Whether you are looking for your first home or want to give your current property a facelift, there are endless ways to bring unique touches to both your outdoor and indoor space.
It begins with an evaluation of your needs. Is your family growing or are you downsizing? Does a new business venture necessitate a home office? Want to convert an extra bedroom into a personal gym? Are you looking to revolutionize your home’s current layout? Need a fresh take on a dated design element?
If you’re looking for extra space, then demolishing a wall or expanding out into your backyard will transform your home. Both options will reveal new space you never thought you had.
Taking down a wall is a tricky prospect unless you hire licensed and insured contractors. So perhaps you consider capitalizing on the area that surrounds your home. It’s interesting that while our ancient ancestors migrated in, modern families are migrating out. Technology has a great deal to do with the ways today’s families utilize their home’s square footage.
For example, many families in the early 50s had one black and white television that was typically placed in the living room. Friends and neighbors would gather closely around to join in watching their favorite shows. Dinner was generally served in the dining room.
Eventually, the use of formal living and dining rooms gave way to the contemporary family room. A multi-purpose space, these often feature built-in audio and video technologies including home theater systems, fireplaces, wet bars, and pool tables, as well as cozy relaxation niches with club chairs and ottomans.
In newer home construction, family rooms are designed adjacent to open kitchens that reveal breakfast nooks and casual dining bars to make the most of these gathering hubs.
It seems the more wireless we become, the more we have branched out beyond the family room’s sliding doors to the backyard! The extraordinary advances in outdoor amenities make all that space viable square footage to add to your home.
Backyard swimming pools were just the start. They are now surrounded by luxuries that come in all shapes and sizes:
- Gazebos
- Hot tubs
- Sound systems
- Projection screens
- Aromatherapy systems
- LED lighting design
- Fire bowls, fountains, and waterfalls
- Hardscaping to accent and define
- Paver designs
- Lagoons
- Outdoor kitchens
- Pizza ovens
- Tiki huts
- Firepits
- Motorized screens and sun sails
- Multi-tiered decks
- Swim-up bars
- Infinity pools
With WiFi and Bluetooth, you can live the good life outside while remaining connected to everything you need. Cell phone apps help manage pool settings and transmit maintenance alerts. You are good to go — running the world from your chaise lounge!
We are experiencing a renaissance in backyard design. Today’s homeowners are creating new al fresco hearths for their homes. Now they can fabricate what they dream and do so over a spectrum of price points.
If you love the great outdoors and your home, it can be gratifying to conceive and complete a DIY project.
The Do’s and Don’ts of DIYs
The two cardinal rules of these efforts are:
- Safety first.
- Have the right tools for the right job.
Whether you need goggles or gloves or both, never skip this important step in protecting yourself from harm. And if neither goggles nor gloves are needed, then you should still always go with some sunscreen to keep your skin shielded from the sun’s harmful rays.
If you don’t have the right tools for the job, rent them from your local home store. It will cost you a fraction of what a purchase will for an implement you may not use more than this one time.
Through a customer-service driven company like Lyon Financial, you can find financing options for all the big jobs like outdoor kitchens and brick pizza ovens.
But there are affordable (and do-able!) touches you can add in an afternoon that make a statement while enhancing your outdoor space.
DIY Trellises Add Architectural Interest
Backyard Boss serves up some amazing (and easy to execute) garden trellises. They are no longer just lattices of painted wood to train trails of roses. Today’s trellises are sleek and chic and even sustainable.
Planter Trellises
We are fans of planters in outdoor décor because they can frame a pool or a patio. We’re even bigger fans of the fact that you can easily relocate them when you want to change things up. Check out your home improvement store for smaller structures like decorative cages and mini stained-glass accents that can be staked into the planter soil. Hardy ivy will flourish when it’s trained up and around the sections for a dimensional display.
Wall Trellises
If your garage borders your backyard, that big, boring wall can be integrated into your yard’s design aesthetic. You can create what are essentially window boxes on the ground by making rectangular containers from bricks or flat stones at the base of the garage wall. Fill those newly formed boxes with dirt and plants. Affix flat lattice to the wall to support your blooms or vines and you’ll have created a vibrant mural!
Pergola with Bench Trellises
If you’re feeling a little more ambitious, backyard pergolas are structures that form a shaded walkway or outdoor corridor. You will find a wide assortment of pergola kits that will allow you to construct these more permanent fixtures. Often boasting benches supported by the vertical posts, these constructs may have latticed sides that can be dressed in flowering plants. Ornamental yet practical, pergola kits are available to suit any budget.
Recycled Trellises
Since your backyard garden is a celebration of life, it is the ideal venue to use recycled materials to support that life. For a sustainable approach to trellises, Backyard Boss suggests a collection of old bicycle tire rims to form an interesting lattice. A row of three or four can be buried halfway in the earth while another row can be wired across the top to form an interesting web. Before you clean out your garage next time, take a second look at what can be transformed into an interesting framework to showcase your garden.
There are plenty of television networks and programs to indulge your DIY cravings. Treat your imagination to a backyard that is a one-of-a-kind destination. Like the pride of ownership you feel for your home, when you put your indelible stamp on your backyard retreat, you’ll appreciate it even more!
Providing pool and home improvement financing solutions since 1979, Lyon Financial loves backyard pools and DIY projects. We also love the difference we can make for your family by providing something that puts years of memories within reach. Call 877-754-5966 for more information about our personalized financing solutions.
