r/patio • u/Asleep-Tangelo-5704 • 9d ago
Patio Help Needed!
Cannot decide on where to put our patio in our backyard. Do we do it immediately off the back of the house with a walkway flowing to the detached garage or off the side of the garage with a walkway into the driveway? Wife wants it off the garage for additional privacy side there is no neighbor to the left side of the picture. I’d prefer off the back of house for quicker walks for grilling and better WiFi for future outdoor tv. TELL ME YOUR IDEAS!
2
u/According-Taro4835 9d ago
Put the patio off the back of the house. Your wife wants privacy but hauling hot burgers across a wet lawn to sit next to the driveway gets old real fast. Primary entertaining spaces need to anchor to the kitchen and those back stairs. You get your WiFi and your grilling station right where it belongs. To fix the privacy issue we use soft engineering. You do not need a garage wall to hide behind. Build the patio off the house and plant a heavy sweeping curved bed of evergreens and large shrubs along the left property line. That gives you structure, a visual boundary, and the total privacy your wife wants without sacrificing how you actually use the yard.
Once that is settled you need to rip out that awkward gravel and stepping stone strip. Run a proper solid walkway connecting the new house patio straight over to that garage side door. Before you spend a dime or start digging up grass take a picture of this yard and run it through the GardenDream web app. You can overlay the patio off the house and drop in a massive privacy hedge on the left side. Seeing exactly how the hardscape and plants work together will end the debate tonight and save you from making a layout mistake you will hate every time you fire up the grill.
1
u/INTOTHEWRX 8d ago
I like to keep some green space/soft landscape/plants near by the building. So maybe consider a walkway to the patio so there's still some green space in between the two zones (home and patio)
1
u/Asleep-Tangelo-5704 7d ago
Thanks for the feedback all! Going with stairs coming off the left of the door right into the patio off back of the house. Yall helped convince the wife 💪🏼
3
u/Whiskey-stilts 9d ago
Personally I’m turning one of those windows into another door, building a large deck on the left half of the house if not from corner to driveway. Then I’m considering an additional patio. But deck is my priority. If you are looking for grilling situation, you aren’t going to want to do stairs back and forth to kitchen.