Patio Decorating Ideas

Let Your Patio Area Shine!

If you are like many Americans, the patio area of your home might still be an untapped ‘resource’ in terms of providing added beauty for your home and offering enhanced entertainment potential for family and friends.   So often, a slab of backyard concrete languishes for years without being allowed to ‘strut its stuff’ and become the outside arena, so to speak, that draws people together for BBQs, birthday-parties, book club gatherings or just a cup of coffee with a few close friends.

If you have been thinking of sprucing up your patio area, the following ideas just might inspire you to consider what might work well for your particular area and lifestyle. One can spend a great deal of money towards a patio make-over or one can spend a very modest amount, but either way, when you discover how much more your patio will be utilized and how it truly does bring people closer together, you’ll know that your investment was well worth the expenditure!

There are as many patio decorating ideas as there are homeowners, but here are just a few to get your juices flowing!

Add A 2nd ‘Living Room’!

Probably one of the coziest ideas to add to a patio would be an outdoor fireplace! A fireplace would definitely serve as a focal point for the entire patio area. When the weather is cooler during spring and fall, imagine roasting marsh-mellows with the kiddos or relaxing with close friends as you enjoy the fire’s crackling and warmth after a Saturday-evening BBQ. It doesn’t get much more mellow than that!

But having a fireplace means adding a few pieces of outdoor furniture to the living space to give the area an inviting living-room feel. The choices for outdoor furniture are beautiful and vast; and overstuffed cushions, ottomans, colorful weather-proof area rugs and oversized potted plants can combine to exquisitely create your own, personal oasis away from the hustle and bustle of the everyday world!

If a fireplace might be a bit too pricey, consider a fire-pit! You can spend $200.00 for a nice pit or several thousand dollars, or more, on extravagant models that offer a simple push of a button which activates a clean-burning fire that can last for up to 8 hours. Even if you were to start out with a smaller fire-pit, you can still embrace and enjoy the coziness of a fire on cool, crisp nights and can always upgrade to a more elaborate fire-pit when the time is right!

Install An Outdoor Kitchen!

Outdoor kitchens can be big-ticket items depending on how many amenities you might choose to include in your cook area. It’s not uncommon for outdoor kitchens to include side-burners, warming drawers, refrigerators, beer taps and beverage and cocktail coolers.

Whether you would choose a few simple features or add a complete set-up that would impress a world-class chef, you’ll find you’ve created a ‘watering-hole’, figuratively speaking, where family and friends become drawn together. There’s just something about grilling food in an outdoor kitchen and dining together that stimulates conversation and closeness. Also, an outside kitchen could help your home to sell faster for niche buyers who would relish this type of add-on!

Add Some Panache to Your Pavement!

If your patio consists of a drab, concrete slab, then spruce it up! You can give your concrete surface an appearance that will look like a million-dollar make-over—or at least close to it—by having it ‘stamped’. Stamping provides stunningly real-looking patterns and textures by imprinting mold designs on freshly-placed cement. You can achieve the high-end look of slate, stone, tile or brick at a mere fraction of the cost of the real thing. And not only that, but you can get creative with a host of dye choices including reds, oranges, yellows, cobalt blues and multiple natural tones—nature’s creations can be stunningly replicated in your backyard! Your friends will be convinced your patio is anything but concrete!

Hot-Tubs Are Hot-Ticket Items

If you relish the idea of finding continuously-available therapy from the stressors in your life, a counselor may not be on your list but a hot tub sure could be! If you want to leave the traffic jams, deadlines, arrogant bosses and overtime-hours behind, a hot-tub could be your ticket to physical and mental R&R!

Hot-tubs can be used throughout most of the year, including those cold months when sliding into a hot-tub on an ‘arctic’ evening is akin to wrapping yourself with a warm blanket right out of the dryer—your concerns regarding the rest of the world can vanish into thin air.

Whether in-ground or above-ground with a small, wrapped deck area to add a classy flair, hot tubs require only about 10 minutes of maintenance a week when a 24-hour, 1/3-hp circulation pump is used. The water is continually-cleaned while minimal energy is utilized.

Add large, strategically-placed pots filled with tall, ornamental grasses such as ‘switch grass’ (Panicum virgatum). It comes up every year, grows quickly and beautifully at a height of up to 6 feet; and when placed about 2 feet apart, it will form a natural, grassy screen to offer privacy and simplistic beauty. Add to that, exotic flame-lit torches and you’ve created a romantic get-away without the price of any airline tickets!

A Waterfall With A Fish Pond!

Tranquility, beauty and mental quietude can all be achieved simultaneously when a waterfall and pond are added to a patio setting! Even if you have a smaller patio area, it can comfortably incorporate cascading water which ‘gurgles’ its way into a quaint fish pond.   The charm becomes a living, breathing element that creates a mesmerizing and captivating ambiance. If a fish pond ‘rows your boat’, make sure your pond has a water-surface area of 3-square feet for each fish included with a depth of a minimum of 30 inches. This depth has to do with the fish having an ice-free environment during the winter months. And don’t forget water lilies and other floating foliage to offer shade and protection from predators. Can you feel the serenity, yet?

When your patio area becomes this tranquil and this transformed with any of these ideas, you may find that you will become transformed, too!