Garden & Patio Decorating Ideas

Furniture

• Your private garden area or patio should have some type of furniture to make it enjoyable. The style of furniture you use in your outdoor environment influences how you decorate the rest of the space. Your garden and patio furniture establishes a theme. White wicker and white-painted, slated wood furniture invoke an old-fashioned English garden. Pine furniture, bent willow, rustic benches and hammocks lend themselves to a casual environment. Matching table and chairs for outdoor living can, depending on the style, set the stage for a Mediterranean, Italian or Asian garden or patio theme.

Privacy

• If you need to create privacy from neighboring yards or streets, erect lattice boards on the exposed sides of the area. Cover with quick-growing vines, such as grapes, trumpet, jasmine or wisteria. Arbors with climbing roses or other blooming vines provide an aesthetically pleasing privacy screen in a garden, as do hedges and bushes or long, narrow planters with tall, thick bamboo.

Plants and Containers

• Using planters and plant containers that accent or carry out the theme of your garden and patio decorations completes the outdoor environment. Group several pots of various sizes and shapes containing complimentary flowers, or hang planters from beams or tree limbs. Colorful old teapots, coffee pots and kitchen pots, old shoes and boots, baskets, wooden boxes, or old toy trucks and cars make unusual and fun containers for plants.

Lighting

• If you plan to enjoy your garden or patio in the evening hours, or simply want to accent the area at night, the type and style of lighting you select should match your established theme. Do not overlook using candles and candle holders to provide light. Float small tea-light candles in bowls of colored water, or place candles of various sizes in glass cylinders to provide lighting.

Statues and Fountains

• To add interest and a personal touch, include statues, figurines or fountains to your outdoor retreat. Small animal or elf statues and figurines tucked among plants and containers are charming. A fountain delights the senses with the sound of trickling water. You can now buy fountains that recycle water continuously and take up little space, yet invoke a tranquil atmosphere.