Backyard Living: From Design to Reality

Join us for a tour of our backyard living space, which features a fire pit, patio, conversation set, and landscaping design, all nestled in the scenic Green Mountains of Vermont.

10 Backyard Living Ideas

Creating a backyard living space is a wonderful way to extend your living area and enjoy the outdoors. Here are some ideas to help you create a functional and inviting backyard living space:

The key to creating a backyard living space is to make it functional, comfortable, and reflective of your personal style. Consider your lifestyle, needs, and preferences when designing your outdoor oasis. With the right elements, your backyard can become a true extension of your living area where you can relax, entertain, and enjoy the beauty of nature.

Our Backyard Living Design

Our backyard living design was a long time in the making. We are blessed to have a gorgeous view of the Green Mountains at our home in Vermont. Therefore, our goal was to create a backyard living area that we could enjoy outside three seasons out of the year.

It is a place for our friends, family, and neighbors to join us in gathering, conversing, dining, and fully enjoying our great outdoors.

Outdoor Fire Pit

First, we set out to create a cozy ambiance by adding an outdoor fire pit. We chose to go with the Outdoor Greatroom Vintage Square Gas Fire Pit Table. Because of the vast openness of our backyard living space, we opted for a gas fire pit that houses a propane tank so we can easily turn the fire on and off at our leisure. This also allows for a smoke-free environment for our outdoor gatherings. We couldn’t be happier with this option.

No more…

Buying firewood,

Collecting firewood,

Wrestling with the wind and the weather,

Or those yucky smokey clothes…

Backyard Living Furniture

I really wanted to invest in comfortable and cozy backyard living seating to surround our new fire pit. We chose the Front Gate Pasadena conversation set in blue—and we couldn’t love it more! This conversation set is versatile, weather-resistant, and oh-so-comfortable. And the blue cushions are a true show-stopper next to the Green Mountains and blue skies.

Outdoor Furniture Covers

The conversation set is now three years old, and I’m often asked how we keep it looking so new. When the furniture is not in use, we cover it with these Universal Furniture Covers, which are also available from Front Gate. Definitely worth the investment!

Patio Design Backyard Living

To create a safe space for the fire pit, we hired a local stone mason to lay out a stone patio for us. The backyard living patio design is circular, with plenty of room for people to sit, gather, dine, and easily mingle about. See more of this project in action in the Outdoor Living: Patio and Fire Pit Design post.

Backyard Living From Design to Reality

From Backyard Living Design

Designing and adding this stone patio, gas fire pit, and conversation set gave us an enjoyable backyard living and decorative space for all to enjoy. Don’t forget to check out the Outdoor Living: Patio and Fire Pit Design post for all the design details.

To Our Backyard Living Near Me Reality

Today, this backyard living space has comfortable seating, a dining area, and beautiful landscaping. The design incorporates a cozy seating arrangement with outdoor sofas, storage, and a warming, smoke-less fire pit, all with a beautiful landscape design.

Comfort and Relaxation

This backyard living space also has elements that promote comfort and relaxation. For added coziness, I’ve included my mother’s handmade quilt to match the beautiful blue seating.

MacKenzie-Childs

In partnership with MacKenzie-Childs, I created this backyard living space to showcase their Sterling Check outdoor enamelware for the best in outdoor living. See more in the Summer Desserts with MacKenzie-Childs Check Designs post.

Backyard Living Gatherings

We have enjoyed numerous outdoor neighborhood gatherings around our new beloved backyard living space. It has quickly become the centerpiece of our little neighborhood. We have met so many new neighbors, and we wave them in to join us as they walk by.

A Simple Neighborhood Gathering

Join us around the fire pit during one of our impromptu late-season neighborhood gatherings in the Unseasonably Warm in November, A Simple Neighborhood Gathering post.

You may also enjoy the post, 17 Fall Decor Fire Pit Ideas for a Cozy Gathering post.

If you are looking for something to warm up to this winter, check out the Wood Pellet Outdoor Heater: Why Big Timber Stove post!

Backyard Living Landscaping Ideas

Now that we have completed our patio, fire pit, and furniture projects, it was time to move on to some new landscaping to complete our backyard living area. Carefully choosing plants that would withstand our harsh elements yet add color and charm to this outdoor living space.

Plants of Choice

In December, we planted a semi-mature Lilac Tree, a Hydrangea Tree, and two Winterberry bushes to surround the fire pit patio space. These flowering plants will allow me to cut the blooms and bring them indoors for beautiful bouquets.

Did you know that landscapers plant well into December here in Vermont? And in the snow, too…

Each plant will add a seasonal color coordinating with the blue and green colors of the sky and mountains.

The Winterberry bushes, with their red berries, will bloom beautifully against winter’s white blanket of snow.

Backyard Flower Mound

We also added a mound of flowers to the right of our patio and fire pit. The mound adds vibrant coloring in the warmer seasons, and the natural tall grass and a few large boulders bring texture to the snowy landscape during the winter.

You may also enjoy this Refreshing Weekend Junket Home to Vermont post to see more of this fire pit today as we are continuously updating and enjoying this backyard living space.

4 Stone Steps

Next, we wanted to add stone steps that would lead down from our home to this backyard living space. We hired the same local stone mason who built our fire pit patio to build these into our little hill, and the steps now look like they have been there for generations.

In the summer, each large stone step is surrounded by chinoiserie pots with white geranium accents. You may also enjoy these Blue and White Chinoiserie Pots with Evergreens post.

And here, you can see how the fire pit patio appears with the protective covers in place.

Split Rail Fence

And we didn’t stop there! The next project we added to this backyard living space was a split rail fence, which adds depth to our mountain views and is another landscape accent to decorate with throughout the seasons. You can see more in the Split Rail Fencing: Low Costs, Big Impact post.

You may see more of Our Year-Round Vermont Mountain Views here.

You may also enjoy seeing The Biggest Red Birdhouse and How to Easily Mount It post.

Backyard Living Cost

This fire pit patio backyard living project took about two years to complete, mainly because we tackled it all during the pandemic. Adding a backyard living area is an investment and something we and you can and will enjoy for years to come. The estimated cost of this total project was around $20K, with the majority of the cost going into the stone patio, steps, and landscaping. And if you read the first of these two-part posts, we also removed a great deal of landscaping, which added to our overall costs.

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*If you want to purchase the gas fire pit, it has been out of stock for some time. Therefore, I have provided you with three purchasing options.