Outdoor space is living space! Use your yard as a place for family and friends to relax, escape, and gather outdoors. Better Homes & Gardens Outdoor Living is packed with budget -friendly makeovers that turn patios, decks, and front porches into livable rooms with ambience. Plus, up your style factor with DIY projects for next-level firepits, furniture, and outdoor parties.
Masthead
Time To Dream
Porch Refresh • They might be outside, but just like indoor rooms, porches benefit from a thoughtful color scheme. The trick is to choose a palette—paint, furnishings, and potted plants—that coordinates with your home’s exterior color while subtly telegraphing your style.
Fired Up • A firepit or perfect outdoor coffee table? You choose. Build this firepit-table combo in an afternoon, and make it the centerpiece of a hardworking backyard retreat.
Outdoor Ambience • Even if you have a vacation plan hatched, your yard is the spot where you and your kids will be chilling most of the summer. Luckily, there are simple ways to transform your outdoor space into a family staycation at its best. Try a few of these yard improvements and let the laid-back vibes commence.
Re-deck-orating Secrets • Stylist Jennifer DeCleene shares the design tricks, easy DIY projects, and simple add-ons that make up her photo-ready outdoor space.
Welcome Garden • This front yard garden invites everyone to sit and relax.
Living Easy • Outdoor entertaining season is here. This super simple party theme, centered around a DIY concrete bar, capitalizes on fast setup and colorful projects to allow for max time spent in the sun.
Ready, Set, Retreat • Everybody needs a private place outdoors where they can steal away for a little while.
Saved By Stencils • A seasoned home remodeler and DIYer finds a budget revamp for a drab outdoor space. Her stenciled concrete patio paved the way for a stylish sitting area.
Exterior Refresh • Using his own cottage as an example, real estate expert Adam Widener shares his top tips for boosting the character of outside spaces.
Sweet Spot • Whether soaking in the sun or gazing at the stars, this petite perch is the perfect outdoor retreat.
Water-savvy Garden Plan • Embracing twin challenges of too much rain and not enough, Austin garden blogger Pam Penick finds beauty in growing tough native and adapted plants.
If You Build It • Make your backyard the place the whole family flocks to for dining and lounging when you outfit it with DIY furniture.
Backyard Bliss • Small-scale projects net a huge transformation in this young family’s tiny townhouse backyard, providing the at-home lifestyle they’ve dreamed of.
Garden Gatherings • She dreamed about it. He helped build it. Together this creative couple fashioned a greenhouse that doubles as a family retreat surrounded by flowers.
What’s The Use • Redefine a shed’s role with decorating touches that give your outdoor living space new purpose, be it a guest room, an office space, or a place to relax or play.
About Face • Maria Charbonneaux shares how she upgraded a lackluster exterior with a few cost-effective DIY weekend projects.
Take A Seat • Keep your patio furniture looking great for years with easy maintenance tips.
