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1,206 Outdoor Back Yard Trees Design Photos And Ideas

Studio Bracket Architects amplified the home’s International Style by adding more glass paneling, extending the flat room, and refining the connection between indoor and outdoor spaces.
The Malibu Crest residence has the most desirable spot on the hill because it was the first house built there in 1949.
Now, an eight-foot sliding door brings light into the kitchen and enables fluid movement between inside and out. The wider steps can serve as seats during a party, and they make for a graceful transition to the yard.
Project lead Elise Snyder and another Solares staff member did a road trip and stayed overnight to get a sense of the landscape and find the right siting. The team wasn’t able to come back out to the site after that, but luckily, builder Quantum Builders was a little closer to the action and stayed on the property regularly to get the project home. “It was like an old-fashioned logging camp feel to it,” laughs Lolley.
It goes without saying that one of the greatest masters of color was famed Mexican architect Luis Barragán, who used pink to dazzling effect in several projects, including Cuadra San Cristóbal.
There are plenty of opportunities for guests to engage with the surrounding landscape, from cosy fire pits to hammocks strung between trees.
The House features a seating area and fire pit by the main entrance. "It’s a great way to experience the peace and serenity of the outdoors," says Tarah.
Set in a garden, the prefab structure is the perfect mix of good design and convenience.
Creede Fitch and his wife look out on the courtyard of their Austin home, where a heritage pecan tree has pride of place.
“The pitched ceilings and ribbon of clerestory windows make the interior feel more spacious than it is,” notes Gooden.
Lush plantings surround one of the two bungalows on the property that the couple converted into art studios.
The two-bedroom, one-and-a-half bath cabin in Nova Scotia serves as a vacation getaway for a couple.
The ceiling of the exterior patio and soffits is crafted from inexpensive sheets of plywood cut into smaller pieces, assembled in a custom pattern, and stained.
The expansive, covered patio that extends from the living space features an outdoor kitchen and adjoining pizza oven. “My favorite aspect of the project was that the clients embraced the idea that home can be more than just shelter,” says architect Cavin Costello. “It can be a place that incentivizes you to socialize, think, eat, work, create, and play differently.”
Native Sonoran flora—such as salvaged soap tree yuccas, ocotillos, and saguaros—are planted at strategic locations. Low-water hybrid grasses and shrubs complement the larger plants, creating a very serene experience while keeping maintenance to a minimum.
“The intention of the landscape design was to create a tranquil refuge in a vibrant neighborhood for the family to entertain, play, and spend quality time together outdoors,” says the team at The Green Room Landscape Architecture. “The architecture produced multiple lines of sight that penetrate through the home, connecting the front and back yards with similar plant materials, creating a feeling that the house was planted in a scenic Sonoran meadow.”
The pool and fire pit in the courtyard are at the heart of the home. The olive trees and native Ironwood trees planted around these spaces soften the rectilinear architecture.
Before the home was built, the lot was almost entirely grass—however now the landscape is composed of desert and native vegetation. It also includes productive gardens of numerous types, including herb and vegetable plantings and citrus and stone fruit groves. These, in combination with the chicken eggs, provide a healthy, local food source.
Photo: Willem-Dirk du Toit
In this home in Venice Beach, California, every interior space is accompanied by an outdoor room. The homeowners often dine on the patio adjacent to the kitchen. The rooms are intimately scaled but feel expansive due to their visual and physical connection to the environment.
A koi moat surround this thatched-roof home—a collaboration between AmDesign Studio and Creative Architects—near Ho Chi Minh City.
The monolithic brick home in Mexico City by Esrawe Studio looks imposing from the street, but its enormous pivoting door opens to a courtyard that feels like a lush oasis.
A new second-floor deck was wrapped in 2020, and at $25,000, a sizeable chunk of the budget. But worth it, considering it makes for a serene spot to sit and soak up the river and forest views. “The sound of the river rushing can’t be beat,” says Devlin.
"The site itself has a generous slope, and the access from the street happens at the lower part," says Manzi. "This was the major challenge—to make the house accessible without disfiguring the site with a road."
The living and dining areas open to a concrete deck overlooking the garden through minimalistic openings in the corrugated-sheet cladding. The expansive decks and verandas at both the front and rear of the home essentially double the living space.
Generous walkways and verandas around the open garage expand the living space outside and connect the two living volumes.
Full-height sliding doors stack back, allowing the living spaces to flow seamlessly from inside to outside. A large deck celebrates the view over Rushcutters Bay and provides an additional dining space for sunny days. A retractable awning can also be extended to protect the space from the elements.
The rear of the garage and studio is fitted with a slatted screen, which creates unique shadows on the stairwell and inside the unit. The outdoor room also benefits from views of the lake and is anchored by a two-sided, white brick fireplace.
The Lew House offers a wealth of outdoor spaces to enjoy, including a patio with a pool.
While brick is what was expected for the neighborhood, Mandel used a brick shingle for the extruded extension that occupies what was originally the side yard.
Emily and Mike created a small courtyard behind the office with custom concrete seating, a stone patio, and a mature tree as the focal point.
Before tackling the house, the couple converted the garage into a separate work space with a long, linear window that echoes that in the main house.
The couple planned out all of the exterior landscaping themselves. "[It was] painstaking, the time spent measuring," says Emily.
A small deck and a custom concrete planter complete the seating area off of the main bedroom.
The house was opened up as much as the budget allowed, with oversized windows and patio doors leading to a terraced deck with a series of seating areas cascading down to the landscaped path.
The second shipping container in the garden is a multipurpose space. In the planting season, for example, it acts as a greenhouse. The family also intends to use it as a creative art/welding studio as the children get older.
"One of Steph’s goals for the project was to connect the interior to the backyard, both visually, and functionally—she is an avid grill master," says Davis. The grill and a fire pit are centerpieces the family uses regularly.
“For the owner, it was important that the exterior require as minimal maintenance as possible,” says architect Hunter Gundersen. “We clad the exterior in metal accordion-panel siding, as it will require little maintenance over many decades. The shadows cast by the panels’ W shape change dramatically with the position of the sun, indicating the time and season by the play of shadow and light.”
The oversized sliding glass wall that leads to the courtyard is one of the defining features of the retreat. “We love how when it’s open, the line between interior and exterior disappears and the house goes from 2,100 square feet to 2,100 acres,” says architect Hunter Gundersen.
Situated on the banks of a small river, the two-level cabin opens to the outdoors via a glass wall and folding glass doors on the rear facade.
They spent a couple months talking through ideas and sharing inspiration from Pinterest: Chris was looking for a muted, Australian-inspired sense of calm. In addition to a refurbished and more livable space, he requested a study, a guest bedroom and master suite, and a large indoor/outdoor space for grilling.
A couple transform their backyard into a botanical children’s playland and an ideal entertaining spot.
Design, Bitches turns a typical Atwater Village home into a lush hideaway with a new, cedar-clad guesthouse.
Located on a 13-acre property filled with meadows and wetlands, this home was once a lackluster complex of three midcentury structures—until vonDalwig Architecture unified them with a carefully considered renovation.
A terrace covered by a pergola runs past the private volume (which contains three bedrooms of equal size and a bathroom on the ground floor) to the covered patio, and down the stairs to the pool.
To protect the home from the sun in the summer, the south facade has less windows and a pergola over the terrace.
“We took some pains to save the tree,” says Humble of the mature cherry tree that was preserved in the redevelopment. “We used it to focus all of our new openings.”
The main house is a white stucco block—really, it couldn’t be more different from this modernist box. “Well, they both have flat roofs,” laughs Zünkeler.
Plenty of opportunities for action await—including this custom skate ramp.
Longan and cherry trees were provide shade for a small sitting area in the backyard.
The pool is just under a foot deep and stretches nearly the full width of the building.
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Whether it's a backyard patio, an infinity pool, or a rooftop terrace, these modern outdoor spaces add to the richness of daily life. Escape into nature, or get lost in city views. Wherever you are, let these outdoor photos take you somewhere new with inspirational ideas for yards, gardens, outdoor tubs and showers, patios, porches, and decks.