Landscape Design
9 Stylish Side Yard Seating Areas
These inspiring designs offer ideas for making the most of a skinny outdoor space by creating a lounge or dining area
It’s easy to overlook the side yard, or move it down the priority list, in a landscape renovation. Though extra-tight side yards may have room for a path and not much more, slightly wider spaces can become a destination in their own right with the addition of lush plants, attractive lighting and a spot to sit. The following nine intimate seating nooks, lounges and outdoor dining setups offer ideas for giving new life to a side yard or any narrow outdoor space.
2. Small-Space Maximization
This compact home in San Diego takes full advantage of its exterior space. Brookside Design helped transform the side yard into a spacious outdoor living area, complete with kitchen, lounge and dining spot. The calming gray, blue and white color palette ties in with the house colors and keeps the small space from feeling cluttered.
This compact home in San Diego takes full advantage of its exterior space. Brookside Design helped transform the side yard into a spacious outdoor living area, complete with kitchen, lounge and dining spot. The calming gray, blue and white color palette ties in with the house colors and keeps the small space from feeling cluttered.
3. Bench With a View
Flanked by snowy white hydrangeas and lush green hedges, these double benches outside a home in Tuscany invite the visitor to stop and linger. The pathway’s gentle curve also helps visually break up the narrow yard, drawing one’s eyes through the space rather than straight down to the end. Banks of blue and white agapanthus further soften the side yard’s edges.
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Flanked by snowy white hydrangeas and lush green hedges, these double benches outside a home in Tuscany invite the visitor to stop and linger. The pathway’s gentle curve also helps visually break up the narrow yard, drawing one’s eyes through the space rather than straight down to the end. Banks of blue and white agapanthus further soften the side yard’s edges.
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4. Calming Water
The sound of running water in a water feature can help mask the noise of air-conditioning units, traffic or other nearby nuisances. For this narrow backyard and side yard in Washington, D.C., landscape architect Jennifer Horn included a water feature with a waterfall and a rectangular rill filled with pebbles to help transform the patio space into a tranquil retreat.
The sound of running water in a water feature can help mask the noise of air-conditioning units, traffic or other nearby nuisances. For this narrow backyard and side yard in Washington, D.C., landscape architect Jennifer Horn included a water feature with a waterfall and a rectangular rill filled with pebbles to help transform the patio space into a tranquil retreat.
5. Italian-Inspired Terrace
In this side yard outside a Mediterranean-style home by Jon Eric Christner Architect in Orange County, California, a metal trellis frames the view of a bench in the corner of the property, while a rustic metal bench in the foreground provides seating in the sun-dappled shade of an olive tree. Fragrant rosemary and vibrant roses lining the flagstone walkway complete the look of this romantic side yard.
In this side yard outside a Mediterranean-style home by Jon Eric Christner Architect in Orange County, California, a metal trellis frames the view of a bench in the corner of the property, while a rustic metal bench in the foreground provides seating in the sun-dappled shade of an olive tree. Fragrant rosemary and vibrant roses lining the flagstone walkway complete the look of this romantic side yard.
6. Beachy Blues
Garden designer Molly Wood created two distinct outdoor living spaces in the side yard and back corner of this home, also in Orange County. An outdoor kitchen and bar slots into the patio adjacent to the home, while a shaded L-shaped sofa anchors the corner of the yard. A sleek pebble-and-concrete walkway, bordered by hedges and feathery asparagus ferns, links the two areas.
Garden designer Molly Wood created two distinct outdoor living spaces in the side yard and back corner of this home, also in Orange County. An outdoor kitchen and bar slots into the patio adjacent to the home, while a shaded L-shaped sofa anchors the corner of the yard. A sleek pebble-and-concrete walkway, bordered by hedges and feathery asparagus ferns, links the two areas.
7. Tropical Corner
Placing a single modern seat in this tropical side yard instantly transforms the space from an area to be admired to one that beckons to be joined. The side yard sits adjacent to a modernist-style Sydney home designed by architect George Reeves (remodeled by Luigi Rosselli Architects), and the swooping lines of the chair are the perfect complement.
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Placing a single modern seat in this tropical side yard instantly transforms the space from an area to be admired to one that beckons to be joined. The side yard sits adjacent to a modernist-style Sydney home designed by architect George Reeves (remodeled by Luigi Rosselli Architects), and the swooping lines of the chair are the perfect complement.
Shop for outdoor lounge chairs on Houzz
8. Generous Lounge
If you’re lucky enough to have an expansive side yard, take a cue from this Seattle home and treat it as a bonus outdoor living room. Here, a private patio offers an alternative gathering spot to the main outdoor entertaining deck. Frothy white hydrangeas and evergreen boxwoods planted around the patio edge will fill in to provide more privacy and give the space more definition.
If you’re lucky enough to have an expansive side yard, take a cue from this Seattle home and treat it as a bonus outdoor living room. Here, a private patio offers an alternative gathering spot to the main outdoor entertaining deck. Frothy white hydrangeas and evergreen boxwoods planted around the patio edge will fill in to provide more privacy and give the space more definition.
9. Stylish Screens
Leafy vines and decorative metal screens turn property fences into a design feature in this side yard seating area by Shades of Green Landscape Architecture. The design also features uplights at the base of each screen that illuminate them at night and create a pleasant ambiance for the outdoor dining table.
Leafy vines and decorative metal screens turn property fences into a design feature in this side yard seating area by Shades of Green Landscape Architecture. The design also features uplights at the base of each screen that illuminate them at night and create a pleasant ambiance for the outdoor dining table.
Your turn: Have you put your side yard to use? Show us in the Comments.
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25 Ideas to Perk Up Your Side Yard
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More on Houzz
25 Ideas to Perk Up Your Side Yard
Find a landscape designer
Shop for outdoor products
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This outdoor dining patio sits just steps away from the kitchen in what was once an unused side yard of a Chicago home. The designers of the space, Architectural Gardens, replaced the existing narrow stairs with wider, more gracious steps made of weather-durable ipe for a more inviting connection between the home and patio. The bluestone patio spans the width of the side yard, providing space to accommodate a grill (out of the picture) and dining table.
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