It’s Sunday night. Your friends are coming over for a barbeque – and you find your backyard looking a little bare. You rush to set up a few chairs from inside your house and hope that’ll be enough.

It doesn’t have to be this way. While interior design can demand plenty of attention from homeowners year-round, it’s all too easy for our garden design to fall to the wayside. Especially during the winter months. But as we emerge into spring and summer, it’s finally time to pull out some outdoor benches, add some outdoor lighting, and position your grill and other outdoor hosting amenities so that you can throw some open-air shindigs.

To help you in your quest for designing the perfect garden space for hosting, we’ve compiled this guide that outlines all the staples of any great Aussie BBQ-worthy backyard. Read on to help guide you in your own garden design planning.

Add some outdoor seating

Just because you’re outside doesn’t mean you’ll always be doing something active. Sometimes, you just want to sit down and read while enjoying the sun against your skin. Adding some outdoor seating like deck chairs or benches are a simple way to create a more comfortable backyard.

There’s a huge variety of outdoor benches out there, and at all price points. You can choose to keep it simple with white- or brown-painted wooden benches, or add some luxury to your yard with black iron benches. Find a bench that matches your backyard’s overall look. It goes without saying, you’ll also want your benches to be as comfortable as possible.

You could even go a more whimsical route and add a variety of different seating options to suit all your guests. Why not string up a hammock between two trees? Or add some Moroccan-style floor cushions around your garden, or even picnic blankets – for those who want to lay out in the sunshine. You can even set up an outdoor bar complete with some bar stools. The options are endless, so be sure to think critically about how your outdoor seating can be positioned to help you maximise on your overall yard space.

Protection from the elements

Living in Victoria, we can expect one thing when it comes to our local weather patterns: they will consistently be inconsistent. Depending on whether we’re in for an El Niño or La Niña summer, Aussie homeowners can expect harsh sun, torrential rains, and perhaps balmy weather all through the season. As for spring and autumn, these seasons can get equally as cold and wet as winter, thanks to Australia’s unique position to the north of Antarctica and to the southwest of South America.

With that, it’s imperative that you provide plenty of shelter (and perhaps even some temperature control) for your outdoor hosting space. We recommend setting up gazebos, canopies or awnings to keep you and your guests safe from the elements. When done right, these modern shelters will also be sure to elevate the beauty of your backyard. Simply select a canopy that complements the wider aesthetics of your garden space.

It may also be worth investing in some outdoor-friendly ceiling fans or other heating and cooling options. Don’t let sweltering summer days or a light drizzle stop you from enjoying the outdoors with friends and family. After all, there’s nothing better than sipping drinks under the protection of a canopy or gazebo and under some cooling ceiling fans.

Design with some plants

This one’s a little obvious, but it’s worth remembering that greenery can make or break a backyard. Plants are the most pervasive aspect of most outdoor spaces, so you’ll want to get your landscaping just right.

Don’t just plant whatever you feel like planting. Create an overall plan of how you want your backyard to look before buying seeds or full-grown plants. You can also incorporate flowering plants to add touches of colour.

When choosing plants for your backyard or garden, it’s important to find ones that are suited to the outdoors and that don’t die easily. Plants like hawthorns, coral bells and various kinds of succulents are perfect low-maintenance greenery for the outdoor entertainment areas. You may even opt to add some potted succulents to your tabletops or benchtops.

You could even incorporate some native plants or bird- and bee-attracting plants to your garden space – just so your backyard can not only support native flora and fauna, but can also provide your house guests with plenty of live entertainment in the form of animal activity!

Add a splash of colour with garden decor

And speaking of entertainment, the best outdoor entertainment areas are those that provide plenty of visual stimulation – be it in the form of a wall-mounted television or better still, in the form of lovingly selected garden decor. This can range from garden gnomes positioned cheekily between your shrubbery, in the form of a bird bath, styled hedges, or our favourite – with a fountain or water feature.

Fountains are an incredibly versatile way to add a touch of elegance to your backyard. Are you going for a modern look? Concrete and neutral colours are your friend. Is your house inspired by Japanese design principles? Zen fountains are all the rage. Alternatively, you can set up a marble fountain with a statue to add some classical elegance.

You can make a fountain the centrepiece of your garden space, or simply set up a few small ones as finishing touches. But remember – if you do want to set up a fountain, you will need to put some work into maintaining its mechanical components as well as its outer structure. There are numerous cleaning products out there that were designed especially for cleaning fountain water pumps. Alternatively, you can go the DIY route and use a vinegar solution to flush out all the spigots and piping that makes your fountain flow.

Don’t forget to add some lighting

Lighting is another great way to emphasise certain aspects of your backyard, since light has a way of drawing the eye. For instance, if you want attention on a central fountain you’re particularly proud of or on a gazebo you spent hours decorating, making the lighting around these objects particularly prominent can help ensure that these superb accents and amenities are fittingly put on display.

And if you’re worried about your outdoor lighting creating too much light pollution, why not add a central control system for powering all your outdoor lighting? Through this nifty control hub, you can switch on or off all your lights with a single switch – will definitely make your life a lot easier. Alternatively, you can set up your lights so that they all turn on automatically at a certain time of day.

Alongside porch lighting and floodlighting, you should also look to invest in ambient lighting for your outdoor entertainment areas. Think candles, tea lights, fairy lights, and perhaps even hanging paper lanterns. All of these light sources are sure to provide flattering lighting for taking warm and nostalgia-inducing party snaps.

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There are countless ways to add warmth and personality to an outdoor space. And your backyard can be more than a patch of grass! Fountains, canopies, benches and other design elements will all make you actually want to hang out outdoors. While it naturally takes a little work to maintain your yard, it’ll certainly be worth it.