Quick Tips When Planning Your Outdoor Space – Guest Post

For many of us, our backyards have become an extension of our homes. They serve as a retreat, a playground, and an entertainment area for ourselves and the many guests we invite to our homes throughout the year. It has essentially become an outdoor room.

Since you spend so many warm afternoons and breezy evenings entertaining guests in the backyard, you want to make sure it provides an inviting and comfortable setting so that you and your guests can relax and enjoy the surroundings. This can involve everything from the outdoor furniture to the landscaping, all of which can contribute to a more pleasurable outdoor experience.

If you are looking to spruce up your outdoor area so that you can accommodate more entertaining throughout the year, here are a few tips to get you started during the planning phase.

Decide on the Best Use of the Space

Everyone has a different style when it comes to their home and not everyone will be using their backyards for the same type of entertaining, therefore, it is important to decide first how your space will be used. Will it be more kid friendly or do you want to utilize it for outdoor dinner parties? Will you need to accommodate larger crowds or small gatherings? What is your lifestyle like? Will you want it to be more low maintenance or perhaps gardening is your thing? In any case, you need to decide the best use of the space and create a design that will suit all of your needs.Prepare a Budget

Create a budget that you can afford to spend on the improvement and maintenance of the space. Knowing what you can afford will make it much easier when deciding on outdoor furniture and landscaping. It will also help to ensure you will have a completed space when you are done.

Privacy

Big or small, privacy plays a tremendous part in your yard. This is especially true in more urban areas where homes are built in very close proximity to one another. Many options are available today to provide privacy without having to compromise on the overall beauty of your yard. New products on the market today such as precast or concrete fencing can be a beautiful alternative to traditional wooden fence since they are more durable, easier to maintain, and more visually appealing to an outdoor area.

Theme

Choosing a theme for your outdoor area is an important step which many homeowners overlook. This often causes a very scattered or unfinished end result. Decide in the beginning the type of overall feel you want your outdoor area to have. Will it be more casual or very trendy? Do you want a Zen-like appeal with large boulders, fountains and bamboo, or a more urban feel with lots of lighting and polished chrome accents? Whatever your style, stick with one universal theme throughout. It will make the design phase and shopping much easier.

Having a beautiful backyard will bring you and your guests years of carefree entertaining. Choose your products wisely, plan, and follow these tips. Your space will soon be the talk of the neighborhood.

Bio Sam is a landscaping expert. Currently he works for Verti-Crete helping to design concrete fences and precast fences for yards and homes. He has published many articles on various topics around landscaping. Outdoor space can be a great extension of the indoors.