Too cold to spend time outside because you have no usable outdoor spaces? There’s a definite chill in the air letting us know that winter is just around the corner and with that, you may feel you have to hibernate inside until Spring. But, there’s no need to abandon your outdoor spaces, especially when improvements in outdoor design mean you can keep using your outside entertaining areas without feeling the cold.
The key to winter-proofing your backyard is to create indoor/outdoor spaces that help insulate the cold, generate heat, and provide cosy, inviting spaces to enjoy your view and fresh air.
Outdoor spaces are great for personal relaxation, family time, and group gatherings. The right features and landscape design allow you to enjoy your space during the cooler months. Here are a few tips from our Fresh Perspective Landscape design team on how to “winter-proof” your garden and create usable outdoor spaces.
Create Shelter for Usable Outdoor Spaces
Installing a pergola or veranda will offer you shelter from the elements all year round and offers the space to make an outdoor living room. It also gives you the opportunity to add many more winter-proofing additions to your outdoor spaces such as clear or tinted café blinds, to insulate the space from the winter chill.
Improve your Lighting
Sunlight hours reduce every day as we approach the winter solstice and you find yourself relocating indoors where it’s bright and warm. Incorporating warm, cosy and tasteful lighting in your outside spaces will entice you back outdoors.
You can create actual flames using bamboo torches, lanterns, or with a fire pit (but more on that below). Or, string fairy lights across the ceiling for a warm, festive look and place lights at various heights for a more balanced, layered effect.
Heat your Outdoor Spaces
If you’ve got the pergola and the café blinds, you can begin to warm your space without suffering much heat loss selecting from a whole range of outdoor heaters from electric and gas patio heaters to chimeneas.
Fire Pits
But if you really want to impress and add a cosy ambience – the fire pit is the way to go. Everyone loves a good bonfire, and the fire pit doesn’t just provide heat – it’s a focal point for people to gather around and you can place a grill over it and BBQ or enjoy toasting some marshmallows.
Install a Spa
You may think a spa is a crazy suggestion for cold winter temperatures, but when that water is heated to 35+ degrees, suddenly everyone is keen! As a result, spas are in fact best enjoyed on a slightly chilly day, when the warm, bubbling water soothes your chilly bones.
Build a Pizza Oven
Pizza ovens are a sought-after addition to the outdoor kitchen space and your friends will be envious when you cook up gourmet delights in your new wood-fired pizza oven. Pizza ovens are quite a large addition to your outdoor spaces, look for ways to incorporate it with existing design element or house architecture so it blends in with the surrounding space.
Add Cosy Décor
Finally, you have all the structures in place for winter outdoor entertaining but if you don’t have comfy, all-weather furniture and décor to tempt you outdoors all your efforts will have been for nothing. Decor in outdoor spaces is easily changed with the seasons, so pack away the summer pastels and bring out the winter warm-coloured, textured cushions and pillows and several thick throws for your guests to snuggle up in.
Create Usable Outdoor Spaces
If you are looking to add usable outdoor spaces to your home that your family can enjoy year-round, Luke from Fresh Perspective Landscapes can help. Luke can renovate your current outdoor spaces to meet your needs with custom designed landscape plans.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can make your dream outdoor space a reality.