the backyard: shed update

When I look at our backyard, I see ... potential. When other people look at it, they probably see an eyesore.

The backyard has always been ugly. Part of the patio is brick -- but the bricks were installed right on top of the dirt, and it's sunken and broken in places. The other part of the patio is concrete that is cracked and missing some pieces. There was an ill-placed garden bed with overgrown plants.

Plus, this is the shed that came with the house (in a photo from last fall):

Finally, Tony and I are starting to tackle the backyard. I've come up with a plan to fix things up, and we're going to make progress in pieces as our schedules and patience permit.

First up: the metal shed.

The color is awful. And it just looks ... old. And it's all rusty.

So I went to Home Depot and started pricing new sheds. I really liked those fancy big cedar ones. But they're surprisingly expensive, and it was hard to justify spending so much money, especially because we need a fairly large shed to accommodate all of our garden stuff.

So that brought me to the paint aisle. And in the end, Tony and I decided to try to salvage the shed with some Rust-Oleum paint.

We started by using a wire brush to remove as much of the rust as we could. We gave the whole shed a coat of primer, making sure the rusty spots were covered especially well.

As for colors, I decided to paint the shed white with a big pop of color for the door. Voila!

I had considered a lot of other colors ... black, brown, gray ... but I decided against dark colors that would absorb heat since summers here tend to be, you know, hellish.

And check out that roof: no rust! Tony and I actually did the painting last fall, and we let it sit in the elements all winter before declaring the project a success.

And this project gives me a good framework as I plan the rest of the patio project. I'm now thinking about how to incorporate bright white and candy-apple red into the rest of the backyard decor to tie it all together.

The next backyard project is going to be putting in a raised garden bed. I'll post an update soon!