backyard makeover - DIY crushed rock patio

So I'm a little behind on blogging about our backyard makeover that we completed in June - but better late than never!

We have a pretty awesome sized backyard. It was a blank slate of dead grass and an old funky shaped patio since we moved in. We still have the dead grass and funky patio, but we spruced it up a bit! We bought 7 yards of crushed rock, industrial weed block {from a yard sale for $2!!} and bribed my mom to come help, and got to work! Thanks Mom!

My mom hauling wheel barrow after wheel barrow load of rock to the backyard!

laying a whole-lotta weed block!

We found out about crushed rock from our neighbors who laid a crushed rock path to their backyard. We loved how it compacted down and the fact that you don't need a border like you do with other rock patios. This stuff compacts down and creates a hard surface and is a great alternative to laying stone or concrete, and way affordable!

All of the river rock and slate we were lucky enough to have already!

After 2 days of hard work, we now have an awesome backyard!!! I took these photos right after we finished in June, which happened to be a rainy day - go figure.

We built our fire pit off of ideas from Pinterest. We already had the fire bowl so we only had to buy stones. Here is a DIY from Lowes {here}

We hung patio lights {leftover from our wedding} across the full length of our backyard, it's magical at night!

I also updated our patio pillows and chair cushions. I few years back I had bought some super cheap chair cushions from IKEA, and by super cheap, I mean like $0.29! per pillow! They were sun faded, dirty, and the tufting had come out. I had leftover fabric {a target outdoor table cloth} from last year's patio pillow makeover so I covered them and added new tufting!

pretty cute!

I love our backyard! It's so nice having some nice landscaping and useable patio space! To see what our yard looked like last year, go {here}