A close-up of a metal outdoor table with black lattice design. Two glass candle holders with white candles and stones inside are placed on it. In the background, there are trees and a chimney, all under a wooden pergola.
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Backyard Covered Paver Patio with Built in Grill

ByLisa
1 Comment

Welcome to the great outdoors! I have taken you on the journey of phase 1 of our interior updating of our 70s house, but you didn’t think I would stop there did you? I’m always looking for a new way to make our house more beautiful and our yard is no exception. We are very lucky to live in an AWESOME climate (I swear it doesn’t snow as much as you think) and we really enjoy being outside, especially in the summer since we have no humidity. When we first bought the house, the outdoor space was a bit depressing to say the least. Very little had been done and we had our work cut out for us!

Split image showcasing a patio before and after a makeover. The top shows a plain patio and yard, while the bottom reveals a transformed space with outdoor furniture, paving, and decor. Text reads "Patio Makeover: Before & After.

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The backyard had been neglected for a long time and needed a lot of love to transform it into the outdoor oasis we were after. When we first moved in, we had a lot on our plate so for the first year or so it looked like this. 

A patio with a wooden pergola attached to a house. There's a black grill and a table on the concrete surface. Fallen leaves are scattered around. A wooden fence separates the yard from neighboring houses. A rake is leaning against the fence.

A two-story house with beige siding and a sloped roof. There is a covered patio area with a person standing under it. The backyard has a grass lawn with scattered leaves and is enclosed by a wooden fence. Another house is visible to the left.

View of a backyard with a wooden pergola, a grassy lawn, and a few patches of snow. A small shed is in the corner, with a wooden fence enclosing the area. Trees are scattered along the fence line, and neighboring houses are visible in the background.

One positive I really liked about our 70s house was it had a covered patio. The patio itself was fine but definitely nothing special. The main problem I had was the area to the right of our patio. It sloped and was simply not usable, but the worst was this hideous mulch (if you can even call it that?) from the 70s/80s. It looked like pieces of bark, literally like someone shaved a tree. It was awful and it HAD to go. The question was, what do we do with that area? 

A small backyard with a wooden fence and a backdrop of a house with a chimney and satellite dish. The ground is covered with bark mulch, and there are gardening tools propped against the fence on a concrete area. A leafless shrub is in the corner.

We originally thought we would give our patio a mini makeover and frame it out in some bricks, maybe do a small extension and landscape the yard with some real edging and just make it pretty. The “bark spot” was the hard part. We wanted to make it usable but weren’t sure what we could do on our own.

Then we went to the Denver Home and Garden show. We stumbled upon a paver patio booth and started chatting with the guy. He was super likable and had a book full of pictures of projects they had done and they were pretty impressive! So much better than we could do. Barry LOVED the idea of someone else doing this work. I was worried about cost. Nonetheless, we set up a time to get an estimate.

In preparation for our estimate we started thinking about what we really wanted and when it came down to it, we wanted A LOT! Especially if we were going to pay someone else to do it! High on my wish list was an extension where we could have an outdoor sofa seating area with maybe a fire pit. Barry liked the idea of a built in grill and I fueled that idea with an eating bar off the back of it. But most of all, we needed a solution for the bark area.

I played around with a few designs and saved them in excel. If you have been reading along you know about my excel designs 🙂 Estimate day came and we discussed all our hopes and dreams for the project. I showed the rep my excel plans and he laughed………I was officially his first client to have “drawn” him an excel design. Below is my excel design 🙂

A grid layout map with white squares indicating structured areas on a green background, possibly representing outdoor space. Three brown squares and a few grey areas are spread across the grid, suggesting doors or features.
 
The greatest news was we could build up the “bark spot” with pavers to be on the same level as the rest of the patio and just add on. This is what I really wanted and it could have a seating wall! We would also get a built in grill with a bar off the back, 320 sqft of new patio and they would cover 160 sqft of our existing patio for a grand total of 480 sqft. 
 

Now price. I am not going to lie, this was not a cheap project and my initial reaction was “NO”. Then I researched how much it would cost us to do the same thing on our own just a little less fancy. The number I came up with was $2,000 less than it would cost if we hired it out, not to mention the fact that it would probably take us the entire summer and maybe some couples therapy to complete it. This changed my mind. It would take them about a week to complete the project. We were sold.

Disclaimer: we did have more than one estimate but really liked this company the best.

Day 1 of install……..We were super excited to get this started!!! Sadly, it was a little bit of a gloomy day.

A backyard scene with a wooden fence and bare trees. A tall yellow pole is visible near a paved area covered in fallen leaves. The grass is patchy, and houses are visible in the background.

It was the end of April so there was always a possibility it could snow……and it did. The guys had to cover everything up and come back a few days later.

A backyard scene with a glass table in the foreground. Beyond the covered patio, a blue wheelbarrow sits on a tarp-covered area next to bare trees. Wooden fencing surrounds the yard, and it's overcast outside.

Three days later they got back to work and with in the week, they were done! In total the whole project took them about five days to install and was totally worth hiring it out in our opinion. 

 
A series of four images showing a backyard construction project. Workers are laying pavers on a patio, surrounded by tools, wheelbarrows, and piles of materials. The area is shaded by a wooden pergola, with trees and a house in the background.
 
The final day they had the grill built in and the seating wall was done. We were so excited to use it for the first time! Now I just needed to decorate it a little bit with some furniture and accessories. This is always my favorite part!
 
Collage of a backyard patio featuring brick pavers. Includes views of the yard, patio beneath an overhang, a barbecue grill with a brick surround, and a fenced area with leafless trees.
 
After a bit of decorating our new patio came together to be a relaxing place to unwind after a long day. 
 
Outdoor patio with a dining table and green cushioned chairs under a wooden pergola. A grill stands nearby. In the background, a seating area with cushions is surrounded by a wooden fence, and trees are visible. Paved stone flooring covers the area.
 
Outdoor kitchen with a stone countertop and built-in grill on a brick patio. Four bar stools with patterned cushions are lined up along the counter, facing the grill. A wooden table is in the background.
 
Outdoor patio with green cushioned chairs and a sofa surrounding a glass-top table. Red and patterned pillows add color. A grill and raised brick area are in the background, all set on a stone paver surface, surrounded by a wooden fence.
 
Outdoor patio with a built-in black gas grill set in a stone counter. There's a wooden table nearby and metal chairs with cut-out patterns. A wooden fence and house with blue siding are in the background, with a satellite dish on the roof.
 
Several years later we came back and tackled phase 2 of the backyard makeover where we added string lights, built new lounge furniture, a custom dining table, and added a new firepit area. Later we added a built in smoker and a raised garden bed. 
 

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Collage showing an outdoor patio with a grill, seating area, and dining table. The text reads "Our New Patio With 3 Times The Space" along with a website URL at the bottom.

 
This post, Backyard Covered Paver Patio with Built in Grill, appeared first on Garrison Street Design Studio.

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