If you’ve been dying to see our latest home improvement projects or have opinions about outdoor toys for 1 year olds, this post is for you. If you couldn’t care less + are just here for the giveaway—which is in partnership with Nakturnal—I’m not offended. Scroll on down, homie, and enter away!
When we bought our house, Mila was Ryan’s age and I was baaaaarely pregnant with Margot. One of the things that appealed to us so much was the relatively large back yard. We wanted space for our kids to run around and play, to host dinner parties, to grow things, and to simply enjoy being outside when the weather is beautiful.
Up until a couple weeks ago, our patio still looked painfully similar to what it looked like in this post…which I wrote TWO YEARS AGO. (Our dead Christmas tree is in the side yard this time, because are still as classy as ever.)
But guess what?
My parents bought us a new grill for Christmas (*cue choirs of angels singing*), the weather got nice, and suddenly we wanted to play outside all the time. Being outside reminded us that our yard has so much potential. And remembering its potential got us thinking maybe it’s finally time to stop playing on my Patio Ideas Pinterest board and actually do the work.
It was all very “if you give a mouse a cookie.” But instead of cookies, we now have this:
Pretty (and comfy!) chairs! And a little table! Guys, I can go outside + sip lemonade + read a book + watch my kiddos play. It is perfect.
We didn’t just buy some furniture and call it good. David rented a power washer thing and cleaned off the walls + floor. I bought a paint sprayer (recommended by Chris Loves Julia and which I now want to use ALL THE TIME) and gave the walls a fresh new coat of very light grey. The goal was to make it look clean + white without being blinding in the summer sun. I’m so pleased with the difference it made. The back door is still the original color, so you can see the contrast for yourself.
Ick. Why did we wait so long to do this?
After painting, we replaced the old fluorescents with really basic track lighting, then strung up some cafe lights. David wired them in so they turn on and off with the same switch as the track lights. Not only can we hang out outside, but we can do it at night! I didn’t get any decent photos of them in the dark, but you can kind of see them here:
Which brings me back to what I said at the beginning of this post. We bought our house with the intention of having a place for our kids to play outside. And they do! Every day when it’s not hot as blazes, and even then sometimes. Kids are crazy like that.
They use the patio for riding bikes, coloring with sidewalk chalk, collecting bugs and flowers and rocks, and all sorts of things. I’d like to keep it that way…accessible, usable for my little ones. But at the same time, I want it to look pretty. Not just in my little corner. The whole thing.
And it doesn’t. Yet.
Without even considering the rest of the back yard, we have our work cut out for us. The pillars still need to be shored up + repainted. The floor needs some kind of texture, since it’s crazy slippery when wet and we don’t need any broken bones. Eventually we want a big dining table out there, not just card tables we can bring out as needed. We need more seating if we want to invite anyone else over. I want more plants, which should surprise exactly nobody.
And the big one: toys and toy storage.
If the kiddos are gonna play outside, they’re gonna want some stuff to play with. I mean, they think rocks + sticks are great, but they’re also really into dump trucks + shovels. Right now most their toys stay in the sandbox…because they are sandbox-related toys. We have rules at our house against taking inside toys out (I do not need stuffed animals getting left out for the neighborhood cats to snuggle, thank you very much), so maybe we need to add to our outside toy collection.
Other than more trucks, though, what might be fun? Especially for my littlest guy?
I think a bench under the windows with some storage bins underneath would be ideal. We could store chalk, bubbles, soccer gear, and such in a way that also gives us more seating. Since the best toys for 1 year olds—or any age, really—are the ones they can play with for a long time, I want to be sure any new ones we acquire don’t get lost + stay in decent shape for a long time. Mostly it’s a matter of finding the right bench + the right toy bins.
And then I can kick back in the shade while Scooter here has the time of his life playing in the dirt.
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You ready for that giveaway? Here it is! You could win a $50 gift card for Diapers.com!
Don’t currently have a kid in diapers? No problem, because they sell WAY more than just baby pants. Toys for 1 year olds are just the tip of the iceberg…they’ve got all kinds of fun kid gear, clothing, snacks, and more. I could use those $50 FAST.
The giveaway will be open till next Friday at midnight. Good luck friends! I hope you win!
Bunco on your lovely patio was so nice! One of my favorite buncos evah! Oh and Tustin loves his big Tonka dump truck. Little boys and backyard toys are a delight.
Isn’t home renovation the best!? We got some cafe lights for our last home and were able to bring them with us to the new one, but we still haven’t put them up. Your post definitely inspired me to do it!
It’s so gratifying to see a space transform, isn’t it? We’re staying with my in-laws right now and they have what we call the “granny coaster” which is a plastic roller coaster for kids (really it’s like a fancy slide that they go down in a little plastic car). It’s super fun. Our two year old loves it.
My son loves everything from helping me to garden to sand boxes
I love water tables for the little kids and slip n slides for the older kiddos… Both things I can keep cool with too!
I love the new chairs and table! Right now we have a large outdoor toy box and inside is lots of sports equipment (because that’s the stage we are in), but for littler guys, we also have dump trucks and large plastic rakes and shovels.
Okay so our favorite items at the moment are rollerblades … and the small trampoline … we love our backyard … we did a oval cement pad so they can just keep going around and around !
It looks amazing and you’re so inspiring me to clean up mine and get a lounge chair! And yay for Diapers.com, I tried them around Christmas and was floored. I may love them more than Amazon for kid’s stuff, and that’s saying something!
The favorite of all toys has been a digger, the kind they sit on then use the handles to dig and move dirt, we also like be getting a new sand pile every few years, its messy but hours of fun!
We definitely need to add to our sandbox. Where the heck does it all disappear to? A digger sounds like a great addition to what we have already!
My backyard needs some love too! The trampoline is a huge hit and we have a nice picnic table on the patio, but I need some real seating!
Have you seen those tiny plastic “roller coasters” that you sit in and slide down? Claire found one at a friend’s house and all three toddlers played on that thing for two hours straight. Needless to say, it’s on our list (along with one million other things) for when we might possibly be homeowners one day. 😉
Those things look like so much fun. I’ll have to do some research and see if we can work one in somewhere back there!
This is really making me want to fix up our backyard. (And also makes me jealous of your grass, since we’re not allowed to plant in here with their strict water restrictions. 🙄) Yay for progress! I always love your home improvement posts!
We love our picnic table!
Looks like you’re making good progress! We only have a handful of outside toys, which is just as well because I never remember to cover them and they get very dusty and sun-faded. But we do have a splash table and the girls LOVE it!
I’m definitely looking for some way for the kids to play in water when it warms up. A splash table would be awesome!
I’m in the middle of back patio revamping and I am OBSESSED with the idea of painting the house. Obsessed. Ours is all nasty beigey-tan-gross, and that white-gray looks GLORIOUS! Special outside paint? I’m researching that sprayer right this second.
xox
Yep. I used an exterior paint but I’m not sure which one exactly. I’ll post more outside updates with details and sources as we go.
I am DYING to get our back patio covered! Right now it’s just wide open and it drives me nuts cuz everything gets hot. So that’s the grown up toy part hahaha
My girls LOVE their little bikes and digging toys. My nephew has a few of those trucks that can drive just by pushing them on the concrete. I think from Walmart? Little ones too but he loves those things!
My little one loves her sand box.
I just trick Taylor into thinking that picking weeds is a fun game.
Water slides are a favorite in our house!
My daughter loves her Step2 cottage.
My kids’ favorite backyard toys are their digging toys, plus the gardening toys in the spring/ summer.