I have partnered with Raymour & Flanigan and received product in exchange for this post. This post also contains affiliate links. All opinions are always 100% my own. Full disclosure here.
When we moved into our 1902 Victorian, everything was a mess. Inside and outside. We’ve spent the past 1 1/2 years making the inside our home, and now we’re turning our attention to the outside.
After moving in, we quickly realized that we were going to need to fence in our yard. We live in town, and we are on a corner lot. Our yard is longer and narrower, and we weren’t able to use it too much until we defined it with a fence. We lived with it fenced in and unfurnished for a summer, but this summer we were ready to make it a more functional space.
Here’s my tips for how to make your yard a functional space (video version of these tips at the end of the post!)
- Define your yard’s boundaries
- We did this with a fence, but you could do this with landscaping if you don’t need the practical aspects of a fence.
- Divide it into zones
- Instead of putting everything in one place, space out furnishings throughout your yard. This provides a comfortable, welcoming vibe for your family and guests.
- Give each zone a purpose
- We broke ours into a few seating areas, one that was in heavy shade, one that had a table & fire pit, and one that had storage for toys. We put our plant stand next to our hose
- Make it fit the style of your home
- You don’t want to add modern furniture to a cottage-style exterior – it just wouldn’t look right!
- We just don’t have a natural place for a picnic table
- Consider the space you have
- I’d love to have an outdoor sectional or a bigger picnic table, but it just wouldn’t easily fit in our yard. It would look and feel forced, which isn’t what you want for your outdoor space.
- Make it work for your family
- We have little kids and a dog, so a fence was a natural fit for our yard for obvious reasons.
- I chose a bench with storage because we needed something for my son’s outdoor toys.
Here’s how we added these tips to our yard:
I chose this bench because of the weathered gray look and for the storage function. It’s amazing to be able to have my son easily clean up before we go inside – and he opens it up as soon as he runs outside!
We put our tiered plant stand next to it, and also next to our hose. I have a hard time keeping plants alive – I’m hoping this convenience will help!
Further down our yard, we have this incredible flowering dogwood. We had to rip out a bunch of overgrown bushes and failing trees on our property, but we were left with a beautiful dogwood and our weeping willow.
We chose this spot for our fire pit – I cannot wait for the weather to get warmer so we can use this space!
We don’t have a great space for a table in our backyard, so we got this table to give us a surface outdoors. These chairs are so stylish – I seriously love them! Everything in this space is from Raymour & Flanigan, and I have been so happy with everything we’ve received. The chairs took us a little while to put together, but once we figured it out, we haven’t been able to stop hanging out in them. Isaac was so excited to set up our sitting area after he “helped” me put the chairs together:
To add one more touch of functionality to our yard, we got this stool that doubles as seating and a surface:
Product sources:
- Gray Storage Bench
- Outdoor pillows
- Coin stool
- Tiered plant stand
- Set of 2 Chairs
- Copper fire pit
- Tray table
Be sure to see more of our outdoor area here!
Sign up for my free monthly e-mail newsletter at the end of this post
I have partnered with Raymour & Flanigan and received product in exchange for this post. All opinions are always 100% my own.
The post How to make your yard a functional space appeared first on Christinas Adventures.