Modern Backyard Ideas & Makeovers (to Create Your Dream Yard) • The Garden Glove

If your dream is to have a modern backyard, then consider us your “genie”. We want you to get excited and inspired enough to be able to make your own dreams come true in the garden. Modern backyard landscaping used to be thought of as expensive, extensive, and cold. But with the popularity of more contemporary home designs like Mid Century Modern, Scandinavian and Modern Farmhouse, a modern backyard is the thing. Adding modern design to your landscape adds value to your home and a timeless look to your outdoor spaces. Did we mention, it’s one of our favorite styles too? And everyone’s vision of modern is different.

You can create this minimal, elegant look on your own, without contractors or expensive furniture and materials. How? We were just getting to that… Simply take a look at the amazing bloggers here and their modern backyard landscaping ideas, tips and inspiration. Then get started! Yep, it will still take a little work. But totally worth every back ache and blister. You can start with just modernizing the patio, or do a complete backyard makeover! Just, start! This is one garden project you will not regret. ;)

Modern Backyard Ideas & Makeovers

3 Steps to Modern Backyard Design

Assess the Space

What do you really want from your outdoor space? A place to dine? Read quietly away from the kids? Entertain? All of those? Once you know what you want from your space, you can start a plan.

Create a Focal Point

Every garden design requires a focal point, just like an interior room. But modern design is more minimal, so that focal point is even more important. Think fire pit, water feature, or even a stunning patio.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Modern design is about taking design simple elements that work, and repeating them. This creates unity and cohesiveness.

Modern Backyard Makeovers

Use geometric shapes to give modern backyard flair to a water feature you can build yourself. ‘Family Handyman‘ shows you how to make this focal point using right angles and simple build techniques. The pond is minimal, but allows your family to have a full wildlife habitat. You can use the decking as…well, a deck! The water feature itself can become seating area. You can stop your makeover there, or continue to create more gardens, walkways and seating areas radiating out from the pond. This is a great way for a modern backyard to evolve over time.

‘Room and Board‘ and ‘Faux Martha’ put together a quick primer on how to design a modern backyard landscape. Lots of great tips, including keeping a tight color palette. We love this Nordic style backyard. The black and white paint, lots of lighting for nighttime dining, and well placed hardscaping really made this before and after makeover a real stunner.

We love ‘A Beautiful Mess‘. This modern backyard makeover is spot on, and has tons of tips if you are on a budget. They made the mid mod trellis (and tell you where to find the plans!) And that amazing black and white patio floor? Paint, my friends. Note that they didn’t bring in a bulldozer and tear out the whole yard. They identified the space they would use the most, modernized it, and left the rest of the yard for another time.

Shavonda over at ‘SG Style‘ has created a gorgeous space. Her modern backyard design is a perfect example of “modern” meaning something different to each family. She has a lovely Boho vibe, but still modern lines and minimal decor. Love, love, love!!! She started with a plain backyard, painted the house and added a deck, then just went all gorgeous backyard on us! The dark charcoal grey with the wood tones and warm neutrals, and the modern planters and furniture, with the baskets and the fabrics. Mind blown. But if you break it all down, she added seating areas with a simple (and inexpensive!) deck and patio, painted the house (backdrop) and then styled the hell out of it! (I’m sure she won’t mind if you use her place as inspiration!)

Molly from ‘Almost Makes Perfect‘ took a dead grass backyard, and used these stunning modern backyard ideas to transform the space. It’s gorgeous, low water and low maintenance, but high style. We love that it has desert flavor, and a Palm Springs attitude. Nothing here that you can’t replicate, readers. No more lawn, instead, concrete patio and pavers, and an easy care sand or crushed granite surface. Lot’s of large rocks, string lights for evenings outdoors, and seating areas for every purpose. (Yep, even a hammock!) This yard looks like a high end resort, but is simple in design.

‘Style Me Pretty‘ featured this super pretty backyard full of ideas for every budget. If you want to start small with modern backyard ideas, then just create a fire pit area. You can add a gravel patio, or makeover an existing patio to create this super cozy focal point space. Here they added string lights for ambience, and didn’t simply depend on the fire pit itself for light. These are the kind of details that take a backyard makeover from “eh” to “amazing”! You can find modern fire pits at ‘Wayfair‘ for reasonable prices and free shipping.

‘Lovely Indeed‘ created their modern backyard space by building a DIY pergola to create a focal area over an old sandbox. Stringing it with lights made it beautiful and multi use. They have a full tutorial for their pergola, and lots of tips on how to furnish the space. Oh, and it looks just as gorgeous in the daytime, too!

If you are looking for something a little more colorful and full of fun, then look no further than ‘Studio DIY‘. Their whole home is full of modern color, and it’s spectacular. This was a more extensive remodel of their backyard, but even if your budget is tighter, there are so many modern ideas you can borrow from this yard. The tile patio floor? Fabric sun shades? Color pops and string lights? Dramatic plants?

Jump on over to ‘YouTube‘ and visit HGTV’s Sarah Keenleyside and join her as she walks you through her entire before and after modern backyard makeover! Tons and tons of great ideas here, and she has lot’s of affordable tips as well. Such a cute space, and you will not believe the before photos!

DIY Projects

Looking for DIY projects & posts to help you create the perfect modern yard?

So time to get to your backyard makeover, right? We think you will also want to jump on over to our posts 12 DIY Backyard Ideas over at TBD, and Swanky Mid Century Modern Decor & DIY Projects and Mid Century Christmas Ornaments You can DIY over at OhMeOhMy!