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The Weekender: DIY Urban Patio Makeover – Watch Below!
DIY Artificial Grass : The Weekender Urban Patio Makeover
I’m a suburban girl. Even as I type this, I’m sitting out on my back patio surrounded by acres of grassy land. Even so, I’ve worked in enough urban outdoor spaces to know that grass usually isn’t an option. The maintenance (where would you store that good old John Deer?!?), the lack of natural sunlight, and plenty of other factors make it a challenge and hassle. BUT… for this episode of The Weekender, I was helping a family with 3 little kids on their urban patio makeover and I really wanted to give them some grass to play on. Let me introduce you to my new city-approved-secret-weapon- SYNLawn® Artificial Grass! (I want to tell you it’s the bomb.com, but that would be absurd to say, so I won’t, but I kinda want to)
Tess and Barry have 3 super sweet, adorable kids. Now, I’m not an over the top kid person (yes, I have 4 of my own), I’d tell you if they were little brats or I’d just say nothing. These kids were top notch! They loved helping me over the weekend and I came home with more love notes and pictures and arts and crafts projects from them- it was too cute. How could I NOT give these cute kids some grass to play on?!? This is what they were currently playing on- they called it “the sad little dirt patch”
I did some research and talked to my team at Lowe’s and they recommended I check out SYNLawn®. To be honest, I was picturing the big green roll of fake grass that looks and feels like plastic that my grandma used to have in her entry way (why, oh why, was that ever a thing?!?) I was beyond shocked when I checked out SYNLawn®. IT LOOKS AND FEELS LIKE REAL GRASS! I mean, so much so, that they even have some fake brown pieces mixed in, so it doesn’t look overly perfect and fake.
I kept my plans to install grass a total secret from Tess & Barry- I actually think they were a little worried that I planned to just put a rug over the dirt or something! On Sunday, I sent them away for the day and Matt and I installed the SYNLawn® in about 30 minutes.
Installation is ridiculously simple and you can read all about it here, but the main gist is to level out your surface, measure and trim the grass to the size you need, seam it together if you’re using multiple pieces (we used two 5×7 pieces), and then attach it to the ground using a hammer and landscaping pins. Easy Peasy.
I also highly recommend rolling around on it and making a few “turf angels,” but maybe that’s just me.
You’re probably wondering about maintenance… Compared to mowing, fertilizing, weed whacking, and everything else that goes into a real lawn- this maintenance is a breeze! Basically, if you live in an area that gets rain, the grass cleans itself. If you’re in a dry climate you’ll want to spray it down with a hose once in a while. There are lots of tips on how to keep it looking amazing- like brushing it… How funny would it be to say, “Sorry, I can’t hang out tonight, I have to brush my grass” Yeah, I so need to tell Tess and Barry to use that line some time. HA!
I love the location of the grassy patch- it’s right near the kids’ area that we created and right in the middle of the conversation area. I seriously kept forgetting we were in Manhattan once the space was finished!
This was such a fun makeover to work on- and the grass was just the icing on the cake!
As you can see, this urban patio makeover was chock full of DIY projects. You can check out the makeover BEFORE & AFTER Reveal HERE and use the links below to check out the other project tutorials!
DIY Outdoor Chalkboard & Kid’s Area
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I think this is awesome! artificial turf works so well for places were legitament grass cant grow. i did something similar in our apartment on the 17th floor in the city!