Outdoor Patio Ideas: Inspiration That’s Magical!

I can’t hide it well, I just get so excited for spring and all the glorious opportunities it provides us to work with color and find new life/inspiration outdoors! Many of my articles touched upon a theme for the past year or so, focusing on spending more time at home and looking to improve our homes in whole new ways! Whether it is an entertainment center, dining room, garden, or outdoor patio, spaces throughout the home are seeing reinvestment in time and energy. I consider the time spent in our homes in the last couple of years an opportunity to look at our homes through a new lens. View each space and think to yourself, “how can this space be more exciting?”

With this blog, I’d like to talk about outdoor patio ideas and activities to help the space become even more of a focal point for your family and friends this spring!

Using Your Outdoor Spaces for All They’re Worth 🙂

For those of us that experience cold winters, the moments when the sun warms our shoulders,  birds chirp, flowers bloom, and the smells of spring cascade into the air is like coming back to life! Believe me, I enjoy summer too, but there is something incredible about the rebirth of nature and the cycle beginning all over again in spring. It’s also the time of year when spring clean-up starts in earnest, so why not take a fresh look at your outdoor patio? An outdoor patio can work for spring, summer, and fall – it’s like adding square footage to your home when it’s well-designed. It might end up being your favorite “room” in the house!

Outdoor Patio Ideas for a Fresh Start!

• Give new life to old patio furniture

If you’ve got some older patio furniture that is less-than-inspiring, chances are you can add some new life to old goods. The great thing about hardwood furniture is that it is rarely beyond repair. Unless your wood has severe rot and mold in the fibers, it can be sanded, primed, painted, and stained back to glory. Hardwood looks incredible with natural stains, so if you want to keep the earthly look of your hickory or cedar patio table and chairs, you can revive it with a little care. 

On the other hand, if you’d like some fresh color inspiration, I love how a painted satin finish looks on outdoor hardwood furniture. Picture a teak dining room table with accompanying chairs and benches painted an easy-going sky blue or a restful soft gray. Take your existing furniture and give it a fresh new look!  Without much expense incurred, new life has been brought to old items. 

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• Make a fire pit the focal point

Fire pits have become very popular with young and old alike! As we all can attest to, fires are captivating, and much like a fireplace, fire pits are excellent for relaxation and conversation with friends. If you’re hesitant about having an open fire on your property, there are many self-contained options these days, and propane-fed pits are also available if you don’t like dealing with the smoke or smell of burning firewood. Fire pits tap into a primal-longing within all of us; You can bring a little of that instinctual love of warmth and flame to your backyard!

• Fill out empty space with flora

Sometimes, outdoor patios can feel cold when surrounded by so much stone. Fear not; if you have a larger-than-expected outdoor patio, plants are a great way to add color, life, and nature to spaces that need it. I often tell clients that potted plants or even plants in colorful pottery of all shapes and sizes help to create dynamics in spaces that don’t have much variety of color and texture. 

• Create an outdoor kitchen 

Have you ever felt that the poor chef can miss out on the party when they’re in the kitchen and everyone else is out on the patio? Sure, we have outdoor grills to help with that, but not all food prep and cooking can be done on a grill, so it’s great to incorporate more kitchen appliances onto the outdoor patio. 

Without built-in ovens or sinks, you can add other items to your patio to bring more of the full-scale kitchen outside. For example, a company called Ooni has found great success with their line of portable outdoor pizza ovens – people love cooking pizza outdoors! We have family members who purchased one of these, and I was surprised to hear that they bring it over to friends’ houses all the time; this is just one idea. Lots of innovative outdoor cooking equipment exists today, and it’s all great for nicer weather. 

• Host an outdoor movie night 

Portable appliances have come a long way in the last ten years, and small, portable digital projectors are an affordable way to host movie nights outdoors on your patio! You can be as elaborate and professional as you’d like, but even using a wall of your home or a white bed sheet can act as a screen; why sit and watch inside when you could enjoy Jaws by the pool! 

• Create a personal space that’s magical!

One idea that I particularly love about patio design is the concept of creating a space that feels magical. Cover the seating with a pergola and add a screen above the seating to give the illusion of privacy. Pergolas allow you to hang chairs that you never would have considered using otherwise. You can even build an a-frame structure to create a sense of coziness! There are so many ways of creating unique seating areas. When building on a patio, you often have no height restrictions, so you can be as creative as you want to be!

Outdoor Patio Ideas – Do You Enjoy Patio Life?

People can often neglect patios, but many homeowners use them like never before. Have you found new life and inspiration in your outdoor spaces? Please share your experiences with me; I love hearing from you!