60 Designer Patio Ideas for Backyard Living All Year Long

A faux-bois table (Diane Husson) plays off the natural beauty surrounding the dining terrace at architect Paul Bates's Birmingham cottage. Chinese Chippendale chairs (Hall Bradley for Brown Jordan) echo the patterns of trellis which are often seen in gardens.

Washington, D.C.-based designer Byron Risdon envisioned the lush patio at the Kips Bay Decorator Show House in Dallas as an entertaining haven. In the primary seating area, Risdon replaced the existing fireplace with Strike’s Laguna stone mantel and created a conversational pit with crescent sofas upholstered in a woven salmon-and-cream acrylic fabric by Perennials.

A larger-than-life glazed ceramic and lava stone mural by Michelle Grabner animates the inviting patio at this art collector's Florida retreat designed by Ellen Hamilton.

Designer Summer Thornton pulled inspiration from the courtyards of New Orleans for the playful patio at her Chicago townhouse. The black and white floor features stone (Exquisite Surfaces) sourced from quarries in cold parts of northern China and Europe.

Esther Cayzer-Colvin drew inspiration from her own family when it came time to decorate the indoor and outdoor rooms of her English estate. For example, the dining set on her garden patio was passed down by Cayzer-Colvin's grandmother Nancy Lancaster, the influential post-war Anglo-American designer and co-owner at Colefax and Fowler.

At this Napa Valley family retreat, designer Dan Fink and architect Carl Baker of Ike Kligerman Barkley extended the living space by adding a pergola-covered gravel dining patio just off the great room. Striped cushions (fabric by Perennials) outfit the seating around a custom iron-and-teak dining table.

When designers Jeffry Weisman and and Andrew Fisher first discovered their San Miguel de Allende home, they were struck by the patio garden's cool, dappled light and and gentle, splashing outdoor fountains. Here, custom urns flank the entrance to a magical middle garden.

At designers Jeffry Weisman and Andrew Fisher's home in San Miguel de Allende, a series of sinuous bronze-tone nesting tables on the garden patio is set for Christmas dinner. Spheres of greenery and florals shroud electrified chandeliers overhead, strung from the jacaranda trees. Tables and teak Klismos chairs, Fisher Weisman Collection

Built in 1840, this London rowhouse recently redesigned by Gary McBournie features an expansive urban patio in the back. Custom latticework garden mirrors flank the terrace’s stone fountain, adding symmetry and the illusion of depth. Furnishings, McKinnon and Harris

At this Ross, California, home, landscape designer Erica Timbrell carved out extra poolside seating with the addition of a patio under a canopy of California redwoods. A teak sectional commands the stone-wrapped alcove.

At the 2021 Kips Bay Decorator Show House Dallas, designer Ken Fulk took inspiration for the courtyard patio off of his study, where a trio of classical figures surrounds a commanding armillary as Fulk's homage to the three fates—Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos—and the rites of spring. The settee is trimmed in sapphire fringe and red cord trim, both by Perennials.

At her new home in Sonoma, California, Chairish co-founder and president Anna Brockway sets a "classic California table," alive with organic craft and and electric color—and of course layered with vintage finds. Tablecloth, lisacorti.com

At this Pebble Beach, California, home designed by Mary McDonald, a stone firepit anchors an expansive patio overlooking the Pacific. Furniture, Janus et Cie

At the 2020 Kips Bay Decorator Show House Dallas, designer Kevin Spearman treated his covered patio space "like an indoor room without walls," making sure to furnish it with luxurious comforts and a collected mix. Highlights include a vintage Moroccan rug from Carol Piper made by the Tuareg tribe, 1940s French wicker chairs from Galerie Novella, and the vintage wicker Parisian light fixtures from fellow Show House designer M Naeve.

On a brick-paved patio in Hancock Park’s historic Fremont Place, designers and VERANDA 2022 Next Legends Ron Woodson and Jaime Rummerfield capture the essence of the home’s early mid-century DNA with a Regency barkcloth table covering from the same era and a vintage Salterini garden dining set. “The home was built by 1940s architect Clarence J. Smale, who was known for his brickwork and plaster-finished estates and movie theaters, including the Loyola Theater on Sepulveda Boulevard,” says Rummerfield.

At this Nashville, Tennessee, home designed by Richard Hallberg, a bluestone patio is one of several places designed for outdoor entertaining. Intimate dinners by the fire are served at a French limestone table with a shapely urn base. Furniture, Formations.

Designer Meredith McBrearty collaborated with architect Ryan Street on this Dallas home, which features seamless transitions between indoor spaces and the outdoor living spaces. Here, native dry-stack limestone from Leuders, Texas, cloaks the newly built house in sculptural, organic beauty. Douglas fir ceiling paneling extends from indoors out, stretching across the home’s deep overhangs to create a covered patio. Lounge chairs, Sutherland. Cushion fabric, Perennials

At this West Hollywood home, landscape architect Anna Hoffman designed a simple stucco fountain along one side of the sunken dining patio to drown out noise from the nearby street, creating an utterly transportive effect using very little square footage.

At this Birmingham home designed by architect Paul Bates and designer Melanie Pounds, a cocktail patio extends off the butler’s pantry, at the ready for refills. Wicker chairs, Patina.

In the inner courtyard patio of this Santa Monica home, landscape architect installed Forest Pansy trees, known for their early spring, pink blossoms, at the corners of this stone patio featuring a 13th-century well reclaimed as a firepit.