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Above: A-List designer Delia Kenza’s backyard in Long Island, NY.
Between remote work, group chats, and the average person’s nearly seven hours of daily screen time, most of us live indoors and online. So it makes sense that clients want a break from all of that—and the backyard is now getting some well-deserved attention. Designers report that outdoor projects now receive the same treatment as kitchen gut-renos—detailed briefs, large budgets, and heated debates over materials. Outdoor living is a priority for 75 percent of homebuyers, according to a 2025 study from This Old House, Houzz, and the National Kitchen & Bath Association, and many of those projects are returning their full cost at resale.
We talked to architects, interior designers, landscapers, and deck builders to find out exactly what’s trending in the backyard right now.
Zoned Outdoor Layouts
Photograph by Simon Upton
Design by Alessandra Branca.
Kaitlyn Hall, interior design manager at Revive Design and Renovation in Florida, used to get clients who wanted “a nice patio.” Now she gets clients who request entire floor plans: “It’s not uncommon to see a backyard plan that includes an outdoor kitchen, a shaded dining area, a fire feature lounge, and even a quiet corner for yoga or cold plunges,” she says. “The goal is flow and function, not just aesthetics.”
This isn’t isolated to warmer climates, either. Adriena Daunt, principal designer at Daunt Designs in Montana, says her new builds routinely include covered patios with separate areas for cooking, dining, fireplace lounging, and a hot tub or sauna. Bigger projects get a yoga deck next to the gym or a private hot tub off the primary suite. “This feels like a shift from five or ten years ago, where having a cozy interior space in a cold climate was the priority,” she says. Not anymore.
At the top of the market, the concept goes further. Paul Fischman, principal at Choeff Levy Fischman Architecture + Design in Miami, describes clients who want cascading pools with floating steps, sunken outdoor living rooms, and fire pits. The backyards become entire al fresco compounds engineered around water views and entertaining.
Resort-Style Yards
Martin Morrell
Across the board, experts are reporting that homeowners want their backyards to feel like private resorts. “Clients want that elevated, vacation feel, but grounded in materials and plantings that feel authentic to their environment,” Hall explains. Many of her clients have been drawn to immersive “garden room” concepts lately—spaces that feel enclosed and almost transportive, with lush greenery set against structured hardscapes and clean lines.
What that looks like in practice depends on geography. In Montana, Daunt reaches for granite, quartzite, and weather-resistant woods. “We’re lucky here that the landscape is the star when clients are outdoors,” she says. Kate Schneider, founder of Ibis Coastal Landscaping, works in a different register in the Lowcountry: brick pavers, crushed shell walkways, and light cream tiles with shell accents. Everything is calibrated to the historic Southern character of Savannah and Hilton Head, she says, and her plantings are site-specific.
The common thread is that clients want these expanses to be low maintenance. Native plantings are the default now, and not just for ecological reasons. Homeowners want a beautiful backyard, but not one that feels like a second job.
Wellness Has Moved Outside
Kelly Marshall
Daunt describes the ideal outdoor space in 2026 as something that works in every season: “a summer evening spent barbecuing, dining and sitting by the fire; a crisp fall morning practicing yoga; a spring afternoon spent open-water swimming from the lakeshore; or a winter cold plunge followed by a sauna session.” In some of her larger projects, the wellness programming is baked into the architecture itself. For example, ski-adjacent homes get heated walkways and a fire pit at the ski-in access point, so the transition from slope to relaxation is seamless.
Hall’s clients have the same impulse in Florida, minus the snow. “Clients are asking for spaces that support relaxation and recovery,” she says, “whether that’s through spa-like features, better shade and cooling strategies, or simply creating quieter, more private zones.” It tracks with a broader shift she noticed at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show earlier this year: the focus has moved from spaces that look good to spaces that really support how people want to feel.
Outdoor Spaces Become Everyday Spots
Almost every expert we spoke to circled back to the same observation: people aren’t saving their outdoor spaces just for company. “It’s more casual, more frequent, and more integrated into everyday life,” Hall says. “Outdoor spaces aren’t just for weekends or special occasions anymore—they’re being used daily.”
Schneider is hearing the same thing from her clients. They want yards that “function as a natural extension of their living space, something they can enjoy in any weather,” she says. Notes Hall: “The focus has shifted from simply ‘looking good’ to truly supporting how people live, relax, and connect at home.”
Julia Cancilla is the social media & news editor at ELLE Decor, where she oversees the brand’s socials and covers design, pop culture, and emerging trends. She also authors the monthly ELLE Decoroscope column. Her work has appeared in Inked magazine, House Beautiful, Marie Claire, and more.
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