Congratulations! You’re a homeowner! You’ve just worked long and hard to get your house, and you’ve locked yourself into a long-term loan and spent a good sum of money on the down payment and furnishing the home. Now, as you stare at the back yard, you realize that it’s sort of bare, and you don’t have a lot of cash left to spend on garden décor. How can you furnish your yard on a very short budget?
First of all, as a first time homeowner, you’ve made a great leap forward and shouldn’t fault yourself for not having everything perfect from day one. In fact, to collect the pieces of garden furniture that you really want, you should definitely take your time. However, you can get started with inexpensive patio sets that will make your yard seem a little more inviting.
Patio chairs are probably the best place to start, since these serve the greatest purpose by providing you seating to enjoy the yard as well as adding something that keeps the patio from looking bare. If you can afford to go a little further, patio tables round out the look of a complete set and can make the entire yard seem more comfortable and relaxing because now you have an entire setup for enjoying a drink, snack, or meal outside. Wooden picnic tables are sometimes quite inexpensive, and they can make your back yard feel like a park.
Aside from plain metal lawn chairs, wicker furniture can be some of the least expensive décor for your outdoor use, so you may want to first consider this material as opposed to solid wood. However, if you want to be extremely casual, you can look into hanging fabric hammocks, which can be relatively cheap and much more comfortable and relaxing than some lawn furniture. The only costly concern is a hammock stand, if you don’t have trees from which the hammock can swing.
If you are on such a tight budget at this time that you can’t even think about these minor pieces of furniture, all is not lost. You can at least hang a couple of wild bird feeders. These can be decorative and useful, adding beauty to your yard as well as drawing all manner of birds for you to gaze at. Even simple window bird feeders can make a difference in a bare back yard. And, when used with other pieces, bird feeders will keep the feathered creatures off your cedar furniture and give them a better perch where they are rewarded with a bite to eat.
Instead of being overly concerned with the cost of the furniture for your yard, start small and build from the ground up. Hopefully, you’ll be in your home for a long time to come, so you’ve got plenty of time to add, update, and upgrade in your future as a homeowner.