When we first moved into the house, I really wanted to buy furniture for our outdoor patio but with fall approaching, we decided to invest in furniture for the screened in porch since we figured we would utilize that more. So even though I wasn’t going to get the outdoor patio setup of “my dreams” I still wanted to put something together so we could utilize the space while still keeping the budget low. Here are a few of the things I did to upgrade our patio from a blank space to something more cute and functional, while keeping everything under $1000!

Utilize Facebook Marketplace So the first tip is to scour Facebook marketplace –this can be a great place to find very discounted/inexpensive items. I ended up finding our patio table here for $100. It was from HomeGoods originally and solid acacia wood, so I knew that the table was durable (and sustainable)! While it wasn’t the exact table I would have picked out if I had an unlimited budget, it was the perfect size for our patio and you couldn’t beat the price. That brings me to my next point:

Decide On A Focal Point / What You Want To Splurge On While the table wasn’t exactly what I wanted, I knew that something like the chairs would make more of an impact (since there were 6 of them and they surrounded/partially covered the table). So for me, I would have rather spent more of my budget on the chairs than the table itself. When you’re buying furniture in general, I think it’s great mix high-low pieces. While I wouldn’t consider anything I bought for the patio to be in the “high” category, all the chairs came out to be around $700 vs. the table being only $100. Point is, not everything you buy has to be expensive. You can mix and match and still be left with a nice looking space. (These chairs were from Target and they aren’t in stock anymore but the brand is Standish).

Search For Dupes And just because you know you want to invest in a certain piece, doesn’t mean you can’t look for a more budget friendly option. When looking for the patio chairs, I originally found these. And while they weren’t super expensive compared to other websites, since I needed 6 of them it would have been over $1600 for the chairs alone. So, I started looking around for a similar style but for less. I ended up finding the ones we have from Target which ended up being over 50% less expensive and look practically identical.

Think Of What You Can DIY – Don’t be afraid to DIY some things when it comes to your patio. It’s an outdoor, likely more casual area, and things don’t have to be “perfect”. For example, the table I found on FB market place didn’t have a hole for an umbrella but figured that was something we could pretty easily add ourselves.

Ambiance – A little ambiance can go a long way with helping establish an aesthetic and vibe. Think string lights, faux or real plants/landscaping, tiki torches, accent pillows, a fire pit, etc. Linking below our exact string lights (they come with a remote control, a dimmer, and timer setting too) plus what we used to hang them.

If you have any other tips, please share with us below!