How do you feel about recycled concrete? It can make an attractive and rather natural stone-looking hardscaped "floor" for your purposes, placed on a bed of crushed rock and filled with the same. Living in such an urban environment, I'd suspect you could find a good many construction projects no too far away that would have such material available, generally free for the taking.

Using the pallets to construct a simple (and small) deck that would float over the paving sounds imminently possible as well, and could even be done in sections or panels, portable enough to be taken inside for winter protection. Painting the deck a jazzy color can liven up the generally second quality wood these very utilitarian objects are made from.

I'd also suggest hunting down some architectural or landscape salvage yards that might be in the area for another good source of inexpensive building materials and creative objets d'arte.

Kudos to you for attempting to beautify your little space and on a very tight budget - the creative recycling of unwanted materials can help you accomplish this without a huge investment. Once you have the "floor" in place, I'm sure the decorating of it with your furniture, container plantings and accessories will follow very naturally. I would consider adding something planted on a rather large vertical scale - perhaps a small tree or narrow conifer. The necessary height will make the whole thing seem more like a real, in-the-ground garden.

Thanks for the response. I like the idea of anything recycled, but am not really familiar with recycled concrete - meaning how it works as flooring w/crushed rock. If you have any pics of the idea it would be great. In the meantime I'm googling.
I guess I'm having a hard time envisioning where to place the furniture, deck and how to do creative flooring around it...

Duh! Ok, now that I've googled I totally get it (recycled concrete idea). I like it and hope I can find some (just me and no car). If worse comes to worse I can just purchase plain pavers.
I'm just wondering if the entire area (excluding mini deck) should all be the same?

Definitely don't chuck the wooden chairs. Based on their shapes, I think they were made in Indonesia, from teak or another tropical hardwood. With a light sanding and either some teak oil or tung oil (or Thompson's "water seal" if you never want to seal them again) I think they could be great.

Yah, the thing about recycled concrete is the transport of the pieces, both from site to site, and into the work area. Paving stones are a lot easier that way. Check your local classifieds for used things too, or is it Craig's List that is the same idea on line?

A couple of thoughts: 1) is the deck meant to be higher than the patio? Wouldn't put chairs on it if it is. Too dangerous. 2) Tree roots might not take too kindly to coverage. Might want to consider GingerBlue's idea of a floating deck - ie, deck the whole area rather than pave.

I asked 2 ppl I *thought* were knowledgeable about sanding the chairs and they said to chuck 'em. I'm glad to hear that they may be able to be saved, as they were a biatch to get home. I found them last yr curdbside, and have no car. Maybe I can sand and oil them and secure with nails. Hmm, now you've got my mind racing with ideas! Maybe I can construct them together and make a 3 seater bench I so covet.
For the deck it would just be a floating deck - more for "looks", so approx .5 ft off the ground. I'm a craigslist junkie lol. One of the biggest issues I run into tho is delivery/transportation, as like most NYers, I have no car. But I do have a great hand cart I do use if something is within walking distance.

Hi,

Pls. don't chuck the chairs they do look as tho they're a teak or similiar material and have enough age on them that they've "silvered" nicely. Love the idea of joining them and maybe adding a single long cushion to create the bench look.

You could post for whatever you may need at NYC's freecycle and maybe convince someone to drop the stuff off :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: freecycle NYC

You might want to check out garbagescout from time to time - great concept! Not in my city is there in NYC.

Here is a link that might be useful: garbagescout

Well! I've been thinking of all the suggestions and my mind has been going in different directions all week - who knew such a small space could be so perplexing lol. So in an effort to simplify I've decided to strictly concentrate on the most challenging issue: ground covering. I finally think I've figured out a design. I'm thinking of using recycled concrete to create 2 differrent areas (dining room and conversation) and creating a recycled path to link them -sort of a flagstone look. I'd like to outline the path/areas with wood/timber edging. Then the non use areas would just be covered with pea gravel (I'd like pond rocks but local HD doesn't carry them). What do you guys think? I tried to do a mockup, but am not very good with PS (ignore the purple - haven't decided which wall it'll go on).
A) Instead of using gravel between the concrete can I use mulch (for color)? I'd rather not use concrete.
B) What do you think of using wood garden edging? I liked the idea b/c I figured it would add a break in the "all" concrete look and tie in the wood furniture pieces.
C) I may not be able to get enough recycled concrete to cover the areas, so would breaking up pavers and mixing them in work with the look?

Another great thing that has come out of this is that I have FINALLY defined my outdoor (and indoor) decor style: INDONESIAN. I always thought it was African or Japanese, but stumbled on Indonesian and that's the perfect mix of the 2.

{{gwi:36265}}

Nice to see someone resourceful and thrifty challenging themselves with such a fun project! Definitely for a small space it's a good idea to keep materials consistent to avoid a busy look and hence make it look smaller. THose smaller penny pavers (1'x1') are about a dollar each and with a maximum of 168 sq. ft. it only takes up half your budget if you covered the entire yard! With only two small areas to pave, you could build a simple 2 x 2 frame to hold the pavers inside at each location and another line leading to and from them. If HD doesn't deliver use that $40 to have someone delivery it for you. Cedar mulch is ok, cheap, lightweight and smells great! Use the natural colour or have fun with the colours (red, green, yellow, brown and even black). If cash is real tight I believe Japanese gardens often use pine needles for paths. You could collect that for free if there are pine trees in your neighbourhood. Another edging idea is using the cut ends of small logs. People are throwing out recently chopped trees and leaving cut up pieces on the curb. Bury a bunch of those leaving just a few inches and they would lend an Asian feel to it as well. Bigger pieces could be used to make coffee table legs if you throw an old door on top. You can make hanging tea lights with wire and jam jars. Use screws to fix your chairs instead of nails that is if you have a drill otherwise nails will do fine too. Have you thought about painting the chairs a bright colour if they're too far gone? How about hanging an old mirror on the fence for depth and interest? Maybe frame it with an old window? Anyway that's my 2 cents worth.

Fun? I dunno - wish I could just wiggle my nose like on Bewitched lol! I'm finding the design process the most stressful, esp since it's just not my strong point. Everyday I realize a new design or 2nd guess the 1st one lol. But I know in the end I'll be proud of my (our)accomplishment...
I have some old wood left over from the original deck, and I'm going to try to salvage some pieces and make a deck for the little dining area. I'm also going to try to use that wood to make the edging. I had really wanted circles, but rectangles in varying heights will have to do for now.
I'm a dumpster dive queen, and found a cheaply made headboard with a mirror insert, so I'm gonna cut it down, prime/paint it for a focal point piece on the couch wall. I like the old window frame idea also, so will be on the lookout...

OT (sorta): I'll be painting the back wall blue (lil' darker than baby), and the side walls purple (like pic color).Most furniture is/will be dark wood or bamboo brown. I need to add cushions and pillows, but am at a loss for what the chair/couch cushions color should be (I can wait on the throw pillows)? I definitely can't do anything in the brown/beige family (already did an overkill in my home). Not a big fan of green, but will consider it...Should the cushions be light or dark? Any ideas?

PS- ty all for contributing to this thread, and coming back to answer my endless questions...:-)

Hi, wondering how the project went/is going..I love to design and am now working on my bowling alley of a yard here in FL.'Urban Outsiders' show on HGTV has some great ideas, they do a city garden/outdoor seating area each week..simple and beautiful. Your idea of 'rooms' is correct, and deck sounds great as well as containers..chk out that show if you can, they've done some stuff that may inspire you..for the future at least. Good luck! Deborah

Wow Deb, perfect timing! I just posted pics of the near completed space. Please see my thread with pics here: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/design/msg101716372251.html?28374 , pls check out that thread... I came on tonight to update this thread lol.
It's funny that you mention "Urban Outsiders", as I too, am a fan of the show and my yard was actually accepted to be featured on it. Unfortunately, they asked AFTER I had done the bulk of the hard work.
Matt has a recent show on a woman's brownstone backyard that ha a narrow alley feel. As usual it turned out wonderful. I'll see if I can find a link.

"Backyard Garden Renovation"
http://flickr.com/photos/stylin/sets/72157594208418337/ , click on "detailed view"
Just wanted to say a BIG THANKS to everyone, and share my progress thus far. The actual greenery and container gardening will take place next spring - after I've researched what plants will work in my setting. The photos focus more on my hardscaping/design process, but I could not have even gotten this far without all the info in these forums (and HGTV shows lol). I'm sure the space will not suit everyone's taste, but I'm proud that I was able to squeeze a seperate dining and lounging area into my small(15x14ft) space.

And yes, that other album you see is Matt James from "Urban Outsiders / City Gardener " looking at the space. Before starting the work myself, I had submitted an application to the show, and wouldn't you know that they showed up when it was nearly completed lol! Well, I got accepted (Ha! and I thought he'd say there was nothing more he could do since I had done such a perfect job lol) and ended up declining the invitation...So far no regrets!

Hope you enjoy the photos...
Thanks again!

Here is a link that might be useful: Backyard Garden Renovation