Your home is your sanctuary, and that includes the outside as well as inside. Building and creating a patio in your yard can grant you an oasis in your everyday life, where you can enjoy outside with the comforts of the inside. There are so many different patio designs to choose from, and depending on your taste or your intention with your outside space, you’ll be able to find one that fits your lifestyle and your dreams.
Whether you want to create an outdoor space to entertain family and friends, or an oasis to find a bit of tranquility in your busy life, we’ve put together a list of 25 patio layouts. Feel inspired to create an outdoor space that you won’t want to leave right in your own home!
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Gather round the Fire
There’s nothing like gathering around a warm fire in your backyard, surrounded by friends and family, telling stories and reminiscing. Set your patio up in a welcoming circle around a gorgeously constructed firepit. Accent with comfy chairs featuring weather-proof cushions for long nights full of laughter and happiness!
A great setup for families, ripe for roasting marshmallows in an intimate backyard oasis!
Dinner Party and Conversation
If you enjoy hosting parties, set-up your patio for al fresco functions with separate dining and lounging areas. The dining area is close to the entrance, so you can easily shuffle your appetizers and meals out of your kitchen. Then, after filling the bellies of your friends and family, retire to the farther lounge area and light a fire!
The cozy and intimate gathering spot is prime for enjoying the company of your guests long into the night!
Relax and Grill
In this layout, your intimate seating area is closest to your home and opens up to your yard. Enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning or a glass of wine at night. Invite your friends over and fire up the grill in the rear of your patio.
You’ll be able to laugh and talk with your guests as you play grill primary and cook up some delicious steaks! I love cooking and hosting get-togethers, and this layout makes it super easy for me to create an amazing meal while still engaging with my guests!
Platform Patio with a High-Top for a Crowd
When you’re building your patio, create an interesting design by elevating your patio up a level and putting in stairs. This layout features a high-top table with a large umbrella. Add in whicker barstool chairs to evoke an island feel, and sip cocktails with your family as you lord over your backyard!
It feels like you’re on a Carribean island at an outdoor bar, and brings a little bit of paradise to your home!
Intricate Brick Work and Square Firepit
If you’re looking for a cozy way to incorporate a fire pit and gathering area, but want something that’s unique and fits your style, consider building a square firepit instead. This layout features brickwork in different shades, which adds an interesting and unique vibe. The square firepit is unexpected but fits the space nicely.
Add some low wicker chairs and a few large-leaf plants around the retaining wall, and you’ll have yourself a bohemian oasis right in your backyard!
Mosaic Kiddie Corner
No matter what size your backyard is, you can create a patio area that works with your space. This layout features a kiddie corner design, and what makes it special is the mosaic tile flooring. Add a small table with four chairs in the corner, and walk out your sliding door to have coffee al fresco!
The retaining wall keeps your space private from the outside world, and if you’re in a highly-populated area can double as a sound barrier.
Comfort and Relaxation
Instead of putting your patio directly outside your backdoor, create an oasis in the corner of your yard prime for relaxation! This patio layout features an elevated platform, kiddie-cornered in your yard. Walk up the stairs, and step onto the brightly tiled floor of your patio and enter into an outdoor living room! The sectional couch surrounds a convenient coffee table on one side, where you can gather with friends and chat comfortably.
If you’re looking for a little solitude, jump in the hammock with a good book or take a nap, while softly rocking back and forth.
Pergola Outdoor Living Room
Your patio can be an extension of your home! This layout features large marble pavers with varying patterns but cohesive through the same color scheme. The couch and love seat create a comfortable outdoor living room space for you to relax with friends, or sprawl out to get some work done.
The pergola is a great touch, giving you both a bit of sunshine and shade throughout the day, keeping you comfortable. Add some interesting topiaries and flowering bushes along the outside to create privacy and bring a bit of nature into your living room!
Shades of Blue
When it comes to deciding on the type of materials for your backyard patio, you don’t have to stick to neutrals. This outdoor layout creates a stunning look by incorporating shades of blue and grey bricks in varying sizes, seamlessly puzzled together to add an interesting modern flair to your patio oasis. With separate firepit seating and dining, you’ll be able to move around your space and host guests with ease.
The outdoor kitchen kiddie-cornered in the rear keeps you part of the conversation while preparing delicious meals for your guests, while the exterior retaining wall allows you the privacy you crave.
Spanish-inspired Multi-Level
If you dream of Spanish-style courtyards, this patio layout is for you! The multi-level design creates interest, while the brickwork features different sized pieces, intricately put together of varying shades of red and orange. The geometric styling is modern, yet the varying colors make it unique yet cohesive.
Positioning your patio away from your home is like stepping into a whole different world just on the other side of your lawn!
Outdoor Addition
Instead of building out an addition on your home, extend your space by creating an outdoor patio that functions as an additional seating area! The detailed tiling brings your inside out, extending your space and making it feel bigger. The couch and hammock allow for relaxation or gathering of friends for appetizers and wine, especially with a warm summer breeze coming through.
Add an outdoor fireplace or woodburning stove, and enjoy your space even when it gets a bit chilly!
Industrial-Rustic Oasis
Not all backyards need to be ripe with green grass and big trees. This patio layout features a beautiful stained wood platform surrounded by gravel. The contrast of texture and colors creates an interesting and intriguing oasis in your yard.
On top of the patio, add in cozy, light-colored outdoor living room furniture with throw pillows. The contrast of industrial from the gravel, rustic patio and traditional or modern furniture creates an interesting yet surprisingly cohesive design for your outdoor space!
Simple and Manicured
When you’re designing a patio, sometimes less is more. Instead of building out a wood or cement platform, use what you already have and keep your lawn lush and manicured. A post and rail fence around the exterior gives you enough privacy to feel comfortable, but you can still see what’s going on outside your walls.
Keep your landscape design polished and minimal, with a simple tree or topiary in the corner. The real highlight of this patio design is using what you have and keeping it as well maintained and lush as possible.
Extend Your Livingroom Outdoors
This design is taking exactly what you have inside your home and recreating it for the outdoors. The wood flooring is weather treated here, but you wouldn’t know the difference between the outside and inside. This large patio layout gives you enough room to create an intimate living room area on one side, and incorporates a large open space on the other for any activities you’d like to enjoy!
This setup is precise with lines and symmetry, and if that’s important to you, this is the patio for you!
An Elevated View
Imaging entering out your sliding doors onto your deck, made from stained wooden planks, where the overhangs allow you to enjoy the shade when it’s hot and keeps you dry when the weather changes. Walk over to your railing and gaze over your yard and take in the view. An elevated patio brings you above your yard, so you feel like you’re up high.
I love the two different seating options here – one for a cozy conversation with my partner and an area where I can entertain my friends. With enough shade to go around, you, too, can enjoy your outdoor oasis no matter the weather.
Freeform Herringbone
The contrast between the free-form shape of the patio and the geometric herringbone pattern of the bricklaying evokes a playful oasis that seamlessly flows into the greenery of your yard. Keep your greenery and foliage minimal, with a flowerbox and a few smaller plants on one side. A small circular table with a few chairs and an umbrella completes the look.
Retaining Wall Mosaic with Pool
This layout has two main features. The addition of the small, inground pool is relaxing and reflective, while perfect for a quick dip after laying out in the sun! The main intricate feature here, though, is the retaining wall. Created using a mosaic of cement pillars with colored tiles on top and around, functions as a perfect method of privacy, while also creating an interesting and soothing accent to your backyard.
Keep foliage simple, and to add a little shade over the pool on the scorching days. Accent with a table and umbrella combination and your favorite beach lounger!
Grand Entrance Patio
There’s nothing quite like opening double doors and stepping onto a patio oasis! The interesting feature of this design is the use of concrete pavers of varying sizes. While cohesive in color, they evoke a soft patterned effect to your space.
Enclose a seating area with a metal railing for an industrial feel, and line palm trees around it for privacy and shade. With a seating area set up in the corner, you’re ready to bring your guests through the grand entry into your little slice of heaven.
Eclectic Courtyard with Garden
I love the use of square brick pavers as flooring and the contrast to the mosaic style walls and pillars that creates an intimate courtyard in the middle of your home. This sophisticated look uses an eclectic collection of patterns and textures to create a unique space that you may find somewhere in Greece! A simple set of patio furniture, in a tasteful rot iron with scrollwork, adds to this space that’s already full of character.
The central feature of this patio is the garden in the middle – a literal oasis in the middle of your space, full of beautiful flowers and palm trees for shade. Add a fountain for a real European feel!
Modern Simplicity
A simple wooden, whitewashed deck is a perfect way to bring your patio to life. The straight lines are modern and simple, and evoke a timelessness to your space. Keep decor minimal with a few potted plants or a ficus tree in the corner.
The overhang is subtle, with thin supports around the exterior of your space. This enables you to provide shade and protection from the elements without taking away from the views around you.
Outdoor Entertaining
The deep wooden deck with overhang in this patio layout covers the entire backside of your home. The wood gives it a rustic feel while adding white, cozy couches and chairs creates intimate seating areas for your guests to chat and enjoy. A staircase leads you down into your yard so the kids can come and go, while the adults mingle and on your patio enjoying the sunset!
Pergola and Stepping Stones
Using your lawn as the base flooring for this design, the added geometric concrete stepping stones make an interesting contrast against the greenery. The pergola adds another layer of angles from above, casting shadows that accent these lines. To keep it interesting, place a rectangular table underneath with enough seating for your family and guests.
This added contrast works well with the harsh angles and is a nice unexpected addition to an otherwise angular space.
Minimalist Reflection Area
The wooden slats placed throughout the gravel in this layout evokes a feeling of tranquility like you’re entering a meditative space. The central piece here is a small circular wading pool or koi pond, where you can dip your toes and breathe in the serenity around you. Place a bench for meditation and reflection, and accent the area with a rock garden and succulents to bring the meditative spirit and tranquility to your outdoor space.
It’s minimal and serene all at the same time.
Serene Retreat
If you’re ever experienced a peace garden, this layout is for you! An in-ground reflection pool with waterfall brings the sounds of nature alive in your yard. Crushed stone with wooden planks as stepping stones allows you to create a cohesive area while also allowing you to walk barefoot.
Build out a gorgeous elevated garden box around the outside of your reflection pool and plant tropical foliage like palms and ferns, along with some bright colored flowers to give it a little bit of character. This oasis will be your secret garden right in your own home.
Classic Details
Elevate a simple brick patio by creating a herringbone design. The rectangular patio area is broken up by the angled bricks, but when they’re all the same color keeps it cohesive while adding interest. Add couches, chairs, and coffee tables for enjoying the company of friends al fresco, and a lounge chair to soak up the sun and get your tan on!
Keep foliage simple with a few ficus trees in the corners, and you’ve got a simple patio design with just the right amount of flair!
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