Decorating Outdoor Living Spaces
Outdoor decorations and ornamentation are every home or apartment dweller's way of joining in on seasonal celebrations. It's how you establish a theme and carry out the festivities for occasions like birthdays, family get-togethers or the Fourth of July. Some people are so into holiday yard decorating that they work on their "props" all year. Others celebrate in more subtle ways, with a container on the porch filled with seasonal flowers. It's party time!
- Ideas for Outdoor Living (4)
- Outdoor Furniture (1)
- Children's Play Spaces (7)
- Theme Decor & Furnishings (14)
- Holiday Decorating Ideas (70)
Outdoor Entertaining and Backyard Barbecues
You're hosting a backyard barbecue. Despite the casual nature of being outdoors, your party can range from last-minute informal to a well-choreographed backyard bbq for hundreds. Thus, there are basics and essentials you'll need to get the party started. Like: cleaning up outdoors; ensuring it's safe; providing patio furniture, a grill, menu,...
Pool and Patio Shows, Home and Garden Events: Winter and Spring 2012
Home and garden, pool and patio shows all have a few things in common. They focus on residential outdoor living spaces, feature numerous exhibitors, guest speakers, and lots of attendees. Most of the pool, home and garden shows occur February-October. Tours and smaller shows are held by garden clubs and local chapters of gardening and...
Pool Party: Make a Splash With Fountains, Floaters & Inflatables
No need to go out and paint the town when you can host a sizzling bash in your own backyard. Decorate your swimming pool or spa with these festive swimming pool fountains, pool toys and games, and colorful floaters and inflatables that will add some oomph to your outdoor space any time of the year. Go forth and celebrate! p Prices subject to...
About.com Readers' Choice Awards 2012: Best Outdoor Lighting
How do you light your outdoor world? With traditional low-voltage landscaping lights, solar lighting, LEDs? Accent lights, security, pathway or deck lights? Nominate the specific product, design or model, along with the name of the company or manufacturer.
Romantic Gifts for Your Pool and Patio Lover
What's the best gift to give your pool and patio lover? Think about the setting: a bubbling hot tub, moonlight on the patio, a romantic walk along a lighted pathway, colorful lanterns floating in a pool, the warmth of a big thirsty towel waiting for you as you step out of the spa. Sound good? These gift ideas were carefully researched, with...
Quick Clean-ups for Your Backyard Before the Big Bash
Summertime and the living is easy. That is, once you get your outdoor space spruced-up and looking like a place where you and your gang love to hang. If have have a party coming up in a few days, follow this checklist to get your outdoor room in order. Just simple suggestions to make your outdoors an extension of your fun and comfortable lifestyle.
Easy, No-Sew Outdoor Pillow Covers
Your outdoor cushions and pillows need an instant makeover. How do you make pillow covers for your outdoor pillows if you can't sew or don't have the time? Follow these easy instructions for quickly changing the look of your outdoor seating by making slip covers for pillows you already have. This particular pillow cover calls for two bandannas...
Outdoor Gifts Under $100: For Mom or Any Occasion
It's not too late to buy or send a Mother's Day gift! Mother Earth sets the stage for that female-outdoors connection. So, it's only appropriate that many Mother's Day gifts revolve around nature and mom's outdoor environment. Mom might get a spiritual, nurturing or renewal fix from gardening, her patio, relaxing outside or enjoying gatherings...
Father's Day Gift Ideas Under $50 for Outdoor-Living and -Loving Guys
Father's Day is a day to spend outdoors. Maybe it's that manly hunter-gatherer-stereotype, but the idea of Dad at the barbecue with an apron, matching chef's hat and shiny grilling tools seems to epitomize the whole scene. Your intrepid searchers have again combed the web for some extraordinary gifts for an extraordinary guy. No wacky gag gifts...
Pool, Spa and Patio Gift Ideas
What do you get for the pool, spa or patio lover on your gift list? Once you start looking, you'll find a number of ideas in various price ranges. What's out there? Everything from the practical -- like a trusty pool test kit -- to the extravagant -- like a stainless-steel outdoor grill. There's also containers, statuary, outdoor clocks, bird feeders, barware, furnishings and accessories. And inf…
Staycation is the Perfect Time for a Backyard Campout
Staycations currently are the holidays of necessity, as many would-be travelers have little choice but to stay at or near home due to the sagging U.S. economy and record-breaking gas prices. Look no further than your own backyard or outdoor living space for some much-needed change of pace. Gather family and friends for a cookout, storytelling, a...
Patriotic Porches, Patios and Decks
Decorating for the 4th of July, Memorial Day and other all-American holidays takes place outdoors. These patriotic holidays occur during spring and summer and are centered around outdoor activities. Decorate your porch, patio, deck or other outdoor room with pillows, flags, plants, containers, bunting and other accessories in red, white and...
Outdoor Decorations for a Festive 4th of July
The 4th of July will be your biggest outdoor bash of the year, and your guests will feel festive from the get-go if your porch, patio or other outdoor spaces are decorated in red, white and blue. To ensure your celebration is a success, consider adding some of these distinctive outdoor decorations and accessories, which are patriotic or just...
What Makes a Great 4th of July Party?
Do you throw a great 4th of July party? Or do you attend an annual bash at a friend's house that keeps you coming back year after year? We want to know what the ingredients are for a successful 4th of July party. Is it a pool party with fountains and lights? A patio or yard all decked out in red, white and blue? A barbecue menu and desserts that...See submissions
Gifts for Children's Outdoor Play Spaces
Kids love to play outdoors, and kids love to play on stuff outdoors.It's simple and a given: kids love to play outdoors, and kids love to play on stuff outdoors. They delight in playhouses and play equipment that's tailored for their smaller sizes, and love having a space outdoors they can claim as their own.
As with any gift, you can go...
Landscaping Urban Lofts
Even though artists and designers may live in urban lofts, they still like their gardens. Artists in downtown Los Angeles' Brewery Lofts open their doors for a look inside and outside their creative dwellings.
Dwell on Design L.A. 2008: Gallery of Outdoor Designs
The third annual Dwell on Design event was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center June 5-8, 2008. Jam-packed into the four-day design fest hosted by Dwell magazine were conferences, exhibits, home tours and parties revolving around modern architecture and design. What we experienced: a pre-fab sustainable neighborhood completely landscaped and furnished; eco-friendly outdoor home furnis…
Creative Halloween Ideas for Outdoor Spaces
Get your Halloween spirit on! Big or small, your outdoor space needs to be transformed into something festive for Halloween. Spooky, terrifying or family-friendly Halloween decorations adorn people's front and backyards, porches, entryways, doors, windows, patios, balconies and wherever else they can find to decorate. Halloween is second only to...
Outdoor Candles: Ideas for Making, Decorating
Part of the pleasure of spending an evening outdoors is enjoying the soft, festive glow of candles. David Fisher, About.com's Guide to Candles and Soap-Making, provides several candle "recipes" and decorating tips in this series of articles and how-to's.
Resources for Christmas Light Displays, Shows and Decorations
You know the house. The one that went all-out for Christmas -- lights everywhere imaginable, a glowing plastic Santa and his reindeer on the roof, maybe some custom-built props. It was magical. We've brought together some of the top resources to help you with your own outdoor Christmas decorating project and display. Ho, ho home for the holidays!
The Best Inflatable Christmas Decorations for 2011
The Christmas season brings out the decorator in most of us, and is the one time of year that home dwellers and whole neighborhoods show their holiday spirit with lights and often-extravagant yard displays. While those lighted plastic blow-mold figurines dotted lawns and porches of Midcentury, Post-World War II homes, giant airblown inflatable...