How to Design a Charming Hideaway
in Your Small Backyard
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
You can have the prettiest house interior but unless your backyard is spruced up you cannot call your home charming. Luckily, there is more than one way you can create a pleasurable outdoor living space. The best thing about the suggestions bellow is their affordability that will pay off when the home goes up for sale.
Pathways crisscrossing the yard
A backyard is not a uniform space: you have the garden area, a gazebo, the patio/deck, a swimming pool perhaps, etc. The key to creating a charming getaway is to connect all the different parts of the garden. This is achieved through a small network of pathways that crisscross the whole backyard. Whether you use stones, pavers, or gravel (the most affordable solution) is entirely up to you, just make sure every nook of the backyard is accessible.
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Go for vertical landscaping
It’s easy to act as an interior designer when the surface of the floor in your house is flat. Outside in the garden, the ground is bumpy and in many cases, there are huge differences in elevation. Instead of giving up on those nasty hillocks and bumps in the backyard, use them as a landscaping opportunity.
Vertical landscaping will make everyone look up, adding a new dimension to your outdoor space. Create everything from terraces to green walls to make the backyard feel more spacious. Also, you use plants of varying heights to add vertical space and create a cozy summer shade.
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Colours that catch the eye
You are probably aware of colour rules when it comes to interior design but the exterior of your house should feature bold colours as well. The deck sofa can be adorned with multicoloured cushions and pillows just like the living room sofa.
Further on, you can use flowers (not potted ones like houseplants) to add new hues to the garden and the pathways. Before you start decorating and planting flowers, you need to decide on a general colour scheme that would include 2 or 3 of your favourite colours.
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A verdant backyard
No outside space is complete without plant life. From the lawn to conifer trees, plants in your backyard need to be verdant. The trick to maintaining greenery is to provide them with enough sunlight (avoid the shade cast by the house) and sufficient water (water plants early in the morning). The same principle goes for houseplants but plants outside need more care, so getting a garden hose reel and other gardening tools is considered a good investment.
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Putting up a fence?
Home security is a growing concern in the modern world, so erecting a high fence probably crossed your mind. However, fences aren’t the best solution in terms of décor, just as screens can ruin an interior space.
If you are far apart from your neighbours, then go for an open-yard policy where boundaries would only exist in the land register. The backyard will appear bigger if you don’t erect any sort of fencing. An unobstructed view would merge your greenery with the rest of the landscape.
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Don’t forget to use the backyard
Homeowners easily get carried away with decorating the backyard that they forget to actually use the space when the weather is fine. Indoor space intrinsically comes with a function (e.g. you sleep in the bedroom) but you need to find a function for your outdoor space.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
Some people like to use the serenity of their backyard to install a hammock and lounge after work, while others like to throw garden parties. Whatever your preferences are, make sure the furniture and the landscaping of the backyard reflect the main function of the backyard.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
Use the garage for storage
Homeowners like to build garages that can barely house their vehicles, let alone leave extra storage space. However, you might want to repurpose the garage to store garden tools out there. The reason behind this storage option is the fact that garden sheds and storage bins out in the open look plain ugly. Store everything from yard tools to children’s toys away from plain sight, ideally in the garage.
Photo courtesy of Pexels
Use mulch wherever possible
Apart from a verdant lawn, pathways, and colourful flower beds, there are going to be patches of bare ground in the backyard. Just like you would never let a gap between the wall and the kitchen oven exist, so should cover up these sections of the backyard.
The prettiest solution is the use of mulch. You can use organic mulch from your garden (pine cones, tree bark, etc.) or you can head to the garden centre to select coloured mulch that would match the aforementioned general colour scheme of your backyard.
Designing a charming hideaway in your backyard helps round up your property and extend the decorative work you already did on the interior. From establishing a network of pathways to growing a verdant garden, there are numerous other ways to beautify your backyard but first, start implementing the 8 affordable and feasible ideas listed above.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Patrick Adams is a freelance writer and rock-blues fan. When he is not writing about home improvement, he loves to play chess, watch basketball, and play his guitar. More than anything, he loves to spend his time in his garage, repairing appliances and creating stuff from wood.
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