People tend to forget that renovating a home isn’t only about the interior décor and arrangement. With a little skill and effort, the backyard can also be transformed into an appealing and attractive outdoor area that can act as an extra, under-the-sky living room and a private stay-cation resort. Here are some of the points to follow on your path to a successful outdoor area remodel.
What is your lifestyle?
Before you come down to redesigning your backyard, there are two things you need to get straight: how do you currently use your backyard, and how would you like to use it in the future. People have different scenarios worked out for their backyards, such as hosting parties, cooking, relaxing, swimming, etc. If you can plan ahead and consider your backyard’s future uses, you’ll be able to make the most out of the available space as well as the resources you have at your disposal.
Make a land plan
Home garden centres are persuasive places. You go in for half a dozen of evergreen shrubs, and before you know it, your car boot is full of landscaping tools, supplies and materials, with more on delivery to arrive. You don’t have to go far to realise that you have no idea how to integrate all that into your project. What you need is a landscaping plan, which is like an outdoor floor plan. It includes everything you’ll plant, lay, fence, raise, or excavate – natural elements as well as man-made ones. It also includes the soil gradation and rainwater drainage.
Low-maintenance entertainment area
Longer days and warm summer nights beckon us to spend more time outdoors. Even if throwing lawn parties isn’t your primary concern, adding an outdoor entertaining area is an excellent way to increase your living space. Crisp evening air and pungent fragrances of the garden guarantee a pleasant, laid-back time for both the guests and hosts. However, the key to functional entertaining is to be low-maintenance, too. Apart from weather-resistant outdoor furniture, you’ll need a concrete patio protected by epoxy flooring paint or a raised deck treated against the elements.
Know your water
Gravity is a nasty business. Although in an ideal world, all the rainwater would be soaked in by the soil, in reality, water always finds a place to hang about more than you’d like. If your backyard design fails to protect you against downpours, your whole remodelling project might be at stake, and sometimes even your home structure. Proper landscape gradation, as well as downspouts and drains, aren’t just about saving money, but also about preventing costly scenarios down the road.
Green air conditioning
Not all backyard solutions are strictly outdoors-oriented. In many parts of the world, pleasant mornings and fresh evenings are the prequel of long, sweltering summer days that often make being indoors unbearably uncomfortable. This is where smart landscaping comes to aid. A big shade tree canopy provides the cooling potential roughly equal to 10 single-room air conditioner units whirring round a clock for 20 hours a day. However, in order to be effective, trees need to be planted in the right location, which depends on your home orientation relative to the sun.
Buy in bulks, buy cheap
Home and garden centres offer a huge variety of beautifully arranged landscaping supplies, tools and materials. Whatever you need, just drop it in the cart and keep rolling. Let’s take a common product such as mulch for example. Every garden needs mulching now and then and picking a bag or two doesn’t seem like a big deal. However, if you inquire with a local landscaping company, you can get loads of it dumped right at your driveway at a much lower price. The same applies to other bulk materials such as gravel, sand, wood chips, bricks, etc.
The options you have are almost as diverse as if you’re redesigning your home interior. However, just as with any indoor area, if you want the best possible results, remodelling a backyard requires careful planning, execution and finishing.