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Outdoor Back Yard Side Yard Design Photos and Ideas

Moss-covered rocks and twisted tree trunks give the landscape a fairyland-like quality.
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 homes were designed to maximize the indoor/outdoor experience. “On long weekends, we sit in the garden, invite friends, and make a barbecue. It’s like we’ve gone on holiday without leaving home,” says resident Luca Pagnan.
The rundown barn sat on twenty-five acres of countryside in Devon.
Two new structures were also built in the backyard, and connected to the main house via the landscape plan by Lilyvilla Gardens. One is a 485-square-foot guest house, and the other is a 375-square-foot workshop for the owner, who’s a bike builder. They have the same exterior siding as the main house: rough-sawn tongue and groove cedar.
The U-shaped villas are carefully arranged among the trees and near the lakefront so that nature is the primary focus of the micro resort.
2. "Do I plan on living in the area for three to ten years?" "Markets change. Prices go up and down. If you buy a home with a short-term plan, you may find that your home is worth less than what you paid for it,” says Hoffman. "Remember, real estate is a long-term investment."
Although the exterior material connects the new addition back to the house, it distinguishes itself in form with an arched, load-bearing roof. The high ceilings allow light into the new kitchen, dining, and work spaces.
The back garden is a perfect metaphor for what the couple hoped to achieve with their project. "We feel a part of the city, but there’s still this sense of privacy," says Ali.
"You can see [with] this building how the design is in the small details and at the urban scale," says Cynthia.
While the owners really liked the idea of shou sugi ban, they opted for a more cost-effective black stain. The random-width, reverse board-and-batten siding reflects the wabi-sabi concept. “The builder said the math for the random siding was torturous,” the wife said. “We didn’t know how hard it was to make things look simple.” DeNiord planted hay-scented fern and lowbush blueberry sod around the house. “We didn't want any side of the house to feel unconsidered,” he says. As for the local boulders he placed around the house and terrace, he says, “They give the feeling that the house grew up around the outcroppings.”
A sliding glass door opens onto a terrace.
In accordance with the urban plan by studio Space&Matter, all five piers of the community are interconnected, and neighbors get together to make plans for the plantings.
A cedar deck, built-in bench, and Fermob Costa table and chairs under a new porch roof serve as a year-round dining area.
Michael D'Angelo Landscape Architecture provided a new master plan that includes grassy areas for lawn games, a fire pit, and new plantings.
Even in the chilly evenings, guests spend ample time on the deck thanks to a warming fire pit.
A table and chairs encourage alfresco dining on the deck.
Christoph Kaiser, principal at Kaiserworks, reimagined a 1955 grain silo as a 340-square-foot home in Phoenix, Arizona. The corrugated, steel-clad house is 18 feet in diameter and features a 26-foot-high ceiling and a 17-foot operable slot window that fames views of the city. While the exterior displays a wonderfully industrial aesthetic, the interior is surprisingly cozy. "I wanted a warm interior, almost if you designed Wurlitzer to tend to all human needs and then slid it into one cylinder," says Kaiser, who employed built-in furniture, a spiral staircase, and a mezzanine bedroom with an in-wall projector for the ideal movie-watching experience.
Add/Subtract House by Matt Fajkus Architecture | Photo by Charles Davis Smith
Add/Subtract House by Matt Fajkus Architecture | Photo by Charles Davis Smith
Completed in 2016, Vertical Venice is a 560-square-foot modular addition to an existing 1920s bungalow home. The project was craned in over the original home and installed in just one day.
In Palm Springs, Sander Architects created an energy-efficient hybrid prefab home that’s designed to stay naturally cool in the desert heat, which often climbs to triple digits in the summer.
The lounge deck at the rear yard of Sunset Hills Residence features a swimming pool surrounded by lush gardens. Architect Hsu McCullough's design beautifully merges minimalism with an abundance of nature.
Joel Loblaw, a landscape designer, created "a series of outdoor rooms," including an alfresco kitchen that is sheltered beneath a cedar trellis. The Butterfly chairs are from Fresh Home and Garden in Toronto.
Fields of native grasses connect the main residence, situated at the top of the slope, to the new structures scattered below. A pergola extends from the post-and-beam structure that was maintained during the remodel of the midcentury home.
A level, trellised garapa-wood deck connects the main structure to the pool house. "The arbors near the pool knit everything together," says Mikiten. "The deck is constructed over a drainage pit so the wood surface can be completely flush with the interior floor and the surrounding yard, which is critical for a fluid experience by someone using a wheelchair."
Perched on the northwest coast of Mallorca, S'Estaca offers mesmerizing Mediterranean views.
The stunning estate, known as S'Estaca, is sited on the northwest coast of Mallorca, between the villages of Valldemossa and Deià.
A wooden picnic table is located off one end of the living room, creating a tranquil setting to enjoy alfresco dining while soaking up the sunshine.
Conveniently located in the heart of Vista Las Palmas, the home sits on an expansive 13,504-square-foot corner lot, offering an abundance of outdoor space for entertaining.
Inspired by the surrounding landscape of chestnut trees, rocky hillside, and bubbling stream, Portuguese architecture firm 3r Ernesto Pereira chose to blend into, and take advantage of, the local geography rather than fight against it at this sleek, modern home near the coastal city of Porto. At a cost of €100,000 (approximately $125,000) and measuring about 140 square meters, this stunning, wood-and-glass retreat took about four months to construct.
Water features pepper the gardens throughout.
Gardens surround the stone facade for a softening effect.
Expansive glass doors open onto the main courtyard.
A sunny, California aesthetic shines brightly in the outdoor patio.
Melanie Maher sunbathes beneath the lattice of a pool house, which is clad in Cor-Ten steel.
The central courtyard connects to a raised deck for socializing within easy access to the kitchen.
The courtyard lets the reimagined addition live as a "modernist ruin," with vines encouraged to grow and further blur the boundary between inside and out. The outdoor table and chairs are by Tait.
The master bedroom was raised and cantilevered so as not to disturb the mature oak tree roots. Boulders are used as steps to the lawn.
Sleek Palm Springs House in Palm Springs, California
Nestled at the base of a dramatic rocky butte, a tiny cabin in the woods of Washington blurs the distinction between indoors and out.
The couple source ideas for their garden from their trips to Japan.
The Ex of In House exterior
According to the architects, "the spatial arrangement of the ‘pocket’ courtyards is also driven by environmental concerns: the building is teased apart to maximize winter solar penetration and to capture prevailing cooling breezes."
Much of Roscommon House is single-story. With a total of 5,900 square feet of floor area, its footprint takes up the majority of the lot, so the architects cleverly sowed in green spaces wherever they could.
On the terrace, Air chairs by Jasper Morrison for Magis surround an oak table with black trestle legs. The limestone used to build the original structure was sourced from a quarry less than a half-mile away.
Ravit Dvir Architecture and Design
The architects suggested fitting in a new pool in the yard, much to the delight of the owners' children.
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