An outdoor fireplace creates a cozy place to gather after sunset, extending evening entertaining long into the night. This stacked stone fireplace surround also features a mounted TV perfect for game night under the stars.

This Atlanta, Georgia, backyard is fully equipped for outdoor entertaining with an outdoor gathering/grill area, a trampoline, fire pit and seating area for guests, landscaping and even a tumble mat for children.

Michel Smith Boyd and Anthony Elle of Luxe For Less leaned into this Colorado home’s tricky topography and terraced the lawn with retaining walls that double as seating, thanks to their choice of red block boulders. (The all-weather screen structure, in turn, doubles as a climbing wall by day). Decorative gravel frames the lawn, prevents erosion and features both evergreens and ornamental shrubs that will grow in to frame the sitting area.

This lovely backyard includes a hot tub with a surround built to match a custom-built pergola and bench seating that includes built-in planter boxes full of colorful hydrangeas.

A modern rock garden, rows of succulents and restful geometry create a cozy-meets-chic backyard retreat. An Ipe wood screen creates a focal point and draws the eye to a water feature. A shaded corner offers a great spot to relax.

Terraced tiers evoke a sense of peace, excitement and interest in this urban backyard.

A collection of succulents adds color and texture to this backyard that balances a variety of textures from pebbles to wood to a natural rock fountain.

Contemporary pendant lights hang under a covered patio in the dining area of this Mediterranean-style backyard. An outdoor grill station with a patterned tile backsplash sits to the right of the pool.

Outdoor art punctuates the landscaping along this privacy wall. An outdoor dining space continues the sleek, contemporary look.

Wood platforms situated in the natural rock bed create a comfortable walking path by this succulent garden. The small plants feature rich tones of green and purple, adding instant life to the space. Bamboo stalks shooting up against the wall add height to the area.

Leslie Davis and Lyndsay Lamb of Unsellable Houses established a less-is-more (read: luxurious-yet-budget-friendly) private patio just outside the owner’s suite in this Charleston, South Carolina home by building a minimalistic staircase leading to a simple concrete pad. They then suggested a room by building a two-tone contemporary pergola with wider, base posts and an upper structure with a dramatic ebony stain. A ‘ceiling’ of swagged string lights complete the whispery architecture and provide the perfect spot to enjoy an early-morning cup of coffee or intimate drinks at sunset.

In a colorful, versatile Indianapolis backyard that boasts a deck with dining and lounging areas as well as a lawn with raised beds for growing vegetables, herbs and flowers, Mina Starsiak Hawk and Karen E Laine demonstrate that you don’t need unlimited acreage to generate your own seasonal delicacies.

Well-crafted outdoor furniture is a welcome addition in any yard, of course, but Property Brother Drew Scott and his wife Linda Phan designed themselves a casual, quintessentially Californian lawn seating area that gets much funkier than that. Hanging basket chairs perched to flank a shapely occasional table and baskets of pillows and blankets encourage their guests to get cozy and make the most of the grass itself.

Why settle for just one plush sitting space inside your house when you can mirror it on a covered patio outdoors? Help! I Wrecked My House’s Jasmine Roth created the ultimate al fresco retreat for her football-loving husband and their friends with upper cabinets that house three televisions and a chic, pale sectional that would look right at home inside. The key to mirroring interior style in a space like this one is to invest in high-quality outdoor fabrics that won’t fade or degrade — and can stand up to enthusiastic rinses and spot-cleaning with the garden hose.

With electric cables overhead and next-door neighbors just on the other side of a low wall, this family backyard needed shade and privacy that a pergola couldn’t provide. Jasmine Roth built a handsome, substantial pavilion that turned the sitting area beneath it into an all-weather entertaining space, then equipped it with an oversized pendant and boho-chic furniture and accessories.

Pick and place a potting shed with an eye to the overall design of your yard so that it doesn’t sit out there like a lonely, disconnected outbuilding. The materials, design and placement of this shed tie it to the surrounding Asian-style garden.

Jonathan and Drew Scott turned this Santa Monica backyard’s erstwhile catch-all storage space into a sleek, modern accessory dwelling unit that doubles as an entertaining center, thanks to a new, collapsible window over the kitchen sink that serves a mini-bar on the patio. Along the 400-square-foot space’s other side, they replaced the garage door with a collapsible window wall that dissolves the barrier between the yard and the new satellite living room.

Hydrate your space without sinking your budget by taking a page from the outdoor lounge Brian Kleinschmidt created at this North Carolina property for 100 Day Hotel Challenge. Stock tanks like these can be integrated without excavation, and are cost-effective enough that you can splurge on more than one if you don’t feel like sharing.

Exotic foliage surrounds the edges of this small backyard pond.

Jonathan and Drew Scott turned a parched backyard into a lush outdoor oasis that culminates in this sculptural installation, a split-level fountain that sends water cascading gently down its standing stones’ faces and creates the sound of a babbling brook. Requiring minimal space, drainage and maintenance, this calming feature is perfect for a homeowner looking to dip their toe in aquatic accessories.

Entertaining in the backyard is a favorite pastime of family and friends. A patio can easily be adapted for an outdoor eating area by adding a grill, table and chairs.

A winding backyard path is the perfect way to explore the many different areas of the yard. The path can go from the house, past a dining table, to a shed and around to a play area, all surrounded by plantings.

Inside Out’s Carmine Sabatella and Mike Pyle squeezed every inch of functionality out of this backyard by creating a durable mini-lawn beside the dining patio’s concrete pad and path to define the playhouse area. They defined the dining and entertaining space, in turn, by topping the outdoor fireplace with a pizza oven.

Wood decking is a way to make a small backyard space warm and inviting. It creates a sophisticated look for an outdoor living and dining area right outside the home.

No porch roof, pergola or particularly large trees from which to suspend a structure like this one? No problem. Make like Matt Blashaw and create a sturdy, reinforced pyramid. Its eye-catching architecture is a worthy addition to the yard in its own right, and its massive, curtained and upholstered platform is the perfect perch from which to while away the afternoon.

Fire pits create a wonderful focal point for an outdoor gathering space and add warmth to backyard gatherings on cool evenings.

In a sloped and largely sun-drenched yard like this one, a hillside covered with grass would guzzle up water and erode into mud in no time. Matt Blashaw made the most of each portion of the space by building an outdoor kitchen on the exposed upper balcony, creating a container-plant-framed sitting area on its transitional lower deck, then reserving the intimate, shade-dappled lowest level for loungers who want the feel of grass between their toes.

Moss gardens mean even shade is no deterrent to green. Moss makes a beautiful border in this Japanese garden and requires no mowing.