Image via www.thinkstock.com
Spending a long summer day in the backyard with your family or loved ones is a past-time well enjoyed by many. It’s so easy to get caught up in creating functional, fuss-free spaces that we often forget to add an extra element of joy or whimsy into our surrounds, and after all, that’s what makes an area feel so special to be in.
Below are six tips designed to get you feeling the romantic potential hidden within your backyard – without an excavator in sight!
Light Up My Life
The single most effective and refreshing element you can add to your backyard is the addition of strategic lighting. Lights allow you to play with mood and aesthetic in a simple way.
Whether it’s through the use of solar-powered string lights or something more sophisticated like LED sensor lights, outdoor lights for your backyard provide an essential, functional and decoratively pleasant element to your outdoor space.
Bring The Heat
The Sunshine is one of the essential ingredients for an enticing outdoor space. It brings warm, glowy light into your life, and makes long evenings feel endless and exciting.
There’s no need to end the fun once the sun goes down, or when the temperature drops. Outdoor heaters are widely available and easy to use. From simple gas-powered contraptions to more elegant fire pits, there’s a model and a size out there to put that glow back into your evening.
Garden Of Eden
Fruit trees are a wonderfully elegant, fragrant and delicious way to adorn your backyard. They provide gorgeous, often perennial foliage with the benefit of edible fruit.
A fruit tree like a citrus (lime, lemon, orange, grapefruit) gives you an excuse to enjoy a few ‘health-giving’ home beverages together too. Lemons and limes make fantastic additions to summery drinks, while oranges pair brilliantly with warm bitters and mulled wine – they’re the perfect tonic to boost your immunity and keep your romance firing.
Water Views
Backyard water features will give your space an added sensory element – sound. Whether it’s the trickle of running water, the flowing of foam over a rocky pool, water features give your outdoor area a sensual lift and an aesthetic ‘x-factor’.
Water features can be paired with special types of fish (Japanese carp or ‘koi’) for that extra added boost of romantic whimsy.
Sit With Me
A very aptly named ‘lovers seat’ makes an excellent addition to your backyard. It not only encourages closeness and physical proximity, its aesthetic screams old-world romance.
Garden furniture is now more sophisticated than ever. There are entire ensemble lounge suits and sofas available to adorn your garden with the same style and pizzazz as a lounge room. For a more simple and timeless take on outdoor adornment, try a simple two-piece French bistro style setting; two chairs and a table – with just enough room for a bottle of wine and a platter of cheese.
Alone Time
What use is a wonderfully welcoming garden if you can’t enjoy it in privacy?
To get the most out of your own private Eden, try installing privacy screens or shade-giving shrubs. Privacy screens can be erected above existing fence lines to provide precious extra protection from peering eyes.
Shrubs can be planted strategically and trained to grow together to form green screens – privacy which is natural and beautiful.
Bringing that extra bit of romance into your backyard is as easy as a quick trip to your local garden center, and as complex, as you’re willing to make it. Whichever option you elect to take, there’s a fun-filled, fresh feeling backyard makeover for you (and your nearest and dearest!).
