At first, people brought natural elements inside, such as house plants and warm materials like terracotta tiles. Then they let their personalities shine through their interior design by eschewing neutral tones, opting instead for personalized colors and patterns.

“People want their own personalities to be evident when you walk in their home. They want something that’s unique and distinctive. And I think the same thing is happening outside,” says Feaster, who’s also a visual arts contributor for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Indoor elements are finding their way outside, where the spaces are infused with colors and textures.

Patios, porches and backyards transformed from perfunctory areas we merely look at to parts of the home we actually live in. From experiences to bold colors, here’s how Atlantans are embracing their outdoor spaces.

Destination-worthy spaces

In Suwanee, Zoë Kim, author of “Minimalism for Families,” worked with Yardzen to redesign her backyard. The house was completed in 2020, but the backyard was bare aside from some gravel and grass. Kim, 43, gave herself a year to think about how she wanted to use the space, which she shares with her husband, PBS host Matt Paxton, 47, and their combined nine children.

“I wanted a yard not just to look at, but to live in,” says Kim.

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Kim, who has a horticulture degree, also wanted the yard landscaped with low-maintenance plants such as rosemary and succulents.

The result was a yard divided into experiences. There’s a hot tub and pool, both of which are saltwater and therefore lower maintenance than traditional chlorine pools, an open patio space with a cornhole setup, a fire pit, and a grass area. “We’ve set up a projector before on the back of our house for a movie night, and set up blankets on the small patch of turf that we have,” says Kim.

With nine kids in tow, it’s often easier for their friends to come to the Kim-Paxton house, and the yard provides plenty of opportunities for them to play outside. “It’s 100% an extension of the home,” says Kim. “And that’s because of the way that we created these livable spaces where it’s not just a yard to look at.”

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Alison Michaels-Fandel, a real estate agent and interior designer, transformed her yard into a destination by installing a concrete skate bowl. When she and her husband, Derek Fandel, 51, purchased their Grant Park home in 2017, the historic property hadn’t been lived in for 26 years — the backyard was a mess. Michaels-Fandel, 50, originally planned to install a fire pit, but once the pandemic hit, her husband’s penchant for skateboarding took him beyond the metro Atlanta area in search of skateparks. She recalls thinking: “OK, this is stupid. Let’s build something in our backyard.”

Michaels-Fandel worked with Atlanta-based skateboarder and craftsman Pat McClain to design and install a concrete skate bowl in her backyard. Now her husband has his own personal skatepark, but it’s beautiful, too. The 25-foot-wide, 4 1/2-foot-tall bowl resembles a floating sculpture the way it’s cantilevered against the deck. One of Michaels-Fandel’s friends remarked that it hearkens to the work of Eero Saarinen, an architect who specialized in concrete structures, especially his terminal at JFK Airport in New York. “Which I think is the hugest compliment I could have ever gotten,” says Michaels-Fandel.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC

Next to the skate bowl is a concrete fireplace with an adjacent sitting area. “I went to a birthday party with someone that had a fire pit, and realized that I actually hate fire pits because I spend the entire time trying to get away from the smoke. I decided to put in a fireplace instead, which is better because the smoke goes up,” says Michaels-Fandel. The fireplace reminds her of California, where the feature is more common, and works well with her succulents and junipers.

Color infusion

Gray and beige, long heralded for their universal appeal, are being pushed aside by color-seeking dwellers. This extends to the outdoors, as well. “People are creating more wild and colorful gardens, and they’re less creating this kind of curb appeal kind of generic garden where it’s boxwoods and azaleas and everything’s kind of symmetrical and perfect and nice, lovely,” says Feaster. “I think people are wanting something a little more boho and hip.”

Credit: Cati Teague

Credit: Cati Teague

When interior designer Gina Sims redesigned a family of six’s home, she infused color into every corner of the house including the backyard, where pinks, blues and greens set a cheery tone. The pool is the centerpiece of the backyard with recliners and an umbrella on one side, a pergola with a swinging bench on another, and a lounge area at the foot of the pool.

Sims and her team enclosed the deck behind the house, allowing her to create a covered patio area underneath it. Instead of leaving the ceiling bare, Sims painted 12 eight-by-four panels of plywood that were then affixed to the ceiling. “We had this beautiful abstract art across this giant ceiling in the pool area, which is really, really neat,” she says. “We used exterior paint, so it’s perfect for outside.”

Credit: Cati Teague

Credit: Cati Teague

Bringing the inside out

Interior designer Whitney Ray says that outdoor entertaining has always been prevalent in the South, but, “it has gone to a different level in the last couple of years,” she says. “Almost every client I have, new and old, is wanting to expand their outdoor spaces.”

Ray recently completed a project in Tuxedo Park where the homeowner wanted an outdoor dining area that could comfortably seat her family of 10. Ray installed a pavilion in the backyard that became a destination. “There’s bistro lights and it just feels like a really intimate place to gather with closer friends,” says Ray. “We did furnishings that are outdoor rated, can withstand the elements, but also they look just like interior furnishings.”

Patio furniture now closely resembles its indoor counterparts. Patio dining sets are chic and colorful, and seating options go beyond plastic loveseats with shapely chaise lounges and angular sectionals.

“People are bringing those kinds of fabrics to sofas that look like they belong inside, that is made from high-performance linen, or that have curves and are just something you would see in someone’s main living room,” says Feaster. “That’s all now happening outside.”

Something extra

Another trend Feaster has observed is the addition of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to backyards. “That is all kind of a result of people really embracing their families and closeness,” says Feaster. “Some of us were forced to live with family members because of COVID, but it turned into like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is great to have multi-generations under one roof.’”

When Kim designed her backyard in Suwanee, she installed an ADU for her mother to live in full time. The tiny house is 496 square feet with a bedroom, bathroom, living area and a full kitchen. She moved from Texas into the ADU in 2022, and still works as a nurse anesthetist.

“It’s nice when you do the math,” says Kim. “For her to move out here and buy a whole ‘nother separate property that she had to take care of with a bunch of space that she doesn’t need just didn’t make any sense,” says Kim.

How to revamp your outdoor spaces

You don’t need to overhaul your patio furniture to create a living room feel. Felicia Feaster, the editor of home improvement website HGTV.com, suggests adding funky throw pillows, throw blankets, and rugs to add more textures and colors.

When it comes to outdoor area rugs, interior designer Gina Sims suggests not investing a ton of money into them since they won’t stay pristine. Instead, look for rugs made with plastic, which are easy to hose off. “Rugs are an opportunity for more color and more texture. It defines a space and it’s an easy way to expand the indoors outdoors,” says Sims.

Reframe how you think about your backyard. Zoë Kim, author of “Minimalism for Families,” suggests drawing up plans of your current backyard and thinking about which indoor activities you want to do outside. “Do you like to read? OK, where could you create a reading space outside? Just being outside,” says Kim. Visualizing the space on paper makes it easy to lay everything out.

Incorporate vintage and antique furniture — even if it’s not meant for the outdoors. Interior designer Whitney Ray likes to go to Scott Antique Markets and scour the accessories sitting outside already. “Maybe it’s not made for outdoors, but it ends up being outdoor-friendly because it’s been in the weather, in the different elements for so long,” she says. She recently found a small plow topped with glass that was used as a table, and she used it on her client’s porch. “It brings a lot of character,” says Ray.

If you want a fire pit, but don’t necessarily want the smoke, Kim likes her Solo Stove. “The way that they’re designed reduces the smoke,” says Kim. “It has some kind of airflow system and it actually works. So when we’re at the fire pit, we’re not sitting there with smoke in our face.”

Create a gaming zone. Ray likes to give families with kids a way to get the kids outside (or give adults more entertainment options) by incorporating a gaming area. Sometimes that’s in the form of a pingpong table, or sometimes it’s a dining table that doubles as a gaming table, or sometimes an area or a game like cornhole or boccie.