Have you ever noticed people using their driveways for grilling and gathering, when they have a back porch or patio? There are lots of reasons why outdoor living areas don’t get used for outdoor living:
Too small. Some house plans treat the outside living space as an afterthought, maybe with just enough room for a grill and a couple chairs. Ideal spaces have room for sitting, dining, outdoor cooking, and maybe even watching a ballgame with friends.
Too open. A concrete pad outside the back door without any isolating features is just not inviting. This can be remedied in a lot of ways. Having two or three exterior walls adjoining the space is one effective means. A well-placed outdoor fireplace on a porch or patio can provide isolation. Knee walls can help too. You need the right balance between isolation and openness to make you want to frequent the space. Covering part of a large patio area can give you variations of openness in the same space.
Lack of privacy. With smaller lots even a privacy fence might not block the view from the neighbor’s upstairs windows. Also, if your backyard has a downward slope from the house a fence might not offer much privacy at all. You can address this with lot choice (see our blog) and boundaries that block views. A view boundary can be a pergola or arbor, tall plants, or a trellis. You can also place the garage on the rear of the house (see our blog on garages), or create another design feature to utilize nearby exterior walls.
Disconnection. A poorly placed outside space may feel disconnected from the most frequently used rooms of the home, the kitchen and living room. If it takes a good deal of effort to go from your indoor living area to your outdoor area, such as through a winding hallway or stairs, then you will subconsciously avoid it.
The most effective means for dealing with this is to keep the outdoor and indoor living areas adjoining, while utilizing large windows between the two. The more open the line of sight you can achieve between the two spaces, the more your outdoor space will feel like a continuation of the indoor living area. (Keep reading below.)
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Too much sun. The afternoon summer sun can overwhelm a patio, even a covered one, if it faces west. But, if the front of your home faces west you will have year-round afternoon shade on the back. Consider that when you’re choosing a lot.
You can address afternoon sun on a west-facing outdoor area with trees or a pergola that extends beyond the patio area in a westward direction. For maximum effectiveness the large planks on the pergola should run north and south.
No warmth. This can be solved with furniture and decorating choices that have an indoor look. This creates the feel of an extension of your indoor living space. An outdoor fireplace or firepit can make a place more inviting as well, even when they’re not in use. Breaking up the exterior siding type under a porch can give it more of an indoor feeling.
Not on the same level. Access via steps makes an outside area less inviting. Ideally, outdoor living areas should be on or very near the same level as the indoor floors. What’s even better is having these two levels even with the connecting yard space (see our blog on choosing a lot). One exception to this rule is a step or two leading to a cozy firepit or hot tub located off the main area.
Lack of storage. There may not be a convenient place to park a grill or store outdoor games when not in use. Simply adding a walk-out door from the back of the garage may be all that’s needed to address this. Also creating an outdoor kitchen where the cooking area is permanent helps.
Located on the wrong side of the house. Stock floor plan designers don’t have a way to know which spot will be best for your lot. They might place the outdoor space next to a busy road on a corner lot. Or, maybe the backyard isn’t the best place at all for outdoor living on your lot.
It might be worth mentioning here that there is an interesting phenomenon with carports and sometimes garages. They force foot traffic to a certain area every time you leave or come home. And, something about the human psyche makes people more comfortable in areas that they frequent.
For example, my childhood home had a front-entry carport on the side. By default, we did virtually all our outdoor living on the carport side of the home, or in the carport itself. Our swing set was on that side yard. That’s where my Dad grilled and where we all hung out whenever we weren’t inside. Our large backyard was mostly ignored.
All that to say that outdoor living areas need to be designed on purpose just for outdoor living. Because we subconsciously gravitate to areas where we feel comfortable, a poorly thought-out space will get ignored.
We know how to create the type of outdoor living area that will lure you to it!
There is a wealth of good information on this subject on the web. Check out these helpful articles from Fresh Home, House Beautiful, and HGTV.