Gardens don’t have to be all about herbaceous borders and pristine lawns that take years to establish. You can transform an area of your garden in an instant. Sometimes we spend a lot of time on our interior design, and forget about our exterior design! Think of your garden as an extra room and an extension of your house. I had such fun creating this instant summer garden bar area in a corner of our patio, and we use it all the time now.

(I’ve included some affiliate links in this post, shown with an asterisk (*). If you click on them and make a purchase, I get a bit of money in my back pocket, to help towards future creations to share with you on my blog.)

We had a new patio laid last year, and Andy and I are now working madly every weekend to try to get the first part of our garden finished before the summer ends, including a low maintenance area, our lawn and borders, and upcycling an old bistro set . We’re hoping to have a BBQ soon (I’m praying the weather improves!!). Some of the landscaping, planting etc. has been gradual and time-consuming, but I brightened up a corner of our patio in less than an hour and you can too!

This was the area before.

Nothing going on here 😐

I bought an outdoor rug from Dunelm made from recycled plastic straws. Unfortunately this is no longer available from Dunelm, but you can get one from eBay here.

These two cute *metal retro garden chairs and the *garden drinks cooler are from eBay (we left the legs off ours – the cooler that is, not the chairs 😆 ).

And with a few more finishing touches (not forgetting the drinks of course!). I have an instant garden bar area.

The faux cactus on the left was from Abigail Ahern. It’s no longer available, but there are other plants available in her range. The artificial cactus on the right was from Next (unfortunately no longer available). The mini garden of succulents was from Lidl.

Tip – Pinch items from the house to style up your garden. Especially if you’re having a party or BBQ.

The garden *crocodile ornament and garden *flamingo ornament were from eBay, as were the *faux fur rugs that I threw on the chairs.

The ‘Roll With It’ picture, I made myself. You can find my DIY tutorial on how to make this here. 

The artificial succulent was from New Look, and the pineapple tray, I got from Sainsbury’s last year. They’re both unfortunately no longer available.

I added some fairy lights and lanterns for a cosy, relaxing night atmosphere in my summer garden bar.  Cheers!

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