Walkways are more than just getting from your living area to your outdoor kitchen or from your driveway to your front door. They’re a way to enhance your current backyard space, by adding texture and contour to your backyard patio and outdoor spaces.
Walkways are also the perfect areas to get creative with your outdoor space. Whether it’s adding in outdoor lighting, or creating elevation points, it’s truly a blank canvas!
6 Ways That Walkways Can Elevate Your Backyard Space
Here are six ways in which walkways can enhance your outdoor space.
Create Flow and Direction
Getting from A to B in your backyard doesn’t just have to be walking along a dirt path between your front door and your patio area. By creating a paved and landscaped pathway between different areas of your property, you not only create distinct walkways but also add to the flow of the design of your backyard area.
Outdoor design goes beyond just what plants you add to flower beds. It’s also about the different materials you can use to enhance the current aesthetics of your outdoor space. With a well-designed walkway, you can create beautiful paths to various parts of your outdoor space.
Set the Ambiance with Outdoor Lighting for Walkways
Lighting is everything when it comes to your outdoor space. Too much light and you feel like you’re landing planes, too little and you’re at risk of tripping over a flowerbed!
When planning the lighting for your walkway, make sure you’re considering the current style of your outdoor space and cater to that. If you’ve got a more rustic outdoor space, then modern, black lights won’t work too well. Perhaps, here, rustic lanterns would better suit the space. Or vice versa, maybe you have an ultra-modern patio area, and sleek lighting would definitely work in that space.
Places to Pause
A walkway doesn’t only have to serve as a means to an end (so to speak). You can create places to pause in your backyard. You could add a labyrinth in a recessed area, with paving. Or, you could place sculptures at intervals or in recessed areas. It’s about creating ambiance in spaces that wouldn’t normally have considerable utility, like a pathway.
Naturally, one has to be smart about it. Placing a sculpture in the middle of a narrow walkway wouldn’t work, but by creating extra space, with a recess or alcove along the pathway, you’ll be able to create that perfect place to pause and reflect.
Elevate the Design of your Backyard Space
It’s one thing to want to redesign your backyard space, but sometimes a complete overhaul isn’t necessary. By simply redesigning some of the walkways on your property, you’ll elevate the overall design with less effort and far less of a budget!
If you think of times when you’ve visited parks or botanical gardens, the entire space has been designed to fit the aesthetics of the garden, and this includes the pathways. There are so many different ways you could elevate the design and incorporate different elements in your garden, simply by redesigning your pathways.
For example, if you have a rustic-themed garden, a simple stone pathway is perfect. Or if you have an eco-friendly garden, materials that are porous would suit the space and allow for water to seep into the ground.
Create Levels and Dimension in your Backyard Space
Your garden does not have to be flat and boring. Well, it can be flat, but it definitely doesn’t have to be boring! By adding in garden retaining walls that serve as flower beds, you take a flat pathway and turn it into an engaging and styled walkway. This not only serves a functional purpose but an aesthetically pleasing one too.
You could even add in steps if the schematics of your property allowed. You can use stone or brick pavers to add dimension and layers to the walkway. There truly is so much one can do to create an inviting, interesting, and well-thought-out space.
Increase the Value of your Property
Any renovations you do on your property, whether it’s remodeling the outdoor kitchen or adding a pergola, enhance the features of the house.
Likewise, when you’re redesigning the outdoor space of your property, including redesigning walkways, you’re adding value to your property. And who doesn’t want to increase the value of such a big investment?
Final Thoughts
Redesigning an outdoor space is sometimes challenging. From deciding on the layout and design to which materials would suit the space, it can be a daunting task.
At Seattle Outdoor Spaces, we’re always eager to help you plan your perfect outdoor space. Whether it’s outdoor lighting or large backyard overhauls, we’re ready to help you.
So, if you’re thinking your backyard space is missing something, get in touch with us today. We’ll work with you to take your backyard from okay to amazing!
