Most people struggle more with a backyard than with any other outdoor space. A balcony is small so it almost decorates itself. A backyard is just open grass, and that empty feeling is honestly harder to deal with than a tight space. In this category we focus on things you can actually do. Zoning a yard into separate areas for sitting, eating and playing. Picking lighting that doesn’t cost a fortune. Adding seating that makes the space feel used instead of just mowed. It doesn’t matter if you have a small city yard or a big suburban one, the ideas here are meant to be practical, not just pretty pictures you save and forget about.
The most useful outdoor lighting tool costs nothing and is probably sitting in a kitchen drawer.The most useful outdoor lighting tool costs nothing and is probably sitting in a kitchen drawer.Most lighting advice starts with what to buy. Buying is the easy part. One thing separates a yard that looks good after dark from one…
The first time I measured a small backyard properly, I felt a little silly. I had been calling it tiny for two years. It came out at 14 feet by 18 feet, which is not tiny at all. It just felt that way because of what was sitting in it. A plastic table. Four chairs…
A lot of backyards fall into the same trap. There’s a patch of grass, maybe a fence, and one lonely piece of furniture sitting in the middle of it all looking a little lost. It’s not that the yard is ugly exactly. It’s just unfinished, like someone bought one thing for the space and then…
Empty space is the hardest thing to decorate. A balcony makes the choices for you, because there is only one spot the chair fits. A lawn makes no choices at all. That is why so many backyards look the same: furniture pushed flat against the house, and a wide green nothing beyond it that nobody…