Count us in for co*cktails by the pool and al fresco dinners!
There's no need to travel far to find yourself in a serene escape when you have a well-designed patio in your own back yard. To inspire your own al fresco retreat, we rounded up beautiful backyard patio ideas with pictures from notable designers across the world.
Whether your space is small or large, concrete or stone, covered or uncovered, you can select seating and decorative items from simple to ornate, modern to traditional to create the ideal outdoor room for gathering your family and friends. You can also add pops of color with landscaping and beautiful flowering shrubs, taking your space from a room to an oasis. Whether you have fountain or fire pit in mind for your yard, we have photos to give you plenty of design ideas. While many patio ideas play out well in the privacy of backyards, we're also keen on a pretty front porch design and how it engages you with neighbors and arriving guests alike.
Read on for our 70 designer patio ideas that are sure to inspire your perfect outdoor space.
White Elegance
In this 1920s Mediterranean style Palm Beach estate named Casa della Porta, designer Mary McDonald selected simple yet elegant white seating (Formations) to allow the loggia’s dramatic vaulting and arches to star. Fabric, Perennials. Lanterns, Paul Ferrante
Rooftop Fountain Beauty
In a 1901 seven-story townhouse on New York’s Upper East Side, Jesse Carrier and Mara Miller paid homage to the house’s Beaux Arts beginnings by installing a carved French limestone fountain to anchor the rooftop terrace with furniture by David Sutherland surrounding it. Carrier describes it as “a little slice of private park in the sky.”
Monochromatic Florida Homage
In this Kips Bay Palm Beach Show House, designer Billy Ceglia’s crisp monochromatic scheme extends from lacquered bamboo-patterned armchairs and chaises (Brown Jordan) to hammered wrought-iron chandeliers by Currey & Company. Beneath the blue-painted ceilings for never-ending sunny days, chinoiserie seating and a treillage screen nod to traditional Floridian decorating motifs.
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Flowering Fabrics
In a 18th-century landmark in Charleston’s South of Broad neighborhood, designers Thomas Jayne and William Cullum chose stainless steel lounge chairs (Janus et Cie) with Cactus Flower cushions (Christopher Farr Cloth) for the first-floor piazza thats design came from an 1820s Regency-style addition to the home.
Whimsical Dining Theatre
Vietnamese silk lanterns dangle from the dining pergola, shrouded in banana and areca palms, bleeding heart, and elephant’s ears in designer Mimi McMakin’s home, a cedar-shingled former church fronting the Palm Beach lake trail.
Garden-Accented Patio
In an ancestral millhouse in the North of England, designer Mary Graham, pictured here with her design partner Nicole Salvesen, stands on the dining terrace, where sage green trim and old cobblestone create an enchanting backdrop. A lantern by Hector Finch illuminates the space by night, and the garden design is by Willa Bourne-Arton.
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Hydrangea Surround
In a home in the Hamptons, a burst of Limelight hydrangeas beckons guests to a garden table dressed in a gingham tablecloth from homeowner and linen designer Julia Amory’s collection and antique majolica.
French-Inspired Living
At this Kips Bay Dallas Show House, Todd Events grounded this pool folly in a floral Tibetan knot rug (Perennials) with French-inspired teak-frame lounge chairs (Sutherland), a skirted bar, and leafy blue pillows and curtains (fabric, Morris & Co.).
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Sunny Sitting Spot
Light from this garden casts inside an Upper East Side townhouse designed by Lucy Doswell. Just as you’ll find little pops of juicy color from the artwork indoors, greenery colors this sun-filled dining area.
Cottage-Style Dining
A faux-bois table (Diane Husson) plays off the natural beauty surrounding the dining terrace at architect Paul Bates's Birmingham cottage. Chinese Chippendale chairs (Hall Bradley for Brown Jordan) echo the patterns of trellis which are often seen in gardens.
Conversation Starter
Washington, D.C.-based designer Byron Risdon envisioned the lush patio at the Kips Bay Decorator Show House in Dallas as an entertaining haven. In the primary seating area, Risdon replaced the existing fireplace with Strike’s Laguna stone mantel and created a conversational pit with crescent sofas upholstered in a woven salmon-and-cream acrylic fabric by Perennials.
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Abstract Beauty
A larger-than-life glazed ceramic and lava stone mural by Michelle Grabner animates the inviting patio at this art collector's Florida retreat designed by Ellen Hamilton.
Townhouse Charm
Designer Summer Thornton pulled inspiration from the courtyards of New Orleans for the playful patio at her Chicago townhouse. The black and white floor features stone (Exquisite Surfaces) sourced from quarries in cold parts of northern China and Europe.
English Entertaining
Esther Cayzer-Colvin drew inspiration from her own family when it came time to decorate the indoor and outdoor rooms of her English estate. For example, the dining set on her garden patio was passed down by Cayzer-Colvin's grandmother Nancy Lancaster, the influential post-war Anglo-American designer and co-owner at Colefax and Fowler.
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Pergola-Covered Dining Patio
At this Napa Valley family retreat, designer Dan Fink and architect Carl Baker of Ike Kligerman Barkley extended the living space by adding a pergola-covered gravel dining patio just off the great room. Striped cushions (fabric by Perennials) outfit the seating around a custom iron-and-teak dining table.
Soothing Patio Fountain
When designers Jeffry Weisman and and Andrew Fisher first discovered their San Miguel de Allende home, they were struck by the patio garden's cool, dappled light and and gentle, splashing outdoor fountains. Here, custom urns flank the entrance to a magical middle garden.
Dining Under Jacarandas
At designers Jeffry Weisman and Andrew Fisher's home in San Miguel de Allende, a series of sinuous bronze-tone nesting tables on the garden patio is set for Christmas dinner. Spheres of greenery and florals shroud electrified chandeliers overhead, strung from the jacaranda trees. Tables and teak Klismos chairs, Fisher Weisman Collection
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Rowhouse Escape
Built in 1840, this London rowhouse recently redesigned by Gary McBournie features an expansive urban patio in the back. Custom latticework garden mirrors flank the terrace’s stone fountain, adding symmetry and the illusion of depth. Furnishings, McKinnon and Harris
Poolside Patio
At this Ross, California, home, landscape designer Erica Timbrell carved out extra poolside seating with the addition of a patio under a canopy of California redwoods. A teak sectional commands the stone-wrapped alcove.
Lauren Wicks
Freelance Writer
Lauren Wicks is a freelance writer and editor based in Birmingham, Alabama. Before going on her own, Lauren worked for brands such as VERANDA, EatingWell, and Cooking Light, and she covers all things lifestyle from interior design and luxury travel to wine and wellness.