly beautiful and rich looking entertaining area.

• Cozy seating – Softening up all the hard surfaces out here (gravel, cement, stone, wood) with an eye catching outdoor rug and some inviting soft furniture makes the space feel cozy and personal. It draws you into the seating area and you have an instant entertainment zone.

• Add color with plantings – I intentionally kept the furnishing pretty neutral out here because I knew the plant life would steal the show. Dessert plants can be so beautiful and colorful, so take advantage and use them like artwork all around!

• Stone Path – The final addition I made to this space was breaking up the gravel area by adding in a stone walkway leading to the patio. Not only does it make the gravel feel more intentional and less bare, but it also acts as a visual invitation to the seating area, creating a welcoming feeling and finishing off this transformation perfectly.

So what do you think? What would YOU do with Vicki’s patio area?

As always, thank you to Cassity and the Remodelaholic team for having me back each month. If you like this post, and have a design dilemma you’d like me to mock up some ideas for, you can ask your questions by sending Remodelaholic a message over on Facebook, or checkout my mockup design services over on my site adaesthetic.com. And be sure to follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram and say hello! Have a great day, friends!

-Dawn