Details Brings Patios to Life

It’s easy to overlook the patio. Sure, a patio is convenient when you need a place to wipe your feet or leave your shoes before heading inside from the backyard, but it’s also an opportunity to enhance your indoor and outdoor living experiences by tying them together. A well-designed patio smooths the transition from home to landscape, adding valuable living space in the process. 

These 15 patios reveal that while there is no one way to design a patio, resilient materials, comfortable gathering spaces and details that reflect the specific needs of the homeowner and climate will create a lasting and useful patio. Take a detail or two from some to help you create your perfect patio. 

1. Relaxation on a Busy Street
As part of an overall home remodel, architect Kurt Krueger transformed a midcentury ranch house’s previously underused front yard into a private outdoor sanctuary. Retractable shade covers, Douglas fir fencing and a custom water feature enclose the exposed space, masking the sound of passing traffic and creating an intimate gathering space steps from the front door. 

2. Cooling Off 
Not only does this covered patio by Brett Zamore offer respite from the oppressive heat of summers, but it also adds valuable living space to a 1,300-square-foot bungalow. An extensive outdoor kitchen and designer furniture make for a comfortable dining experience. A ceiling fan, string lights and a fire pit mean this patio is open day and night.

3. Sophisticated and Functional
Designer and contractor Chris Corbett used a focused material palette and thoughtful details to create an elegant, edited patio. One-of-a-kind details elevate concrete, steel and rock in this budget-friendly and drought-tolerant patio. 

4. Shadow Play 
Western red cedar and bluestone mix in this covered patio area between a pool and pool house. The architects at Resolution: 4 Architecture created shadow play with the slat spacing of the pergola roof, wood siding and patio furniture. The shadows move along throughout the day, signaling the shift in day and time of year. 

5. Outdoor Entertaining Near the Beach
Roll-up garage doors, a kitchen pass-through and concrete flooring indoors and out make the transition from inside the pool house to the patio as smooth as the waves rolling onto the beach. Multiple seating areas, colorful patio furniture and amenities that keep the party going from day into night make this party patio one you surely wouldn’t want to leave.

6. Outdoor Living for a Townhouse
A traditional townhouse got a dose of industrial design with this new patio and backyard by landscape architect Mark S. Garff. Built-in planter boxes, horizontal board slats and an angled patio stretch the yard’s 540 square feet (50.1 square meters), while a mix of cedar and steel balances the budget and the industrial aesthetic the homeowners were after. 

7. Color and a View Open Up a Narrow Spot

Eleven feet is all architect Christian Rice needed to create this new outdoor dining space off the living room of a newly remodeled home. A previously unused setback next to the house received a new concrete slab, a dining room with outdoor furniture and a colorful custom mural by artist Nate Schnell, along with a new roll-up door, to extend this contemporary industrial home’s living space all the way to the property line. 

8. An Exotic Spot for Breakfast
Robin Stockton and Morgan Holt of Earth Art Landscape utilized bold color and channeled details from the grand bazaars of India to create a warm, exotic destination right off the kitchen. Retractable shade covers, a tiled water feature and heat-tolerant tiles and stone create a cooling environment that can withstand harsh temperatures.

9. Lush Garden Grows in Place of Cracked Concrete
A cracked concrete parking lot found new life as a lush enclosed patio and deck space. Landscape designer Beth Mullins layered plenty of evergreen foliage in containers for a true garden effect and poured large concrete pavers for the family’s young daughter. A new ipe deck at the far end of the yard added height and saved some cost on the demo of the old concrete patio. 

10. A Modern Arbor 
Michael Constantino and Jeff Halper of Exterior Worlds Landscaping & Design provided this homeowner with what many can’t get enough of: shade. And they did so with artistry, not only with a water-jet-cut aluminum patio cover but also through the tidy row of Spartan junipers. A custom Cor-Ten sculpture and disappearing fountain contribute to the patio’s cooling effect, with extensive lighting transforming the area into a nighttime masterpiece. Gravel paving creates a permeable base that also adds a nice meditative quality through the crunching underfoot.

11. Zen-Inspired Design Makes Room for the Dog
Travels abroad inspired this patio’s aesthetic, but it’s the homeowner’s big black Lab that determined many of its features. Landscape architect Jennifer Horn provided plenty of open paving to give the dog space to run around, while thoughtful details, like raised planter boxes and a rill that runs the patio’s length, protect the plants from trampling and nibbling. 

12. Covered Dining Area Extends Outdoor Living 
Precast concrete pavers extend the length of this house. A modern pergola angles away from the home, complementing the materials and architecture while retaining a slick and unobtrusive appearance. The rain drain that’s integrated into the pergola and directs water away from the house and into a subdrainage system beneath the patio’s gravel base is one of the many genius details featured in this design. Built-in concrete benches frame the patio and pick up the horizontal paving pattern that also ties in with the fencing. 

13. Keeping Cool in the Plains
Architect Steven Ginn designed this concrete patio and steel and ipe pergola to withstand varied weather conditions, from the freeze-thaw cycles to the hot, humid summer weather. Varied patterns in the ipe patio cover give visitors a range of shade amounts, depending on what they’re looking for. 

14. Wine Country Patio Opens Up to the View
This contemporary but rustic patio features materials and details that will withstand bright sun and freezing nights. A slatted pergola shades the flagstone patio and living room while opening up the view to the vineyards beyond. 

15. Patio for a Shared Property
A wall of glass doors from the home’s great room opens to a long deck of tight knot cedar with steps down to a bluestone patio. Architect and homeowner Rick Mohler extended dining, living and entertaining outside on this corner lot. Foliage plants and retractable awnings shade the house and landscape in summer; the deciduous foliage drops and the awnings are pulled up to keep the garden warm in winter.

Article Sourced on Houzz Website