Use These 4 Trends in Your Outdoor Living Spaces

By Maura Keller

Backyards used to be pretty basic: take a lawn, and throw in a grill and a few lounge chairs. Today, homeowners are injecting much more style into their outdoor living areas to reflect their overall home design. From stunning landscaping to relaxing spa retreats to dramatic hardscapes, today’s outdoor living trends are capturing homeowners’ attention like never before.

Gorgeous Greenscapes and More

A good landscaping plan can create multiple relaxing zones for a variety of different functions. Think: manicured gardens, a fire pit area, a free-standing pergola or lounging in a cabana.

“Outdoor spaces have become an extension of the home for living and entertaining, and people are investing more in this element of their homes,” says Kathie Perkins, owner of Fontana Home.

Raised-bed gardens are on trend and afford homeowners the ability to manage gardens more easily. No kneeling or significant bending is required, they limit the amount of weeds that can emerge and they’re off-limits to rabbits and other critters looking for a meal. Kitchen gardens, complete with trellises covered in lush, climbing beans, peas and cucumbers have become a cornerstone of today’s landscaping, as homeowners can grow plant-to-table ingredients.

Also on trend is more natural landscaping that melds with the environment. Natural stone paths, shaded sitting areas and meditative water features are all ways to foster a Zen-like atmosphere. Wildflower gardens are also trending as they are easy to grow, beautiful to look at and provide flowers that can be cut all season long.

Creating Relaxing Spaces

Want to up the relaxation factor in your backyard? Pergolas and other structures are also popular additions to today’s outdoor spaces.

A more recent option to consider [is a] cabana structure that [has] louvered ceilings, screens, removable walls and lighting,” Perkins says. “Outdoor fire pits and heat lamps allow outdoor living even in the cold weather.”

When it comes to either revamping a deck or building a new one, plastic composite lumber (which resembles wood) is the material of choice, thanks to its weather resistance and ease of maintenance. For a hardscaped patio space, natural stone and cultured stone materials, stamped concrete and patio pavers are all low-maintenance surfaces that are popular.

Outdoor Amenities

Outdoor furnishings used to be blasé — think: basic plastic chairs and metal patio tables. Now, cozy and comfortable furniture can accent outdoor kitchens, gardens and fire pits. As Perkins explains, durable outdoor fabrics make it easy to extend the living area to the backyard with throw pillows, blankets and area rugs.

“All-weather, recycled plastic furniture has been around for a long time, but has become increasingly popular,” Perkins says. Some of these pieces can even be left outside year-round and withstand the harshest of elements, making it less of a concern where to store out-of-season furniture.

To add to the living room-like vibe, comfortable seating can be positioned around a fire pit or outdoor fireplace with a TV hanging nearby. Drinks can stay cold in an outdoor kitchen’s refrigerator, and pizzas can cook in a wood-fired pizza oven.

“There is also the latest integration of home applications into the outdoors. Using a touch screen, homeowners can manage outdoor lighting, music, fire bowls, a TV and pool/spa features,” says Michael Murillo, director of sales at Barrington Pools.

Watery Wonders

Homeowners are taking advantage of the beautiful, albeit short, summer months in the Midwest by incorporating pools and spas into their outdoor spaces. A larger backyard with open spaces and elevation changes may be ideal for a boulder waterfall and naturalistic freeform pool, whereas a smaller, more intimate outdoor space may be more ideal for a spa.

While pool lighting has traditionally been focused on safety, it’s now also about mood and ambiance as nicheless lighting, which is embedded in the side of the pool rather than in a carved-out niche, is available in many sizes and colors, allowing for flexibility of installation.

Murillo also has noticed a greater use of porcelain tile pavers for the areas around pools and spas, as the coloration and patterns of porcelain pavers can mimic the look of natural stone.

“Their uniform thickness makes them great for tanning ledges and decking as well as applications to more geometric-style water features,” Murillo says. “Porcelain pavers stay cooler to the feet in full sun, don’t need sealing and are less susceptible to staining than natural stone or concrete pavers.”