Designing the backyard patio

Designing the backyard patio (Photo by Jane Gates)

Building a backyard patio is probably one of the most useful ways to extend the living space of your house. Patios are perfect for entertaining, dining, relaxing, child or pet play and many other uses. Although most homes are equipped with the usual rectangular cement patio, there are many other ways to handle backyard patio designing. In fact, if you are willing to put a little effort into designing, you can make your backyard patio a beautiful asset to your landscape.

If you want to design the best possible backyard patio, always sketch out drawings on paper or on the computer. You can create a rough drawing, work on a more refined plan, call in a coach for a consultation or have a professional designer draw out a full, to-scale drawing for you. The important part is just to make sure you try out your ideas on paper first where changes are easy and cheap rather than doing the trial and error designing process where things will get difficult and expensive during installation.

When you sketch out your patio area, you can see how the shape will interact with other forms in your landscape. Create a shape that conforms or contrasts and is either connected to the back door area or adjacent. An example might be to use a rounded shape for your patio to contrast, but soften the hard edges of your house. Designing a wide apron of a patio can offer a transition to an open lawn area. Or a patio may flow into walkways that meander between garden planters.

Design your backyard patio keeping the style of your house in mind. You might want to use a formal or traditional styled brick patio with an historic or classic looking home. Or try an unusual freeform or geometric patio to complement a contemporary styled house. A cottage-styled house would be a perfect home for a cozy English garden with a small patio that is fenced in with a white picket fence. Or maybe a succession of small linked patios would be just the solution for an Asian styled landscape and house.

Property built on a hill might offer a succession of patios as landings between stair cases. Or a large piece of land might benefit by one or more detached patio spaces set into parts of the garden where you can construct shade covers for a cool summer hideaway, an entertainment room, a lounge to watch swimmers in the swimming pool or a private retreat.

There are many sizes and shapes you can use for a patio. Just because they are used so often doesn’t mean you need to be confined to rectangles. Your patio can curve and flow with built-in seating or planters to soften the boundaries. And if you like using a geometric pattern, think about creative ways to make shapes into an asset to your overall landscape. You can go strong by carving out an unusual geometric shape or put shapes together to create separate spaces. Areas can be cut out that house gardens or fountains. Or link geometric shapes to lead into pathways or other patios in other parts of the garden.
Accent your patio with bright paint, fabric or imbedded textures. Sculpt out the space and decorate it with colored tiles, stylish furniture or practical features like fire pits, barbecues or shade covers. Design your patio to be a fully furnished kitchen or outdoor room. Add an interesting roof. Hang walls with roll-up shades, suspended windows or tapestries. And consider adding outdoor rugs for color and comfort.

In short, a backyard patio can be so much more than just a rectangle of concrete. You can extend your home outdoors and turn a backyard into a resort or retreat with a beautiful patio. The possibilities for design are endless. Materials are limited by your imagination only.  Research what other designers have created on the internet, in magazines or call in a designer to help you come up with the right ideas to fit into your taste and lifestyle. You can design your backyard patio into something that is useful and exciting; something that will make sure you want to use your backyard – a lot!