Cosy Garden, Cosy Life! Make Your Outdoor Space A Comfortable Place To Be

A comfortable outdoor space is the pinnacle of modern home design. If you’ve got a garden, you can make it one of the best ‘rooms’ in the whole property with just a little bit of weeding, fencing, and planting magic! 

Of course, you’re going to need some furniture to rest on out there as well. A lot of cosy garden design is about where you can sit and how long you can comfortably recline there for. When you can spend hours in the garden on a cosy patio soaking up the sun, and you’ve felt more peaceful in the past hour than in the past week, it’s only natural to want to be out there all the time! 

If that kind of mood is striking you, you should think about creating the cosiest garden possible – it’ll lead you into the cosiest life possible, and that’s something we all should strive for! A cosy garden is a happy one, and it’s something you can continue to refine as the years go on and the seasons change. 

But if you want a few ideas on where to start, we’ve got a handy little list for you below. 

Get a Fire Pit

A fire pit is one of the cosiest inventions known to man. Buy one, pop it somewhere in the garden that’s unlikely to get overheated by it, and then gather round on chilly evenings and cold nights with a hot chocolate in hand and a blanket to cover up with! 

There are all kinds of fire pit designs out there so you’re sure to find one that looks good and fits your desired aesthetic. And remember, whether it’s an open fire or not, make sure the flames stay low and double check to ensure they’ve gone out before you head back inside for the night. 

Create a Living Wall

A living wall, despite the name, always has an inanimate wooden framing beneath that’s then been covered in greenery. Once that greenery grows in, it blocks out any hint of the latticing beneath and you’ve got yourself a wall of plants that put a lot more oxygen into the air! 

If you can create a living wall for your cosy garden, you’ll be able to block out a lot more of the boring, man made garden structuring that we all use to fence in and hold back. If you don’t know how to get started with your own, check out this guide for a little starter tutorial. 

Corner Off Your Seating Area

Most gardens have a seating area of some kind, but the best seating areas are cornered off away from the rest of the garden and provide a real sense of intimacy and privacy. If you can lose yourself in this seating area with a good book and a drink, and you don’t notice people coming or going or the time passing, that’s the effect we’re talking about here! 

You can do this with the living wall idea above, as well as through planting tall trees and heavy bushes around your patio or decked area. Outline the area with a different ground material, such as gravel or woodchip, to make sure there’s a real boundary between this private area and the rest of the garden. You may even want to downsize the seating area slightly to make it even cosier, meaning only a couple of chairs or a hammock can fit in the space. 

Place a Summer House

A summer house is an extra room to spend time in. It provides some peace and quiet when you really need it, and seeing as you need to step outside of your home to enter it, a summer house can also be the one place to get some privacy away from everything else! So, if you’ve got the space for an extra garden structure, think about building one. 

You can then decorate it in any way you see fit. A reading room, an office, a playroom for you and the kids – a summer house can be dressed up to suit any and all occasions. For that extra chocolate-box cottage feel, consider acquiring some PVC fencing products to surround your summer house with a quaint white picket fence. Your new garden structure will be the talk of your neighborhood.

Create a Canopy for the Summer

The summer is going to get hot and your cosy garden is going to warm up like crazy. That’s why you need to create some kind of temporary or retractable canopy to cover it when the sun is blazing down. 

A gazebo that can be pulled in and out of a box is a good shout for this, but you can also use tree coverage – let them grow out during the spring, use them as a natural canopy during the summer, and then cut them back in the late autumn. 

Of course, the latter is going to take a bit more effort, but you can always use a temporary setup until you achieve the effect you’re going for. 

An Outdoor Rug Looks Great

If you’ve got cold stone under your feet when you walk out into the garden, why not cover it with an outdoor rug? This is a super cosy way to make your garden a bit more comfortable! Place it down where heavy footfall usually occurs (frequently this is a deck or a patio) and then you won’t need to wear shoes outside so often either. 

Plant Multiple Different Colours

The more colours in your garden, the better it’s going to look – simple as! That means planting as many different types of flower, in as many shades as possible, to create a kaleidoscope of nature across your personal backyard landscape. 

With a bit more colour, you’re going to attract a lot more wildlife as well, with bees especially able to enjoy all that new nectar! If you’re a wildlife fan and you notice a distinct lack of critters in the garden, this is the way to pull them in without compromising on your own space and style. 

And Plant at Multiple Levels

Before you’re done sowing in all those lovely colourful plants, make sure you think about the levels to plant them at as well! You can plant them in hanging baskets, window boxes, tall planters that measure up to the side of your house, as well as in planter beds and the soil below. 

Create levels of colour to look at and your garden will have a dynamic edge to its cosy nature. Think of a traditional cottage garden as a good example of this; there’s colour wherever you look, no matter where you cast your eyes, and that always draws people in! 

Put Lamps Everywhere

Finally, a cosy garden needs to be lit well. While a lot of people recommend outdoor string lighting, we also think table lamps should get a look in. You can get small outdoor lamps at any garden centre or DIY store, and in various styles, but we recommend you get versions that are designed to look vintage or like they’ve been taken from a Shakespeare background set. 

Pop at least two around your sitting area, nail and/or glue them down onto fence posts that can fit them, and make sure you tuck a few into the soil around the pathways as well. If they’re solar lamps, they’ll be able to soak up energy throughout the day and then blaze all night long. 

A cosy garden is a great addition to any home, but if you need a little more comfort in your life right now, it should be the number one thing to work on. Use your outdoor space in a way you see fit; if that means it needs to become a place to relax, recharge, and destress, put the planter boxes and tools back in the shed! 

See some more of my garden-related posts here

Becky

Meet the award-nominated UK lifestyle blogger behind Spirited Puddle Jumper – a mum of three living in South East London! Becky shares the real ups and downs of family life, parenting tips, and lifestyle inspiration, proving that being a mum doesn’t mean you stop being fun or having other interests! Follow along for honest insights into UK family life and opinions on a whole range of topics, from travel and food, to beauty reviews, home and DIY, business and health and wellness.