Are you struggling to figure out how to make your backyard feel spacious and private? You can transform even the smallest backyard into a luxury retreat with the right additions and thoughtful planning. Past the Gate’s landscape architects have the skills to help you bring your dream vision to life.
Small backyard design tips
- Enhance ambiance and privacy with vertical gardens
- Add trees or fencing to exclude unwanted sights and sounds
- Incorporate multi-use zones
- Maximize function and space with built-ins
Enhance Ambiance and Privacy with Vertical Gardens
Adding greenery can make even the smallest outdoor spaces feel more open. Vertical gardens add natural beauty and privacy without sacrificing precious backyard real estate, drawing the eye upward to create an expansive feel. Options such as vertical planters, trellises, and green walls featuring climbing plants provide visual interest, block unwanted street and building views, and absorb sound while maintaining airflow. Choosing plants with varied bloom times, heights, textures, and colors ensures year-round beauty.
Add Trees or Fencing to Exclude Unwanted Sights and Sounds
Fast-growing trees can create a living wall in just a few years. Selecting the ideal options for your property’s footprint and microclimate with help from our experienced horticulturists ensures lasting, healthy trees that won’t overcrowd your yard or damage nearby structures. We recommend staggering rows and mixing tree height and variety to enhance privacy and create a more beautiful, natural ambiance.
Fencing offers another excellent privacy-enhancing option. Choosing the right height provides an intimate setting without blocking airflow. Blending solid panels with open designs, such as lattice or slatted additions, can soften the look. We offer a variety of durable, low-maintenance fencing materials to complement your home and hardscaping, including cedar, vinyl, and composite options.
Incorporate Multi-Use Zones
Dividing your outdoor living space into 2-4 cohesive, functional areas for different activities, rather than one large, undefined area, helps maximize functionality and prevent overcrowding. Selecting furnishings scaled to your backyard size and positioning seating to highlight backyard views and focal points, such as landscaping, fountains, and fire features, ensures maximum enjoyment. Utilizing rugs, low planters, a green wall, a pergola, or open slat screens to delineate zones prevents closing in and overcrowding your outdoor living space. Light, neutral hardscaping and furnishings, along with ample outdoor lighting, create a bright, airy ambiance.
Maximize Function and Space with Built-Ins
Built-in furnishings occupy less space than freestanding varieties. Multifunctional options, such as custom built-in perimeter seating, benches, chairs, and tables with hidden storage from Past the Gate, perform double duty. Similarly, outdoor kitchens with storage space beneath islands and counters, built-in grills and refrigerators, recessed shelving, and pop-out prep stations eliminate space-hogging standalone equipment.
Why Choose Past the Gate?
Our full-service landscape design and build company provides comprehensive services, handling every aspect of your project — from concept to construction, landscaping, furnishing, and maintenance — to ensure seamless, lasting results. We specialize in custom, high-end designs featuring premium building materials and furnishings that reflect your lifestyle and complement your home. Our landscape architects and horticulturists have years of experience working in Bay Area microclimates, transforming even the smallest and most challenging yards into functional, stunning, immersive experiences. Every project we complete is one of a kind.
Open Your Eyes to New Possibilities in Home Landscape Design
Learn how to make a backyard feel spacious and private with help from the experienced landscape architects at Past the Gate. Contact us at 925-387-6731 to schedule a luxury outdoor living design consultation today.
