Our new Patio: Little Liess's Bar & Grill

We spend so much of our time outside & love having familly meals & parties out there so this year we decided to do a little work on our patio. Here is is "before" (I can't believe I'm showing you this pic!!)....  I think this is from two years ago or maybe three??  (is it sad that the years are starting to blend together??) with the AC unit, some messy gravel& the sawhorse table my husband made (which I loved but just didn't work out because it was so heavy!!! and the wood started rotting eventually..  great for a summer though)  I guess it was a couple of years back because it was before we painted the back of our house & shed.   Anyway, here it was "before"--

{We got the patio set at Lucketts for a steal but it came with ill-fitting cushions...  I immediately replaced them with NEW slightly-less-ill-fitting cushions that will hold us over for a couple of years until we feel like springing for new custom ones.)

We planned to continue the concrete all the way along the back of the house & resurface the old concrete to match the new.  I sketched out these plans of the back bar area with slate counters for the contractor:

Our grill isn't built-in...  It's just the same old grill that we made a custom opening for:

And here it is now:

We loooooove being out here now that it's completed & entertaining is so simple. 

Here's a pic of the non-custom cushions I found online that drive me CRAZY because in order to fit them I had to turn them sideways showing the seems, but that I am totally good with making do with for now because they are such an improvement to the original cushions...

The table is from West Elm & I can't say enough good things about it... (It's pretty, hoses off nicely, is super-strudy and holds up to the birds!!  --- if you know what I mean ;) ;) ..see spot in very front of table..  (I clearly didn't do any cleaning up for these pics- woops!)

The stools & chairs are from Pottery Barn & I'm really happy with them too.  The silver chairs are ooold.  We made a little cubbie for our firewood on the right which I love because it just adds a little interest & warmth..

I can't wait to have some mojitoes with my girls out here:

Eventually we'll paint the bar the same color as the house but for now, while we try to have a chill summer, it's staying as-is.  We also plan on continuing our dwarf holly bushes around this area of the patio too so it looks like it's always been here.

One last before:

And one last after:

We love eating at "Little Liess's Bar & Grill" as the boys have dubbed it!!! ;) ;)  Thanks for checking it out!!

And one pic of the littlest Liess, 3 week old Luke:

{Like me & the rest of my children, red-eye remover was required.}

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