“This outdoor living space post has been sponsored by Spectracide® Brand. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”
Our Outdoor Living Space Refresh
Spring has officially sprung here in the Valley of the Sun! Because of that, we’re celebrating and sharing all the sunshine vibes today via the arrival of our annual Easy Spring Outdoor Refresh. With a little help from Lowe’s and one trusty sidekick that’s playing a huge part in getting our outdoor living spaces 100% hangout ready, Spectracide® Bug Stop® Flip & Go! Spring is one of my very favorite times of year no matter where I am, but it’s especially exciting here in Phoenix because this season puts on quite a show, both in our neighborhood and the state at large. Starting in February the temperatures go up, everything starts to bloom, and come March and April, we Phoenicians are doing what we do best… outdoor living! Our front and backyard are two of our favorite things about our home, and during pretty much every season, we spend a lot of time enjoying the indoor/outdoor lifestyle that this city is known for. It’s especially magical in the spring when the sun shines, the temps consistently stay in the 70s and 80s, and there are so many delightful sights and smells all around. Which is why we always undertake a good outdoor refresh in the spring, making sure every inch of our outdoor spaces are clean, cozy, inviting and ready for max relaxation.
Maintaining our outdoor living spaces so they’re always hangout-ready is top priority for us pretty much all year round, making us pros at tackling this spring outdoor refresh list. So today, instead of showing you just a standard spring outdoor decor update, we thought it would be more helpful to take you through all of our tips and tricks for keeping our outdoor living spaces fresh and ready to rock! This includes how we maintain our outdoor furniture, cushions, and light fixtures, our tried-and-true method for indoor AND outdoor insect control, a few easy landscape manicuring tips and tricks, and of course, some fun easy outdoor decor ideas to tie it all together! It should be said that Lowe’s is pretty much my one-stop-shop for almost all of the supplies we need to tackle our spring outdoor refresh list. Seriously – as home improvement and DIY lovers (and very discerning home improvement shoppers), we pretty much live at Lowe’s. We know that they’ll always have the very best selection of what we need, plus friendly, knowledgable store associates to help us get straight to the good stuff, like super handy Spectracide products!
We know that when the weather warms up around the country so many of you turn your focus to your outdoor living areas, but we also know that it can be overwhelming coming out of winter with a long list of outdoor manicuring to do to get your outdoor living spaces hangout ready. Have no fear! We have so many helpful tips listed below to help you easily and efficiently get those outdoor living spaces in tip top shape. Dive into this list with us and you’ll be bringing those springtime backyard dreams to life in no time!
Indoor AND Outdoor Insect Control
There’s nothing that will hamper my relaxation time in our outdoor living spaces (or indoor for that matter) more than too many unwelcome pests. Our neighborhood used to be a citrus grove and as such, is extremely well irrigated, which can create a really welcoming environment for unwelcome pests in the spring. We wouldn’t survive the spring outdoors or even enjoy our backyard without a tried & true pest control method that’s as easy for us to use as it is effective. Enter, my insect control BFF, Spectracide® Bug Stop® Flip & Go that I quickly grab when I’m stocking up on all of my other home improvement supplies at our neighborhood Lowe’s! Chris sprays it on both our indoor AND outdoor perimeters with one quick, easy sweep for long-lasting protection. Can you tell that C takes this task very, very seriously? Once I handed him the bottle and he got to work, he couldn’t stop talking about how easily he can get this task done with the Flip and Go sprayer! And I know I’m not alone in the insect struggle – it can really ruin the spring party, no? So here’s what I love about this.
- Spectracide® Bug Stop® Flip & Go provides a total home barrier, so you have indoor PLUS outdoor insect control.
- The Flip & Go sprayer includes a precision wand that allows for accurate spray, with no setup or prep needed. Just flip the wand, press the trigger and spray!
- It provides 12 months of control for cockroaches (my nemesis in this life) on non-porous surfaces AND it also kills ants, spiders (my other nemesis), fleas, ticks and a whole host of other insects, which you can see listed on Lowe’s site.
- Its clear formula is water-based and leaves behind no oily residue or odor. How awesome is that?
- Its compact .5 gallon size is lightweight and so easy to maneuver, which means that I can quickly tackle this spring to-do without Chris’ help if I need to AND that it’s easy to store almost anywhere.
Keep Outdoor Cushions Like New
My best piece of outdoor living space maintenance advice? Store those outdoor cushions inside when not in use. This may sound like too much effort and slightly counterintuitive to the whole “outdoor fabric” thing to some of you and I completely get it – it can sound like a fuss! But I promise it’s worth the little bit of effort. Storing your outdoor cushions inside when not in use will not only lengthen the life of those cushions that make all that outdoor furniture so comfy-cozy, but it will also make your space so much more inviting when you’re ready to enjoy it. I’ve realized that if we have dingy, wet, sun-faded and stained cushions that have been constantly exposed to the elements, I’m so much less likely to want to go sit outside and enjoy our outdoor spaces, which would be such a shame. Also, it just means less scrubbing and replacing for you! You can store them in a closet if you have the space, stack them up in a tidy little corner of your home like we do, or they even make baskets and bins specifically for this purpose! Wherever keeps them dry and protected is all it takes, and you can easily drop them in place when you’re ready to use them.
Clean, Trim, Tidy and Tighten the Landscaping
I’m pretty passionate about how I approach this one because I do not, in any way, consider myself a green thumb. Chris is the plant guy around here, but that said, I care a lot about how our pots and landscaping look. I like to keep our landscaping pretty simple, but I do want it clean, tidy, trimmed and “tight” as I always tell Chris. He may give me an eye roll with my insistence on landscaping tidiness, but then he laughs and gets to work because truth be told, he loves a tidy yard as much as I do. This starts by trimming all bushes so they’re tidy and can flourish, cleaning up any potted plants or raised beds to get rid of the dead and help the plants that are thriving get as much nutrients as possible, and then replanting spring pots and raised beds with pretty, seasonal plants that either add color or help us in the kitchen. This year Chris added that pretty new vine to the pot next to the pergola that’s already snaking it’s way up the side and blooming with charming yellow flowers, new desert-approved cactus plants to our front porch pots, new foxtail ferns in the larger planters in the backyard and more! For my part, it means weeding, weeding, weeding. This can be as simple as taking on the tedious but oh-so-satisfying task of pulling weeds wherever I see them or getting a little more help with a product like Spectracide® Weed & Grass Killer. The summary? Clean, trimmed, tidy and tight. No green thumb required!
Clean, Refinish or Touch-Up Outdoor Furniture
Whether your furniture is wood like ours, metal, or plastic, now is a great time to show it a little love and give it a good scrub or refresh the finish. This could include cleaning teak (which we have an awesome tutorial on here), spraying wood, metal, or plastic furniture down with a hose (no power washing – that’ll do more harm than good), soaping them up with a clear liquid dish soap and warm water mixture, sanding and painting wood furniture (which we have another awesome tutorial on here), or spray painting your metal or plastic furniture to give them a totally fresh finish! We’ve done countless tutorials on refinishing or refreshing all kinds of outdoor furniture, but our complete cleaning and organizing home improvement checklist from last spring is pretty much a one-stop-shop for easy DIY tutorials for refreshing outdoor furniture of all kinds and so much more!
Clean Outdoor Light Fixtures
This is such an easy one, but so often overlooked. You’ll be shocked how fresh and clean this makes your outdoor living spaces feel, cobwebs be gone! When cleaning outdoor light fixtures, I first brush off all dust and dirt and clean out cobwebs with a utility brush, then I just use a clear liquid dish soap and warm water mixture and a scrub brush or sponge and shine them up like new! Most of our outdoor light fixtures also have some sort of glass involved, so for that I simply use glass cleaner and a clean soft cloth to bring that glass back to life for max illumination!
Power Wash Your Patio
Though I don’t recommend ever taking a power washer to your patio furniture, I definitely advocate for the transformative power of power washing your patio! If your patio is particularly dirty thanks to a long winter of sludge and moss taking over, using a power washer to blast all of that yucky stuff off and bring your perfect patio back to life is such a game changer. Don’t be scared! Once you use a power washer on a particularly grimy patio once and see the difference, you’ll want to throw your power washer a party!
Update Outdoor Decor
Now, the fun part! We’ve done so many fun, spring-perfect outdoor living space makeovers over the last few years and I’ve pretty much loved every iteration. Outdoor living spaces are such a great place to have fun with your spring decor while making each nook cozy, inviting and hangout ready. A few of my favorite tricks for easily updating your outdoor living spaces is to focus on cleaning and re-finishing the big stuff like furniture so it lasts for years and years and can be used as your tried and true backdrop. Then, update the smaller stuff like outdoor cushions, side tables and lanterns whenever you feel inspired! This year we focused on adding a cute, cozy and functional new bistro set to our front porch patio and some spring-perfect new tabletop decor for our backyard dining table so we can make the most out of dining al fresco this spring!
And don’t forget to grab your own Spectracide® Bug Stop® Flip & Go at Lowe’s today!
Do you have a outdoor living space? Let me know in a comment below!
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