5 Amazing DIY Backyard Patio Ideas On A Budget

If you are looking for easy and fantastic DIY backyard patio ideas on a budget, you are in the right place. You can make an inexpensive patio using readily available resources or things that you can buy cheaply from friends and online platforms like Craigslist. Here are the 5 amazing DIY backyard patio ideas on a budget.

Backyard patio ideas come in many different designs, colors, materials, patterns, or combinations of materials.

Add flair to your outdoor decor by combining a patio with other creative backyard budget landscaping projects like an outdoor rug, outdoor seating, a potted plant, a simple fireplace, or a garden path through your backyard oasis.

There is no upper limit to how creative you can get with your next patio project. The trick is to find a simple backyard makeover idea you can achieve in a short time without breaking the bank.

Here are five amazing DIY background patio ideas on a budget that you can try to enhance your outdoor living space.

1. Pea Gravel Patio

Pea gravel is a type of small stone found near water bodies. They have a smooth texture and come in different shapes and colors, such as white, buff, rust-brown, and translucent.

Pea gravel is available across the country and costs between $10 and $50, depending on the location and the seller, making it one of the most accessible cheap landscaping ideas around.

To make a fantastic pea gravel patio, you first gather the necessary resources and tools like hammers, compactor, lumber, wooden stakes, gravel, and landscape fabric.

A gravel patio goes well with paths leading to the backyard if you want to exclusively use gravel instead of grass or other material for walkways or backyard paths.

Because of the small size of the material, your gravel ground cover requires proper edging to ensure the pebbles remain in place in your patio space. While lumber is great for this purpose, you can also plant grass or flowers to create a live garden bed edging around the patio to reduce the gravel spread.

Red Cottage Chronicles has a step-by-step tutorial you can follow to make your own DIY backyard pea gravel patio.

2. Concrete Garden Patio

Although concrete is another cheap alternative idea for making a DIY patio, its dull color might turn your backyard patio into a boring outdoor living space.

The one good thing about poured concrete for making a patio is that it assumes any shape you want, and it’s possible to tweak it to adapt varying designs, even on the same patio. It’s a great way to add unique design-specific ideas. To add some vibrancy to such a patio, consider pairing it up with a small budget garden. It could be a vertical garden or just a couple of potted plants placed strategically at different points to add a pop of color.

3. Rustic Flagstone Patio

What other cheaper way to experiment with flagstones than using them to build a DIY patio in your backyard? Flagstones are easy to find cheap or repurpose from another defunct project like a walkway.

If you have some sizable natural stone lying around your yard or garage, consider digging out the sod in a part of your backyard in alternate positions where each stone will go.

Leaving space in between saves you money by reducing the number of stones you will buy.

It also allows grass to grow in the spaces to add a dash of green to the rustic look of the flagstones. However, you can paint the stones with your favorite colors to make a beautiful color palette if you want something more vibrant.

Flagstone patios have two significant disadvantages. First, you might have to water the ground to make it softer for easy removal of the sod and topsoil. It means then that you will be wading in mud when building the patio.

Secondly, you have to cut the grass often. Failing to do so causes it to overgrow, and the patio could become soggy or dewy in the mornings and late evenings.

The Spruce has detailed step-by-step instructions on how to make a flagstone patio on a budget.

4. Dirt-cheap Backyard Patio with a Budget-friendly Fireplace

It takes only some time to gather and repurpose waste items such as bricks, lava rock, or broken pavers to build a dirt-cheap DIY backyard patio with a path leading to it from the house.

The full bricks go into making the patio surface and the low-cost fireplace, while the lava rock or broken pavers and bricks line up the path.

Adding outdoor patio seating ensures you make the best of the patio and the fireplace, and you can always bring in some simple but comfortable patio tables to place beside the seats.

The result is a perfect getaway patio where you can spend warm and firelit evenings enjoying the backyard breeze.

Consider adding extra seating space by expanding the patio from time to time.

You can also turn it into a dining area by bringing in a dining table for the meals you cook on the fireplace. However, just a simple outdoor table can serve both as a dining or coffee table to reduce the baggage.

5. Repurposed Pallet Patio

Pallets are an excellent platform for a wooden patio. You only need to excavate the space where you will arrange them on the ground. It’s advisable to avoid laying them directly on the soil because wood absorbs water, accelerating the rotting process from the underside.

You can use a plastic sheet or gravel underneath to protect the wood.

The best idea would be to leave the pallets in the characteristic rustic state, but you can also apply some varnish to add a radiant look.

Bottom Line

If you want the best patio ideas on a budget, your next DIY backyard improvement project doesn’t have to be challenging or time-consuming.

Each of the backyard patio ideas or designs we have explored in this article is budget-friendly and won’t bleed your wallet dry.

Whether you are on a limited budget or want to save some money for another DIY project, be sure to pick the one that will work best for you. It will be easier if you have the necessary materials at hand or can buy them cheaply from reliable landscaping suppliers near you.

You can do this!