Front porches and back patios are our favorite spots to relax in the warmer months. Make yours your favorite escape, too, with these outdoor decorating ideas.
Chic Garden Sitting Area
Hinged together, salvaged French doors add decorative oomph to the outdoor seating area outside this gorgeous garden house.
Solids and Stripes
All this renovated New York home’s expansive porch needed to take it from scary to airy was new flooring and a fresh coat of paint. Inspired by a superstition that a light blue ceiling would repel bees, the owner painted it a soft blue-green shade.
Antique Porch Swing
An antique porch swing turns this front porch into a cozy outdoor sitting room.
Bring on the Blues
In the Gullah culture of South Carolina, a watery-green shade of paint was said to keep evil spirits, known as haints, from invading the home. These days, “haint blue” ceilings can be found in and beyond the Lowcountry, but you can try your luck with smaller doses of the shade. Here, the ceiling is painted Yarmouth Blue by Benjamin Moore.
Multifunctional Porch
Meet the hardest working porch in Georgia: It’s a sitting room, a mudroom, a potting station, and a breakfast nook rolled into one—the perfect way to take advantage of a yearly average temperature of 62 degrees.
Sleeping Porch
This summer cabin’s sleeping porch has a custom swinging daybed. The daybed also offers overnight guests a place to sleep.
Gravel Patio
Cushions covered in an outdoor gingham fabric from Scalamandré brighten up the vintage wrought-iron seating on the patio of this Rhode Island retreat.
Garden View
On the back patio of this Martha’s Vineyard home, a marble-topped table from Napa Home, built from old railroad ties, is paired with African chairs that repurpose oil drums. The iron pendant light is by Laura Lee.
A Place to Gather
Wicker chairs from Target pull up to an antique pine table under a wisteria-covered pergola in this California farmhouse. Olive trees border either side of the gravel patio.
