This post has been a long time coming and I’m so excited to finally be sitting down to write it. At the beginning of summer, I had high hopes of getting it done really quickly, but like most things, it ended up taking much longer than I expected! Regardless, I’m thrilled it’s finished and we’ve been enjoying it every single day.

Getting to spend more time outside was one of the things we were looking most forward to with moving to Denver. Duncan and I are both from the south and have spent most of our time in recent years in Texas, so we were pumped for the change in weather and wanted to take full advantage of it!

When we were looking at houses to purchase, outdoor space was one of our top priorities (as I imagine it’s something most people moving to Colorado are looking for!). So the outdoor space of this home was actually our favorite thing about the house! All that being said, I was excited to finally get it all set up.

Outdoor Furniture

The first thing I did was pick out furniture. I was being super indecisive and couldn’t figure out what to go with, so I enlisted help from my designer friend Bridgid Williams to help me finalize which pieces to get. Left to my own devices, I’d probably just sit in indecision ALL summer long. I’ve purchased outdoor furniture before, but it always shocks me how expensive it can be and I wanted some help in making sure we made an investment that I’d feel good about. Plus, I wanted to make sure we got pieces that would last and be able to withstand the seasons here in Colorado.

After lots of time looking, we landed on this table (sold out in the color we got) and these chairs from Terrain home. I absolutely love how they look and know we’ll treasure and use them for years to come! And then I got this neutral rug to finish the look for the dining area.

Next, I wanted to do some sort of fire feature for chilly nights, so I got this fireplace from Frontgate (LOVE it) and these matching chairs from West Elm. I added some little string lights from Crate and Barrel and I love the ambiance they add to the space!

Along the edge of the patio, we got three matching wooden planters and put boxwoods in them. I love how they turned out – boxwoods are my absolute favorite!

We thought about building an outdoor pergola to cover the space but ultimately decided not to do it because it’d be too big of a hassle. Plus it was going to be *so* expensive! I think I’m just going to get a big umbrella the next time I find one on sale!

I think our favorite part about our patio is this little fire place set up! We’ve been using it almost every night, even in the summer.

Planters and Plants

The next thing I knew I wanted to do was add some greenery to the patio! And I’ll admit, I think I went a *little* overboard on this part LOL – I just got excited. After I started talking about wanting to add plants to my patio, one of my readers suggested I check out Rooney Bloom for help on figuring out what to get. I know the summer sun in Colorado can be a bit intense, so I wanted to make sure I invested in plants I could actually keep alive and know how to properly care for them. I reached out to him and we got to work picking things out! He knows ALL THINGS plants and was such a great help to me in figuring out what would *actually * work in the space and Denver climate.

I’ll link all the planters and pots we got and then I can discuss which plants we put in each and what I’ve learned so far about taking care of them. I’m definitely new to being a plant mom, but so far I’m really enjoying the daily routine of it all. I have my fiddle fig inside, but that only needs to be watered once a week whereas the outdoor plants need watering almost every day – depending on the sun and rain schedule.

I wanted to do a gathering of little pots to add some more interest to the area, so I picked up this teak bar/gardening cart. I can’t for the life of me remember where I got it but I found a couple similar ones I’ll include in the widget below. I found this large planter pot at CB2 and it was perfect for planting this weeping cherry tree. I wasn’t in love with it at first but it’s growing on me and I love that it’s different than the other trees we have out here.

We choose plants that would be able to survive the Denver sun (it’s intense) and our patio is in the sun most of the day, so that narrowed down our options a little. But I’m still thrilled with how it turned out, that’s just something we had to keep in mind that I hand’t ever really thought about! The bottom left is a Spanish gold broom, the bottom right is a yucca and the tall tree is an apple tree.

The bottom left is a yucca, bottom right is a butterfly bush (obsessed with this one!) and the tree is another apple tree!

Click on any of the product images below to shop.

Table Setting

I set the table when taking these photos because we were having people over for carnitas and margaritas! I wanted to do something super causal but with a little bit of styling – I’ve been really into neutral tables capes lately! And I’d recently gotten this pampas grass in and I was excited to style it on the table! Then I picked up the margarita glasses last minute and I’m obsessed with them! I linked everything else below.

Table Setting Sources:

Black Candle Sticks: IKEA but I found them on Amazon

Black Dinnerware Plates (salad & dinner size): CB2 Crisp Matte Black – there are the ones from our registry!

Linen Napkins: Target

Margarita Glasses: CB2 Miguel Margaret Glasses

Pampas Grass: Etsy

Gold Candle Holders: World Market

Linen Runner: Hobby Lobby

It was a lot of fun putting this space together and I can’t WAIT to enjoy it through the fall! Maybe I’ll even do another tablescape for Fall?! It was so fun to put this one together!