Kicking Off Summer with a Kmart Outdoor Living Mini Makeover & Backyard Party!

One thing we especially love about our house is the backyard set up (it was one of the nice selling points when we bought it a little over a year ago)! It's great for the kids and for having friends & family over. But, even with the good-sized patio table, we often have an issue with running out of seating when we have get-togethers. One side of the patio looked decent and the other needed a bit of help--just basically a dumping ground for kid toys. See?!

 

Mini Backyard Makeover:

So, I was thrilled when I was asked to be part of a series of mini backyard makeovers featuring Kmart Outdoor Living products! In order to find some things to spruce up our outdoor look and help solve our seating dilemma, I started browsing kmart.com, which has a really great patio finder section. Also, the fabulous Party Bluprints site has two great plans for outdoor entertaining, one featuring some of Kmart's outdoor products.

 

With ideas in mind and a budget of just over $500, we headed off to Kmart to check things out (click here to see our whole shopping experience). I was very pleasantly surprised with the selection and had a hard time deciding. When it was all said and done (involving a couple of different shopping trips), here's what we ended up with:

Winthrop Loveseat & Chair

Wicker Outdoor Clock

Cool Bar (not a planned purchase, but super cool & on clearance!!)

2 Red Throw Pillows

Wrought Iron Folding Patio Table (check out how the table got a makeover!) 

Wicker planter (filled with sweet basil & a fun glow-in-the dark orb)

2 Kids' Adirondack Chairs

After some rearranging (and cleaning), here's how our patio looks now:

Can you spot the all the new items?

 Did you see?!?! Even the dog is more excited! ;) 

We L.O.V.E love the new look! The furniture is fantastic--perfect for relaxing outside. And, we really like the defined spaces now. All the kid stuff has been moved to one area, by the kid play equipment no less. The plastic bench (coincidentally, purchased from Kmart about 3 years and still sold there) is a storage bench that houses the outdoor balls, bubbles, chalk, etc. So, it makes sense to have it closer to the kid stuff anyway. And, the boys love their new blue chairs!

At the other end of the patio, is our wonderful comfy set-up! I not only love that it provides additional seating, but love the pop of color (the patio was pretty drab before)! It's fantastic! And, even though it's a smaller item, we are super excited about the new clock (with thermometer)! See the recovered table there too?! It looks great with the new furniture!

 

Backyard BBQ:

Since we had a nice new set-up, we totally wanted to have some friends over! So, we kicked off the summer and showed off our new set-up with a little backyard party! Once again, we drew some inspiration came from Party Bluprints!

 

There are some great ideas & recipes to fire-up a great party--like summer moscow mules, some yummy chicken, and a delicious grilled summer dessert (all of which we served up at our shindig). We also had brats & hot dogs for the kiddos, and all of our friends brought over yummy sides to share! 

It was a super yummy spread!

Everyone seemed to have a great time--chatting, grilling, eating, running through the sprinklers, and even playing in the dirt! 

 

We're thrilled with our new space and can't wait to have some more BBQ parties soon! With the skewers and grilling basket we picked up at Kmart too, we're hoping to get a little more adventurous with our grilling this summer! Can't wait to share fun recipes with you! 

What is YOUR favorite thing about summer backyard parties?

Linked to; *Outdoor Spaces Link Party

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All opinions and experiences are my own.