Now that summer is here you might find yourself spending a lot more time outside in your back garden, and if you happen to have a concrete patio, we know they are not always the most pleasing to the eye.
Luckily, there are some really fun and easy ways you can renovate your backyard garden area by revamping/decorating your concrete – and we’re going to show you how!
The first option is to paint or mark your concrete in a patterned way to create an appealing effect. Another option (if you haven’t yet got a concrete patio, or can put a new layer of concrete on top of the existing patio) is stamping your concrete with a design, like this.
The only thing to note is revamping or painting your concrete involves a lot of kneeling on hard surfaces, so we certainly suggest knee pads!
What will you need:
- Outdoor-proof primer and paint
- Paint Stirrer
- Bucket
- Masking Tape
- Heavy Duty Paint Roller
- Paint Brushes (fine for edges, broad for inner areas)
- Paint Roller Kit
- Acid wash
- Disposable Dust Mask
- Outdoor broom
- Knee pads if you have bad knees (or if you don’t!)
Painting Preparation
Cleaning Your Concrete
Before you can perform work on any surface it’s best to clean the concrete area that you will be working on. Take the broom and bucket of water and give the surface a good stiff scrub, removing all debris creating a clean surface for the work we will be doing.
Test your Concrete
Test the surface to see if the concrete is sealed or not by pouring water on it. Check to see if the water is absorbed or not, if it is not absorbed the water will bead.
If you have sealed concrete you will need to look at using an acid wash or an etching agent to break it down. In this example, we have sealed concrete.
Treating Sealed Concrete
Use safety equipment for this next step use some gloves while pouring the acid wash into a bucket of water, using your hard bristle broom give the surface of the concrete a good scrub with the acid wash. When you have finished, wash the acid off the concrete.
Masking tape designs
Once the surface area is dry you want to start to tape off the edges of the surface area using the masking tape. You would generally use masking tape when you have areas that you do not want to get paint on, for example, the entry door lip from the patio into the house. Use the masking tape as protection for the sections you do not want to be painted.
However, you can also use masking tape to help create funky designs to make your concrete floor look super cool! See below…
It’s Prime Time to Ready your brushes
Once you have completed the masking tape task, begin to stir your paint. You should check instructions on the paint container to see if you require a primer, this would be the case if your concrete was painted previously. Use your roller tray and pour the paint into the tray.
For a plain design, you can use your paint brushes to paint the outskirts near the masking tape, use the smaller brushes for corners and broader brushes for long straights. Once you have finished the edges, begin to use the roller and paint the sections you have left to paint.
However, for the creatives spruce up your concrete patio with a funky design!
Section off squares within the concrete area and paint around them to make a break in the flooring colour scheme. You can repeat this process to paint these reserved sections in other colours. This depends on your planned design.
Use inspiration from Beneath My Heart who created this awesome tile-look concrete stain effect:
Handmade Home did a similar concrete patio job creating this cool effect (check out their tutorial here).
When you have finished painting the floor, let it dry for a couple of hours and then come back to remove the masking tape. You can now touch up any sections that you might have missed with the fine brush.
Enjoy your painted patio – and create something to be proud of!