I’m writing this on the hottest day since records began after sitting outside on this balmy night, when I suddenly realised that I’d pimped up my garden patio with some colourful gazebo decor at the beginning of June, and had rudely not shared it here on the blog. So I thought I’d better do something about that!
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We bought our rattan garden furniture in the late summer of 2017 after waiting for our patio to be paved. This was part of the landscaping of one half of our garden, which you can read about here.
As the table and chairs had cushioned seating, we wanted to be able to provide shelter for them from the rain, and also create an outdoor room that we could sit in whatever the weather. So we decided to buy a fabric gazebo to house our patio set!
We erect the gazebo in late spring and then pack it away again at the end of summer. We did leave it out until the beginning of November one year, which proved great for our fireworks/halloween party, however, Andy decided we wouldn’t do that again, after several hairy nights hanging onto the gazebo during the countless storms we had on the run up to it.
When we first bought the gazebo, we hung a heater/light on the ceiling an added a string of festoon lights. Andy fitted an outside socket so we had power outside. I scattered some tropical cushions on the seats and moved my artificial flower arrangement from inside the house, to the outside table for the summer.
My intentions were to add to the decoration of the gazebo, but due to other projects going on in the house and garden, this summer is the first time I’ve had chance to get around to it. And as we’re also always spending money on the house and garden, I wanted to do this on a budget.
First I added an outdoor rug that I’d previously used on a garden bar area which I’d created on another part of the patio.
Keeping with the colour theme of the cushions, I ordered some paper pom poms from Ebay and suspended them from the frame of the gazebo with invisible cotton.
I wanted a large sign that was light in weight and cheap. Finding one to buy proved almost impossible, so I decided it was time for some DIY magic. I bought a 10 metre roll of garden tie foam from Ebay, and bent it to spell out ‘summertime’.
Some sections of the letters needed tying together so I did this with cotton to hold them in place, and then painted the whole sign. I suspended it from the gazebo, again with invisible cotton, and viola, I had a large outdoor sign for just over £5.99 if you include the cost of the paint and cotton. Bargain!
I also bought a couple of cheap faux trailing plants from Ebay, and put them inside a plastic plant pot that I painted gold, and hung it in a macrame plant hanger that I already had in the house.
The ‘No Smoking’ sign was from Etsy (My House of Neon) which I hung up with a piece of flexible wire.
When decorating your outdoor area, you can save money by stealing items from your house to style it. I pinched a faux palm plant and basket from my kitchen to add more interest.
I bought the teal lantern from Sainsbury’s a couple of years ago, and the on-trend bamboo lantern was from La Radoute.
The last couple of finishing touches was a throw and a colourful geranium, and my decorative gazebo makeover was complete!
Having the shelter and fly screen curtains allows us to enjoy our garden in the evenings too, without getting cold, attacked by moths, bitten or wet!
The gazebo is also a perfect daytime sanctuary to chill out and provide shade from the sun.
I see some fabulously decorated patio areas on Instagram with numerous cushions, blankets and accessories, but I always wonder what they do when it rains? It must be a mad dash to grab everything, and then have to find a place to store it all until the rain stops. And being England, this obviously happens regularly. Then I presume it’s a case of putting everything outside again when the rain stops. What a Palaver.
We simply zip up the curtains. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!
I hope I’ve given you some inspiration on how to decorate a gazebo. I’d love to hear how you’ve styled your patio area and what you think of my colourful gazebo decor in the comments below!
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