Disclosure:
Products of my choice were provided by Pier 1 for my review. All
opinions are those of Olive and Tate and based upon my personal
experience.
One of the questions I’m asked most often is “so, is your renovation completely finished?” (followed quickly by “would you do it again!?”) and I am relieved to report that yes, our house is now completely renovated…..with the exception of the exterior! Insert the world’s most dramatic moan from my Husband here.
While the interior of our house has been brought back into the current decade, we haven’t touched our landscaping, front walk, driveway or back patio. Why? Well, we’re broke. Just kidding! Kinda. 
After taking on such a serious renovation and living to tell the tale, we decided that as much as we hate our Aztec inspired landscaping (imagine pebble covered beds, cactus like plants and a death trap of a stone front walk) we just needed a break. My husband plopped his cement Clemson tiger statue by the front door and told me to consider the exterior on hold until further notice. I’m completely on board with the plan – except for one area: our back patio. 
With it’s jagged edges, 3 foot drop off and insanely weird angles, our back patio is a less than hospitable gathering spot. We have big dreams to completely re-work the space some day but until then, we are still hosting get togethers, cook outs and play dates, ugly patio or not. Because we do allow our friends to feast their eyes on our eye sore, we decided that, while we wouldn’t purchase anything major for the space until we re-do it, we did need to spice things up a bit. With an upcoming cookout with friends and a teeny tiny budget, I set out to decorate our space using pieces that we currently own and a few new pops of fun from the Patio Pop Collection at Pier 1.
My absolute best idea ever came to me as I was ransacking my house, looking for something to use as a large serving area to hold food and drinks. Anyone recognize the piece below?
Oh yeah, that’s our entry way table! It was originally my mother’s dressing table but has held court as the entry way catch all in our last two houses. It’s thin, light weight and a fun color so I thought it might serve as the perfect display piece our our patio – and I love how it looks!
After finding this insanely gorgeous tassel runner at Pier 1, I knew the direction my fiesta would take

I mean, if those tassels don’t say “look at me and not the weird patio!” then I don’t know what will!

I decided to whip up a super simple Tequila Punch recipe, which is perfectly served in the Acrylic Drink Dispenser (it’s so incredibly light weight!), to get our guests in the mood to party – and trust me, you need to make it, it’s so good and so simple! It’s just equal parts lemonade (I used Chick-fil-A!) and water with the ideal amount of tequila for your crowd (some like it strong!).
Slice citrus for garnish – I used grapefruit but oranges, lemons and limes would all be delicious.

Not to circle back to my stroke of genius but I really love how the shade of blue on the antique table pops with my collection of colored plates and acrylic wine glasses. Bonus: the drawers are stuffed with things I might need so that I don’t have to spend the get together running back inside – matches, extra napkins, a bottle opener and extra utensils. 

We already owned a small outdoor sofa from our Maine house so I pulled it off to the side and against the sharply angled wall which gave us a bit more gathering room around the buffet. Plus, yours truly likes to post up as close to the fiesta-mandatory chips and salsa as possible, so why not put the sofa in a convenient location? 

How fun is the red Cabana Petal pillow?

In my humble opinion, outdoor spaces require non breakable serving items (especially with a cement patio) and the Clarity Acrylic Stemware is perfect fit. I mixed colors to add a pop and so people would know which drink belonged to them!


I added a bit of ambiance (oh fancy!) with lanterns and bistro bulbs and
considered our patio refreshed! I just adore how it turned out and I
was pleased to report to my husband that I snagged a few key pieces that
I love and will continue to use when our patio is finally renovated.

 
Now, who wants a cocktail?