Page 8 - Outdoor Living October 2025

Tips to Shape Connection
Practical advice only works when it
carries heart. Designing a family-
friendly backyard isn’t about chasing
Pinterest perfection — it’s about
creating the backdrop for real life.
• Think connection over décor:
Designer chairs matter far less than
the people who will sit in them.
Choose comfort, durability, and
arrangement over catalogue looks.
What matters is whether the space
makes people want to stay.
• Layer by age: Design with the future
Lifestyle Anchors in mind. Toddlers will grow into
Some features become the heartbeat of outdoor living — the rituals that keep teenagers, and grandparents may
a family circling back to the garden, again and again. need raised seating or gentle paths.
• Pools: A swimming pool is more than just water. It’s laughter echoing across A thoughtful garden evolves with
the surface on hot summer days. It’s the first time a child swims unaided, its family rather than being torn out
the splash of friends diving in after sunset, the silent joy of floating on your and replaced.
back under the stars. Pools draw families outwards — not only to swim, but • Keep it simple: A stretch of lawn, a
to gather, sit, and stay near water. corner fire pit, or a shared wooden
• Fire Pits: Sparks rising into winter skies are more than ambience — they’re table will be used more often than
connection. Around a fire pit, stories spill more easily, phones get put an elaborate feature that requires
away, and children learn the rhythm of storytelling passed from one upkeep. Families remember
generation to the next. Psychologists call fire a “social technology” — it moments, not trends.
slows us down, anchors us in the present, and invites community. A • Invite nature in: Birds darting
backyard fire pit can turn an ordinary Tuesday into a night remembered. through the trees, butterflies landing
• Dining Tables: Meals outside become rituals of their own. Breakfast taken on herbs, shade that dapples the
in the sun changes the pace of a day. A long Sunday lunch under a tree ground — these details create a
becomes the kind of family tradition that friends envy. Even quick midweek quiet backdrop that no designer
dinners feel different outdoors, where conversation flows more freely. The accessory can replicate. A garden
table is not furniture; it’s the centrepiece of connection. alive with movement is a garden
families want to spend time in.
These anchors give rhythm to outdoor life. They remind us that gardens aren’t • Design rituals: Instead of aiming
passageways to rush through on the way to the car. They’re destinations, for a “look,” plan for activities —
places to linger, breathe, and belong. Friday night pizza oven, Sunday
morning coffee on the deck, winter
marshmallows at the fire. These
repeated acts turn a garden into
memory.

The Greatest Luxury
In the end, luxury isn’t found in the
landscaping bill or the designer
deck chairs. It’s in the barefoot races
across the lawn, the splash of water
as children leap into the pool, the
smell of smoke curling from a fire pit,
the quiet talk between parent and
teenager on a starlit night.

The greatest luxury is a backyard full
of memories.

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