My Free Brick Patio
This post may contain affiliate links. View our disclosure.
This patio didn’t exist a week ago; it wasn’t even on my to-do list. But then, I fell down one of those “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” rabbit holes … where one thing just sort of leads to another; and here we are.
It all started when my mother-in-law gave us six white folding wrought iron chairs last fall. They match the four she gave us years ago, when we were working on our treehouse. I had no idea she had more of them.
At the time, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them; I was simply excited to have 10 matching outdoor chairs
Then, last month my husband and I went curb shopping for the first time in over a year, and we found this wrought iron patio table. Suddenly, I had a complete patio set! I decided to paint everything copper, to match the table and chairs in the treehouse.
And then, when I finished painting them, I decided to build a patio, using some of the bricks that I’d rescued from curb piles over the years. My collection includes lots of antique, hand-molded bricks.
I laid them in a herringbone pattern to show them off.
Since, I didn’t want to spend any money on this project, I just filled the cracks with some of the dirt that I’d excavated, when I was leveling out the area. I plan to go back and plant moss in the larger cracks. It thrives in this part of our yard.
I think the patio set looks great on our new patio, but it didn’t end up staying there long because …
just as I was finishing up the last few rows, I found my dream outdoor sectional on Facebook Marketplace.
It fits the space perfectly. This part of our yard stays shady most of the day, so I think our new patio is going to get lots of use.
A week ago, this space behind our garage was just a spot that we used to store junk. Now, it’s this amazing new outdoor space. I wish I had thought to take before pictures, so you could see the transformation.
But I did find this picture from two years ago. That opening in the fence on the right side of the photo is where the patio sits now. It’s amazing to see how much our privacy trees have grown in the last two years. I can’t wait until they form a dense wall on that side of the yard.
Now, I’m on the lookout for more bricks, so I can double the length of the patio. Because that patio set that started me down this rabbit hole still doesn’t have a spot.
How many bricks did it take? I’m thinking about this idea for my backyard.
It took 378 bricks to make the patio. I haven’t measured the finished dimensions yet. I’ll be sure to add that when I do.
Well done! Looks great and you will enjoy the space. What will you do with the copper painted patio set? Maybe add a place in your secret garden to enjoy sitting down?
I plan to double the length of the patio, so there will be a spot for it. Just need to rescue more bricks from curb piles 🙂 For now, I found another spot for it in the yard, so we can enjoy it right away.
WOW Erin!!! thats beautiful! I’m envious your gorgeous wicker set up, always wanted wicker……you truly have the knack of curbing! wish I did, but my neighborhood doesnt set stuff out like this…….GREAT JOB, you will enjoy many happy days there…..
Awesome!! Very well done!
It’s amazing what people put out at the curb around here. If I see more bricks, I will let you know! I think I may try this myself one day, as a border around our deck.
Thanks, Lori! I’m hoping it won’t take too long to find enough bricks to expand our patio. I just finished laying the brick a week ago, and we’re already getting lots of use out of that spot.
What an awesome job. I love the color of the metal table, the furniture looks comfy. The bricks truly are one of a kind. Was it difficult to excavate the ground and get them in that pattern? I am always stuck on vision for these types of projects, any suggestions on how to develop it?
Hi Alison, the digging wasn’t bad. We have really good soil in that part of the yard — it’s practically black. Laying the pattern wasn’t too bad either. I printed a photo of the herringbone pattern, so I’d have it to refer to when I was getting started. It really comes down to getting the first two rows laid properly. I used a protractor to make sure I got the angle of the first row right. Once you have that, it’s just a matter of hitting repeat on the remaining rows. It was a trickier pattern to lay than it normally would be, since I was using bricks that I had collected from a bunch of different places. This meant they weren’t all uniform in size. I had to create some rules for how I dealt with the variations, but once I had that figured out, it was just down to hard physical labor. Laying bricks is definitely good exercise 🙂