Patio Design Ideas

In many modern homes, outdoor living is made possible through attractive and functional patios and decks. There are many types and sizes of patios that add an additional season or two of use to your patio. Here are a few patio design ideas that can add value to your home as well as enjoyment to your lifestyle.

If size permits, separate your patio into more than one usable space. You can use a pergola, different levels or permanent seating to define areas. Durable fabrics combined with awnings or protection from the elements help to make the space more comfortable to use. If you separate areas by flower or garden beds, you can add the scent of herbs and flowers to the outdoor living space.

Use plantings to add beauty and to define areas of use on your patio. Plants provide natural screens/ They also attract birds and butterflies if you plant appropriate greenery. Larger plants provide shade and screening from such items as nosy neighbors and traffic noise. The larger plants also help to clean carbon dioxide from the air and add oxygen.

Another feature of your patio that you should consider is a patio heater. A gas or electric heater adds weeks or months of comfortable outdoor living to your home each year. Adding connections for gas or electricity is usually done by a professional installer, but once installed, the use of the equipment is as simple as turning it on or igniting the pilot light.

Patio design ideas that add to comfort in others ways are helpful. Lighting that will add to the ambiance of a conversation area might be insect repellent as well. Furniture used on the patio or deck should be comfortable to use and should be durable. Common choices are rattan, plastic or teak, depending upon the level of expense that you choose to furnish the patio.

Patios are generally designed to catch the sun. Not necessarily, in warmer areas, the heat of the midday sun, but enough sun to give you that good sense of relaxation and well being that we get when exposed to lots of vitamin D.

Patios are also a hub for family-centered activities: a place for meals; for children to play; for lengthy conversations that lead to important decisions; and for friends to gather outside around the barbecue.

However, it is possible to have too much sun. Patio awnings allow you to enjoy the sun's warmth without becoming burned by the sun, and provide protection against passing showers too. Patio awnings, canopies or shades are a very useful addition to your outdoor comfort.

An awning can be either fixed or retractable. A fixed awning, as its name suggests, stays in the same position all the time. It is usually some type of shade cloth fixed to a permanent frame of steel or aluminium. Retractable awnings can be swiftly stowed away, and are available in either powered or manually operated versions. In climates where permanent awnings must be dismantled at the approach of winter and erected again in spring, retractable awnings, which can be left in their cassette all year round, are especially useful.

An alternative to a complete awning is a shade sail. Shade sails can be custom made to any size you require, or you can combine a number of smaller ones to cover a larger area (the solution you choose will depend partly on your site, and partly on your budget). Shade sails work by a tension system - the sails, often triangular in shape, are anchored to tension points which may be attached to the walls of the dwelling or to the tops of poles sunk into the ground. They have the advantage of being portable: if you sell your home, you can move the sail to your new home and reinstall it for the price of new tension points.