With the pandemic now a thing of yesteryear (literally), you might want to consider investing in these backyard trends this summer.
In the last couple of years, we all spent more time at home than we wanted to.
But we also reconnected with every space of the house. The backyard especially became an oasis we escaped to, entertained in, relaxed in, or used to enjoy nature.
In 2023, there are tons of trendy options you can use to redo your outdoors. We will talk about some top ones to save you thinking time.
One theme you will see consistently is sustainability. Changing climate patterns and mega weather events have people thinking about ways they can adapt their lives and living spaces.
Let’s dive into what’s the latest in outdoor trends.
Let Nature Take Over
Plants aren’t just for breathing a new life into green space — they’re also for adding privacy to your backyard.
Fences and walls are fine and dandy for marking off your property, but thick and high-climbing bushes create a soft buffer between your backyard and surrounding properties.
A second plant-related trend is to use all the vertical space in your backyard as an extension of your horizontal garden. You can use pergolas, trellises, hanging baskets, planter boxes, fence shelving, mounted containers, and pouches. If you want your wall to disappear entirely, consider installing a living wall.
Work with a landscape designer to identify backyard vegetation best suited for the weather conditions we’re now facing and make your outdoor space sustainable and climate responsive.
Kitchen Gardens Are Back
Well, technically they never left, we just started relying more and more on grocery stores for all our veggie needs.
But over the last couple of years, kitchen gardens have seen a huge comeback and will be all the rage going forward, too. This trend works for most spaces because you can grow vegetables in planters or in raised beds in the backyard.
Remember that living wall? Well, it could also become your vegetable wall if you go about it the right way.
This trend is also a small way to alleviate farming pressures. Droughts are becoming more common, making it harder for production to remain at the same level. Why wait? Why not grow your own vegetables to become sustainable right at home?
Create A Zen Garden
Gardens are already ideal relaxing spots, but with some tweaks, you can turn them into proper Zen spaces for focused recharge time.
Begin by marking off a flat area in your backyard. Fill it with sand or gravel that can be gently raked into a pattern of choice. Add rocks, plants, a shade, and any other calming décor items and turn it into your personal Zen corner.
Spend 15 minutes every day in your personal relaxation space and you’re never going to want to leave it.
Explore Various Textures
When redesigning your outdoor space this year, play around with colour and texture, diving into creative project opportunities.
Instead of choosing one type of surface material to cover an outdoor area, mix and match materials, like wood, metal, glass, and gravel. Eclectic design can elevate the look and feel of a space.
Be Bold With Colours And Textures
Colours and textures are design tools that add depth and dimension to spaces.
An up-and-coming, exciting outdoor décor colour trend is jewel tones. Much like the name suggests, colours of gemstones, like rubies, sapphires, and amethysts, give rich, saturated hues for an eye-catching, dynamic effect.
Viva Magenta, which is Pantone’s 2023 colour of the year, is a perfect example of a jewel tone.
But if you’ve never worked with bold colours and are nervous about incorporating them into your outdoor spaces, start small. Use brighter colours as highlights instead of as the main palette for your outdoor living space. Instead of buying all-new patio furniture set in jewel tones, draw attention with brightly coloured throw pillows, side tables, lamps, or vases. You can also add bold colours by planting flora with bright blooms.
Colour Me Terra Cotta
If you decide to venture into the universe of jewel colour tones, you can balance it with terra cotta.
Look for earthy tones when you’re out buying planters, pots, and garden statues for your backyard this year. Terra cotta is more than a colour tone, it’s also a sustainable and natural product. You can use it as the material of choice for turf-block stonework. It blends well with landscaping and makes for great, long-lasting outdoor material that holds steady, even in harsh weather conditions.
Classy But Sustainable Furniture Options
This outdoor trend for 2023 is more proof that people are taking steps to make small, but progressive changes in their outdoor trends.
The sustainable outdoor furniture industry has found its voice and it’s booming. If you want to go this route but remain classy yet contemporary, think of furniture made with repurposed materials. There are tons of choices, like bamboo furniture, items made from recycled plastic, rattan, and other eco-friendly materials.
Sustainable accent items to add to your backyard include jute welcome mats, solar-powered lights, and biodegradable pots.
Merging Indoor And Outdoor Spaces
This may not be a new trend, but it’s a hot one for sure. People are more and more viewing their outdoor and indoor spaces as functional extensions of one other.
The aim is to bring nature as close to the living space as possible, while still maintaining an imperceptible separation between the two. The more seamlessly you’re able to do it the better it is.
The goal is to align the outdoor space style with your home’s interior decor to create a well-integrated flow from inside to outside.
This outdoor extension to the indoors gives homeowners a chance to incorporate different levels of privacy, especially if they have a smaller lot. Shade-giving structures, like pergolas and decorative screen panels, provide seclusion and protect from the sun and heat in scorching summer days.
Special design elements to merge indoor and outdoor include folding glass doors, ultra-comfortable and luxury furniture pieces that look like outdoor items but feel more like indoor ones.
You can also consider opening up the home to partially covered gardens, enclosed verandas, or a covered patio.
Trendy Outdoor Lighting
Whether you’re merging your outdoor with the indoor or not, upgrade your lighting to be more trendy.
Add a touch of drama to your outdoor space by using accent lighting, like outdoor string lights or flush mounts. Elevate the outdoor mood with some simple touches and convert the space into a fantastical wonder world.
Dazzle your visitors with glamorous chandeliers, dusky smoked-glass sconces, celestial-inspired lamps, woven rattan shades, and marble bases. You could also go with curvy pendant lights, floor lamps featuring heavy natural stone bases, or lanterns filled with fairy lights.
But if you’re going for more of a cozy feel, outdoor fireplaces and soft, layered lighting that highlights landscaping and architectural features properly works well.
With Sustainability Comes Functionality
Optimizing outdoor space means making it functional as well as beautiful.
The backyard has always been and now is even more so a go-to spot for fun.
You can make enhance it by adding games to the mix, like a pool table, a mini-golf range, and even outdoor chess or checkers tables. Incorporating these into the overall backyard design will maximize entertainment while retaining functionality.
Expand Your Outdoor Kitchen
Games are great for expanding outdoor entertainment options, but the biggest backyard entertainment for North American summers is barbecuing.
Upgrade your barbecue routine by adding outdoor sinks, mini-fridges, prep stations, and a dedicated cooking space that can be used for all meals of the day.
All this combined with an outdoor vegetable garden sets you up perfectly for the barbecue season, with fresh veggies just an arm’s reach away.
Outdoor Spaces Are Becoming Inclusive
Outdoors means high energy and activity. But the outdoor space also needs to be inclusive and accessible for everyone to use, no matter their ability level.
Adding accessibility elements can allow those with mobility issues to easily use the backyard and enjoy being in nature.
You can go start with accessibility by adding a ramp if your house and backyard are not level. Wide and roomy pathways will help those using mobility devices to navigate the garden with ease. Add raised flower beds to eliminate the need to bend over and reach down.
It may not always be easy for people to reach for the light switch, so place motion-activated lights in higher-traffic areas, such as stairs and walkways, to light up paths people and kids walk frequently. Consider replacing regular doorknobs with lever-style or push-and-pull handles.
Pick Your Path
Not all trends suit everyone’s taste and vision for their outdoor space. And with so much to choose from, it can get overwhelming.
But the good thing is that you can either pick one trend or mix and match if you’re feeling adventurous this year.
