I am all about adding easy and affordable curb appeal to our house. This weekend we upped our game a little bit with our much needed DIY front yard deck refresh.
We have a large back deck that needs to be stripped and re-stained, but we wanted to start with the mini platform deck in our front yard first to see all of the steps involved. We knew we would need a power washer to properly get the job done— and our new WORX Hydroshot power washer saved the day!
Let’s take a look at the dreaded before photos, shall we? Bad, I know.
As you can see, the stain was faded and it just needed some overall weeding and cleaning up. Yikes!
It was time to pretty this little deck lady right up, so we gathered our supplies and got to work.
- WORX Hydroshot power washer (and included attachments)
- Deck cleaner
- Wood stain and brush (and gloves)
- Scrub broom (not pictured)
Want to try the WORX Hydroshot for yourself? You can use this customized coupon code HSAUD for 15% your order.
I cleared off the furniture and pulled the weeds, then Ted took it from there.
He poured the deck cleaner into a bucket and placed the power washer hose into the bucket, and sprayed the cleaner all over the deck.
After one coat of cleaner, he took his scrub broom and using some force scrubbed off the remaining stain.
After scrubbing the entire deck, he did another pass through using the power washer and more deck cleaner. He then let it thoroughly dry for a few days.
As you can see the Hydroshot paired with the deck cleaner and broom did a great job stripping off the old stain. The day was winding down, so we decided to stain the following weekend.
We love our WORX power washer and definitely plan on using it when we strip the back deck and walkway. We also plan on using it to clean our adirondack chairs, siding, you name it.
Want to try the WORX Hydroshot for yourself? You can use this customized coupon code HSAUD for 15% your order.
The next Saturday rolled around and Ted got back to work staining.
We chose a stain called Cedar NaturalTone from Valspar. We love the richness of this color.
Ted brushed on one even coat and let it dry overnight. See that long deck pathway leading to the back yard behind the gate? Yep, we have to stain that eventually as well. Then we will do the back yard deck. That’s going to be a beast.
Here’s the view from this angle.
On Sunday I woke up and immediately got to work styling the deck before the rain rolled in. As you can see, we have some landscaping work to do to this area, which we plan on doing over the next month or so. We will pull the lily grass and replace with simple greenery and mulch, but for now I added some of our outdoor plants to the area.
I gathered a small rug, table, pillows and two white, modern chairs I got for free from another blogger’s trash pile (hehe—I’m not too proud to confess my trash pile finds!)
The striped IKEA runner rug is a little small, but the wood stain is so beautiful, I wanna show it off and not cover it all up like I used to do.
I LOVE the tropical outdoor pillows and plant stand I got on clearance from World Market at the end of last season. They are perfect and also look great on our back deck.
I’m so glad we did this DIY front yard deck refresh. It made such a huge difference!
Here’s a closer shot of the pillows. So pretty!
And I am a sucker for a mini lawn flamingo in a plant (from the Target dollar bin). Brings a small bit of fun and kitchy-ness.:)
Want to try the WORX Hydroshot for yourself? You can use this customized coupon code HSAUD for 15% your order.
I’m trying to work up the strength to plan the back deck strip and stain. It might be early fall or even next summer. It’s about 12x the size of the front deck. Aiyaiyai!
Anyone else stain a deck recently? I wanna see how it turned out, so be sure to tag me in your Insta, Twitter, or Facebook photos. And I’m always so grateful when you Pin my work as well.
xoxo
Audrey
Disclaimer: I was provided free product in exchange for this honest review post. All opinion are 100% my own. I do not endorse products that I do not believe in.
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