My Top Tips How To Design Outdoor Living Area

Want to redesign your outdoor living area to make it more comfortable and use it more?

Of course, you do!

The secret to using your garden more is to have a lovely terrace that lures you to be outside.

So, let's talk about how to redesign your existing terrace area so that you start using it more.

1. What's Most Important?

First, 

think about what you want to do in your outdoor living area.

That's the starting point to the whole terrace renovation.


Then consider the terrace's placement:

• Is the current place optimal?
• Is there as much sun or shade as you would like to be?
• Is there enough privacy?

The terrace is often in a perfect spot, but the dimensions are not suitable for the intended use.

If this part is already okay, you can move on to the next one. Pick the necessary changes from my list and focus on them.

2. What Kind of Furniture Do You Have?

If you want to keep your current furniture, measure them and the space they need.

BEFORE the outdoor living area makeover

In this yard, the wooden terrace had settled beautifully around the house, but the outdoor living area's actual size was too small for the intended furniture. (You can see the sofa and chairs grouped and covered in the middle of the yard.) 

Check my previous post HERE to find optimal measurements for a dining table and chairs.

3. Form Follows the Functions

This outdoor living area and its' decking needed an extension to suit the sofa and armchairs. After designing the decking larger, the furniture settled into it comfortably, and now there is enough room to move around them.

The family also wanted to have a proper outdoor dining table to gather around. So, I added a paved area for the dining table one step down from the wooden terrace. It was essential to keep the route to the kitchen open and spacious.

The garden ARTER designing the decking larger and adding a paved area for the dining table (+ some planting too!)

4. Add the Required Privacy Screens

To make the outdoor living area cozier, I placed a clipped thuja hedge between the decking and the family's own parking space. The evergreen hedge gives an excellent structure and acts as a privacy screen to the back plot traffic. The terrace feels private—a place where you can relax.
 

5. Use Planting to Connect Your Garden Areas

Very often, when you add something new to your garden, you have to connect it somehow to the existing elements.   

Often the best way to do this is to use plants and new planting areas. Plants combined the new outdoor living area nicely with the existing garden. 

The family said that redesigning their outdoor living area was the right decision. Nowadays the terrace and the whole garden area are in great use!

 

Their kind words AFTER the garden makeover:
"We are happy. Sari read our thoughts. The completed renovation excellently met our needs and goals. I was very impressed with the clarity and precision with which she handled the process. Besides, the garden has been as easy to maintain as we wanted it to be.
Sari's ability to consider the surroundings and the impact of the neighboring construction site on the garden and our lives was also crucial. Fortunately, she was able to see that because we would not have realized it ourselves."
Tuomas

Time for you to take action:

• Do you feel that your outdoor living area needs a makeover?
• What would you like to change and why?
• Is there something you could do right NOW to make your outdoor space more attractive?

Put your insights and ideas on paper. Maybe you make a sketch or drawing of your intended new dream patio area. A thoughtfully designed and adequately dimensioned terrace is just a few steps away.

If you need any support in designing your outdoor living area designing, I'm happy to help you. I will give you my professional opinion and develop the design with you on my Online Garden Design Session (coming soon!), or you can sign up for my Q&A, and I'll give you my insights in the blog.