Creative Outdoor Spaces

Whether your goal is to lounge, entertain, dine, or simply escape -- we have ideas to create your ideal outdoor space. Personalize your patio, porch, or other alfresco room to suit your seasonal pursuits.

This traditional patio, just the place for afternoon tea, is furnished with Chinese Chippendale garden benches; their fretwork echoes the herringbone pattern in the reclaimed brick. A sleek table is unabashedly modern, although its white finish fits with the motif. Tall and graphic lavender-blue lilies of the Nile are gathered in striking cast-iron urns. The oversize flower arrangements form the perimeter of the patio. Beyond them, a screen of evergreen trees offers year-round privacy.

Table-and-umbrella tandems are often found on patios and decks, where they provide sheltered seating for large groups. But you can also adapt the concept to more intimate settings.

All by itself, a simple canopy can turn an empty space outside into a "place." While trees might take years to grow, an expanse of cloth goes up in minutes.

This floating platform consists of 4-foot-square sections that are screwed together in an alternating pattern. It's made of cedar, a naturally weather-resistant wood. Synthetic-wicker chaises with teak arms encourage sunbathing.

With a few snips and folds, and a little imagination, you can turn humble paper bags into party-perfect decorations.

In keeping with the theme of open-air dining, aromatic thyme creeps along the soil-filled joints. The roots from these perennial, heat-loving herbs help to anchor the stones. In the background, rounded boxwoods and a hedge of hornbeams act as living walls.

Quilted jam jars holding votive candles hang from a grape-covered arbor. As night falls, crystals wired to the bottoms of the jars will cast refracted candlelight onto the stucco walls.

You don't need a lakefront property to enjoy the benefits of backyard water. Stacked pots fitted with a pump and filled to the brim produce sounds reminiscent of lapping waves.

Classic holiday strands line each slat of this porch trellis. To soften the white light, shades of chartreuse and turquoise vellum cloak each bulb.

To complement your backyard with the most appropriate furnishings, you might forgo a trip to the garden center and head to the lumberyard instead. Encircling a majestic black locust tree, this bench delivers 360-degree views. Plus, it always has a shady (and a sunny) side.

Just as a favorite chair's upholstery may inspire a room's color scheme, a few dominant hues in your flora can anchor an area's composition. In this open-air living room, green-glazed pots are right at home, and the chartreuse of the plants is echoed in square pillows. Tones of blue and aquamarine in the surrounding foliage find their match in the remaining pillows and seat cushions, as well as in the wicker chair. Flowers sprouting through the limestone paving and the reddish tree trunks tie in the striped pillow.

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This low table is surrounded by Japanese-style cushions. Remove the table's top and it converts to a daybed, the cushions becoming a mattress. A scrim of Westringia fruticosa, Melianthus major, and Eugenia creates the room's walls; succulents soften the bricked terrace.

A narrow palette highlights the dusky bluestone of this modern patio. Metal furniture with clean lines contributes to its architectural elegance. Sculptural plantings in corresponding marine tones create a sense of enclosure. Large zinc urns corral rounded boxwoods underplanted with trailing 'Silver Falls' dichondra. Dark pots hold spiky ornamental grasses.

A charming pea-gravel breakfast patio furnished with a cafe table, matching chairs, and a sunflower-yellow linen brings to mind alfresco dining in the South of France. A pillow in coordinating fabric adds to the effect. Our ice bucket is made of stacked flowerpots (the one at the base is upside down; water easily drains out the bottom). Edible kumquats underplanted with chartreuse-colored moneywort conjure a relaxed air. The specimens are grown in ceramic containers with an amber glaze. Climbing hydrangea thickly blankets a stone column, adding to the tucked-away feel of the patio.

The porch is decked out with a mix of classic and contemporary touches, including a slatted swing (a must on any Southern veranda), a concrete-and-steel coffee table, and zinc planters.

A faux-bois cement table and chairs overlooking Lake Michigan blend in naturally with tree trunks and branches.

This covered terrace off the kitchen, which is an ideal spot for breakfast, is furnished with folding teak plantation chairs made in India around 1900 and a group of staghorn ferns; the tree stump was rolled home from the banks of the Connecticut River, where it was found.

This propane-fueled, no-logs-required fire bowl can be enjoyed long after Labor Day.

An oversize lighting fixture is at the center of this fenced-in patio, which doubles as a second dining room.

This swing's seat is a waterproof hospital mattress that has been covered with a heavy cotton -- making it an ideal spot for an afternoon rest.

Three walls of glass wrap around this outdoor room in a Beverly Hills canyon. A '30s Grecian garden chair, a vintage footed urn, and a neoclassical stool add silver-screen-style glamour. The striped awning, of canvas-weight solution-dyed acrylic, serves as a movable roof.