Dad Of 3 Saves £100s Creating TikTok-Inspired Patio With Amazon Bargains
- Stuart, 44, was inspired by TikTok to decorate his patio
- He picked up supplies from ScrewFix and Amazon for the job
- Over the course of 2 weekends he transformed his outdoor space
- The DIY job saved him £100s compared with hiring a professional
Those of us who browse TikToks on our lunch breaks or in the evenings may have seen inspirational home improvement clips and marvelled at them before scrolling to the next video. However, one Dad decided to go a step further and recreate a trend he spotted on the viral video platform.
Stuart House, 44 from Ipswich who is a Business Development Manager and father of 3 children aged 11, 8 and 6, told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: ‘I got the idea to decorate my patio with stencils after looking at various TikToks where people have completely revamped their spaces on a budget. I wanted to do the same for my own home.
‘I really like the colour grey and I have painted my white PVC windows and doors grey. So I knew that I wanted the paving slabs to be this colour to create a clean, sharp and modern look.
‘After seeing the stencil patterns on the TikTok videos I knew I wanted to do something similar and that using white on the grey backdrop would contrast nicely. Once I had visualised how I wanted it to look, I just went for it!
‘I only used TikTok for the instructions but I didn’t think that masonry paint would last that long. So it was my decision to use garage floor paint - only time will tell if it lasts.
‘My supplies were mostly from the No Nonsense range at ScrewFix, and Amazon. I got patio cleaner for £18, patio sealer for £25, floor paint for £27 and primer for £13.
‘The stencils were £40 from Dizzy Duck on Amazon, and the jointing mortar was £30. Finally, the Sandtex masonry white paint was £30.
‘I was then ready to get started. First I jet washed the whole patio, at which point a lot of the old jointing mortar came out. I then cleaned it again with the patio cleaner.
‘Once it was all dry, I gave the patio two coats of white primer, then two coats of the flooring paint. The garage paint takes 12 hours to dry, so I had to do one coat then the second the next day.
‘The next step was the stencilling. I foolishly thought my slabs were a standard size, but they were smaller - schoolboy error! I only painted the central part of the stencil.
‘I picked that particular stencil because it didn’t look too fiddly - I wanted something simple in case I had to tidy it up afterwards.
‘I think a lot of people prefer to use a roller for this type of job, but I found the paint kept bleeding under the stencil. So I decided to use a sponge to dab it on, which worked better.
‘There were two stencils in a pack and what I found is you can’t use the stencil immediately again because it is still wet and the paint goes on to the slab, making a mess. So I would let that stencil dry and then use the other one.
‘By the time the second stencil was done the first was dry, I just basically got into a rhythm of doing it that way.
‘The masonry paint dries really quickly so as soon as I had dabbed on the first stencil coat, I dabbed the second one on straight afterwards.
‘I then filled in the joints with the joint compound before sealing the whole patio with two coats of sealer.
‘Overall the job took two weekends to complete. The main challenge was the stencils, it’s time consuming and quite tricky. There were a few moments where I wished I hadn’t started! However, I’m pleased with the result now.
‘One more tip - make sure your cat and children stay indoors when you’re working on a project like this. They all walked across the wet paint!’
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘Stuart has done a great job with this patio and the space looks really striking now.
‘The average handyman cost per hour in the UK is £30, so if Stuart had hired someone to work say, 5 hours a day across 2 weekends, it would have cost him £600.
‘By picking up the supplies and doing the work himself, he has easily saved £100s and created a patio he can be proud of.’
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I like the way Stuart has updated his patio and given a step by step guide. My patio needs a fresh look and Stuart has given me some ideas. Thanks for sharing.
