It might be Fall, but in SoCal, we’re about maintaining that indoor-outdoor connection all year long! Here are our top 5 tips that will not only take your yard’s aesthetic to the next level, it’ll also make your space more sustainable and easy to maintain:


  1. Lose Your Lawn

American suburbs LOVE their lawns. They are the easiest and cheapest form of landscaping to install, but ironically, the hardest, most expensive, and labor-intensive to maintain. Spend a little more time and effort up front and opt instead for an edible herb garden or carve out some space for a water feature or a relaxing orchard..


  1. Selecting the Right Outdoor Furniture & Fabric

At the rate outdoor performance fabrics continue to improve, you can customize a beautiful outdoor lounge in elegant fabrics that will rival the quality of those you’d put in your formal living room. Crypton, Perennials, and Calico all have gorgeous selections to upholster your outdoor furniture in. And we recommend investing a little more in reputable furniture frames that are built to last – so no need to maintain heavily or hide during a rainstorm. For where to shop the best outdoor furniture, visit our partner blog here. 

Outdoor Lounges

  1. Carve out Moments

We love a backyard with multiple zones – an area for dining, another for gathering around a firepit. For this reason, we encourage you to embrace building patio decks for layers and involving outdoor rugs in your design project. Breaking up your outdoor space this way is not only a lot of fun and gives the yard great flow, it also makes it much less intimidating to maintain. 

  1. Outdoor Lighting Schemes

We love shop vendors like Stray Dogs and Lamps Plus for a vast selection of outdoor lighting designs. Whatever your home’s style, lighting in layers outdoors keeps the party going well into the evening. We love a path lined with modern outdoor sconces, trees and plants highlighted by uplights, and even string lights for ambiance while dining alfresco. 

  1. Architectural Features

A great architectural feature using natural materials, like a wood paneled wall, lends a modern aesthetic and continues the indoor-outdoor theme vertically. Or, think about making a statement with tile around a pool, walkway, or door arch.