New Year’s Sale: Get 20% off Dwell with promo code YEAR20
SubscribeSign In
All Photos/outdoor/locations : back yard

Outdoor Back Yard Design Photos and Ideas

Los Angeles firm Chet Architecture crafts a deeply personal hillside home packed with primary colors—including a custom mural that now holds an even deeper meaning.
A firepit and an inflatable hot tub with a wicker surround add a bit of luxury to Joe and Rachel’s Venice Beach rental.
Rachel and Joe relaxing with their dog Camp around the fire pit in the outdoor space. The fire pit was purchased on Facebook Marketplace and the seating is from Oasis Imports in Malibu.
“Many people said ‘you’re crazy,’ because it’s a circular house,” says homeowner Sergio Goyri. “But in the end, we just love how easy it is to go from one place to the other and how we communicate. Every room is integrated, and that’s what we were looking for for a weekend family house."
Another move that reduces the house's environmental impact is the inclusion of photovoltaic panels on the roof. The panels generate enough energy to offset 95% of the house’s consumption.
The hot tub is a highlight of the home. “It was worth the investment,” says Kara. “Especially late at night when you can see the stars.”
Filled with predominately Australian plants, the garden is easy to look after.
A small workspace is tucked into the far wall of the unit, with additional storage.
Natalie and Lauren wanted to replicate the feel of a Zen garden with their home’s central courtyard. The garden features a Japanese maple that pops against the charred timber cladding, while structurally, the U-shape design ushers light right through to the back of the house.
The balance of mint green-painted ironwork, plants, pool, and blue sky capture the warmth of the Mérida indoor-outdoor living environment.
Red- and blue-pigmented cement augments the color palette of the courtyard.
FMT Estudio renovated the pool deck with sanded red bricks manufactured in central Mexico.
On a clear day, you can catch a whiff of sea salt from atop the cliffside.
The remote location made construction a challenge. Horne ended up widening the road to the cabin in order to move the shipping containers up the cliff.
Although previous owners built a pool at a lower part of the yard near the piano room, the couple decided to build a new one just off the kitchen. “We thought, it would be amazing to have a pool that was kind of jutting out, with the backdrop of the city,” John says. The patio doubles as entertaining space for summer parties.
Moss-covered rocks and twisted tree trunks give the landscape a fairyland-like quality.
Danny envisioned the space between the ADU and the house as an informal place to gather. "It creates a sort of courtyard sensibility, which works for our intergenerational family dynamics."
Francis and RJ relax at home with their two young children.
In the backyard, the couple added a pergola, greenhouse, and outdoor dining space for $6,000.
The home's wood deck is a neutral base that compliments the home's back and white features.
<span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;">The simple wood deck features innovative cutouts that allow full-grown Yucca trees to peek through.</span> <span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;"> </span>
A perfectly groomed backyard lawn with a paver patio.
A healthy budget for landscaping allowed Leah to achieve a natural, wild look with plants. “I wanted to look out and see just lush plants growing wild,” she says. The collage of native vegetation was also used to soften the transitions between surface materials and backyard zones.
Surrounded by oak trees and lush grasslands, Field Cabin features a steeply pitched roof and an expansive glass door and decking on the front facade.
The courtyard brings natural light into the lower level of the home, which has a den/media room, guest suite/workout area, and storage and mechanical.
A clear railing creates uninhibited views of the surroundings.
The side walls have been treated as vertical extension of the horizontal surface of the garden, and are used for growing climbers such as jasmine, grapes, honeysuckle, raspberries, beans, peas, and even a climbing fig. Colorful bird’s houses and bug hotels are also mounted on the walls.
Living in between the woods
On the outskirts of Grândola—a small Alentejan town in the Setúbal district of Portugal—a dramatic architectural form sits in the vast, arid landscape amidst cork trees and herds of cows. The whitewashed guesthouse is known as Casa da Volta, which translates as "Home of the Return,
Rear garden
The private outdoor space showcases the renovation's south-facing windows, which were installed to connect the indoors with the yard.
An energy-efficient TPO membrane covers the living room’s zigzag roof.
Twenty-foot-wide doors from Solar Innovations offer easy access to the deck. “Solar Innovations was the only manufacturer at that time that had a pocket multi-slider with a good ADA threshold,” says architect Erick Mikiten. “They almost look like steel, but are thermally broken aluminum.”
Sphinx, the family Carolina dog, scouts the perimeter of the Concrete Collaborative pavers in the backyard. The pavers were installed on a slight angle to channel water to the surrounding gravel, lawn, and planting beds. This substantially lowers the landscape's water demand. Perforated PVC pipes and a pump move excess rainfall (which would otherwise go to storm drains) into an underground basin where it can later drain off. Redwood fencing reflects the material palette of the interior and creates visual continuity around the backyard.
The expansive grassy lawns features several ponds, fountains, native greenery, and even a tea house.
Alloi's design solution for the exterior envelope included exterior rigid insulation to reduce solar heat gain, and recycled newspaper blown-in cellulose insulation at interior and exterior walls, creating an energy efficient and peacefully quiet home.
Eisler Landscapes provided plants for the yard.
Perforated steel screens provide shading and privacy to the interior living spaces. The garden extends from the inner courtyard to the rear yard with open, connected spaces.
Another side of the home opens up onto a large lawn.
The view from the uppermost level of the yard looks down to the slide and the sloped lawn, sandbox, and, beyond the gate, bioretention unit and mulch.
When Zuzana Kovar and Nicholas Skepper set to work updating an aging Queenslander cottage for a young family in Brisbane, the first challenge was the home’s orientation. “We wanted to connect the interior of the house with its garden—a vital space for the family and their children, and one that the cottage previously turned its back on,” says Kovar. Now, an updated layout sets the kitchen, dining, and living room adjacent to the verdant garden, and sight lines through the house connect the indoor and outdoor areas.
“The pool house was something I always wanted to build,” Robert says. The bar is the main attraction. And next to it, a lime tree is within reach to make fresh gin and tonics.
Fabian plays with Morten in the yard, which features a spacious lawn and a greenhouse.
The fire pit area displays a 48-inch concrete fire bowl, woven chairs, and upcycled tree stumps for kid-friendly-seating.
The multiple double-glazed apertures of the addition situates the kitchen in close connection to the backyard garden.
Guy (holding Pickles the cat) and Mark transformed the backyard, adding a pool and planting sycamore trees and native grasses. A custom dining table by Angel City Lumber is paired with vintage chairs from Amsterdam Modern.
A section of the facade—a cross between a shoji screen and a barn door—slides open. Planter boxes contain edible varieties that fuel Mary’s culinary explorations.
12345...40