With a new year, comes new trends for everything from fashion to food, to outdoor living and design. We continue to see people invest more in their homes, with outdoor living as a key focus area. Whether you’re building a new outdoor space or upgrading your home, the latest outdoor trends can inspire your design ideas.
I’ve identified my picks for the top 4 outdoor living trends for 2024. Keep reading to get some inspiration for your own outdoor living spaces!
My Top 4 Outdoor Picks for 2024
Unique Ways to Use Your Outdoor Space
With interest rates at all-time highs, many people are deciding to stay in their current homes a little longer. As a result, they are coming up with creative ways to utilize their existing spaces, including outdoor areas.
Investing in outdoor living is never a bad idea, as even the simplest projects can boost your home’s value and improve livability. To maximize functionality in your home, you can think about incorporating an outdoor office, studio or outdoor exercise area – or even design an all-encompassing flex space to meet your needs. An increasingly popular trend is to incorporate family play areas like a putting green, bocce court or life-size chess board. The possibilities are endless when it comes to outdoor design.
Utilizing outdoor spaces in unique ways allows you to maximize functionality in your home. 
A putting green with artificial turf not only provides a functional space but can also aid in water consservation. 
A checkerboard paver pattern provides both a striking look and an optional entertainment zone. 
Outdoor showers are rising in popularity. 
A bocce court provides an entertainment space that’s fun for the whole family.
Maximizing Outdoor Privacy
With the increase in interest rates, many families are living in or considering multigenerational homes. This means more people sharing spaces, which in turn creates a need for more privacy – even outdoors.
Outdoor spaces present vast opportunities to create private areas and even individual rooms where you can escape in your own backyard. You can add in screen panels and shade structures, like a pergola, to enhance privacy and create a mini oasis. Adding features like a water fountain or wind chime can add to the ambiance and help drown out intrusive noise from roadways or neighbors.
Using fencing or railing, like the RDI Elevation Railing, allows you to create more privacy in your outdoor living areas. 
Having aesthetically pleasing fencing options, like the ones from Barrette Outdoor Living, complements your space while creating additional privacy between outdoor rooms or property lines. 
Decorative screen panels can help define the perimeter of an outdoor room, as well as provide an element of privacy.
Becoming More Eco-Friendly in Your Own Backyard
While this is not a new trend, we’ll see an increased focus on being more eco-conscious in 2024. There are several ways to implement more green practices into your home, especially when it comes to outdoor living.
Features like pollinator gardens and native planting add more beautiful plant life to your yard while also benefitting local wildlife. Stormwater captures are another way to implement greener practices. You can add rain barrels to collect water from your gutters and use that to keep your garden fresh. From a landscaping and hardscaping perspective, you can opt to use permeable pavers in your hardscape projects. Permeable pavers are installed with layers of varying-sized stone or aggregate, which helps filter and direct stormwater. With permeable pavers, water seeps right back into the ground, reducing the burden on storm drains. Zero-scaping is another increasingly popular option, which uses materials and plants that require less water.
The Evolution of Gardening
One of the biggest shifts in recent years is the renewed interest in gardening across generations. People are more interested in growing their own food to ensure they are eating the freshest fruits and vegetables – and it can help save money in the long run. Research and studies on what are called “Blue Zones” also are showing how what we eat affects longevity.
You can easily incorporate gardens into your yard with our Artforms modular panel system, no matter the size. If you live on a smaller lot or in an apartment, try vertical gardening to harvest herbs, small fruits and vegetables. Vertical garden planters are an easy way to get into gardening when you don’t have a lot of space. If you have a bigger front or backyard, you can incorporate raised bed planters to produce a variety of fresh produce.
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