Turn Your Backyard into an Oasis
Photo taken from Ocean Home The Elizabeth
As the world slowly switches back on, we at Ocean Homes look forward to once again entertaining our friends and family at home, in our oasis of a backyard. As we in Alberta work to inoculate the eligible population, we’re optimistic that we’ll be once again able to celebrate the good times outdoors with those we love by summer.
As the days are getting longer, now’s the time to begin transforming your backyard into your personal getaway! At Ocean Homes, we believe that your backyard is and should be an extension of your living space. It’s in our backyard that beautiful memories are made as we soak in Alberta’s big skies and warm summer nights.
Photo taken from Ocean Home The Elizabeth
As a specialty builder, we pride ourselves on designing livable spaces that fit our clients’ lifestyles, including indoor and outdoor living spaces. We believe that when we design and build a home that perfectly fits our clients’ needs, they’ll feel like kings and queens of their very own castle.
As summer is fast approaching on the horizon, we wanted to share a few of our top tips for transforming your backyard into your private escape. Here are our tips for creating the backyard of your dreams.
Our Ocean Homes Tips For Transforming Your Backyard into Your Private Oasis:
Set a Budget – When upgrading your backyard into your city oasis, the most important thing you can do is set a budget and stick to your budget. There is a lot you can do to create the backyard of your dreams at all budgets. When designing on a budget, we recommend picking one key element – like a deck to invest in. Remember, you can always upgrade your outdoor space later.
Embrace Ambiance With Fairy Lights – To best enjoy Calgary’s warm summer nights, we recommend creating a backyard ambiance with fairy lights. The beauty of fairy lights is they are inexpensive and are the ideal backyard accessory for transforming your back yard into an Instagram worthy set. You can pick up fairy lights from Canadian Tire.
Photo taken from Ocean Home The Elizabeth
Choose a Flooring that’s Easy to Clean – When we build backyard patios, we recommend a patio flooring that is both easy to clean and can weather the elements well. We recommend using a composite material for your deck, and a terracotta or slate material for your backyard patio. Both of these materials hold up great in winter months.
Invest In Comfortable Deck Furniture – Let’s face it, once your back yard becomes your oasis, you’ll want to spend every waking moment outdoors enjoying your outdoor living space. So, do yourself a favor and invest in comfortable outdoor furniture. To extend the life of your outdoor furniture, we recommend covering it up, and or putting the cushions away when you’re not using the outdoor living space. If you’re looking to furnish your backyard on a budget, check out Kijiji.
Treat Yourself to a BBQ – In Alberta, no backyard is complete without a BBQ. At Ocean Homes, we can easily extend a natural gas line to your patio so you can enjoy grilling on natural gas as you soak up some summer sunshine.
Build a Pergola – As Albertan’s we all know the weather can change on dime. One minute we’re enjoying beautiful sunshine, the next HELLO RAIN. At Ocean Homes we recommend our clients build a backyard patio cover or pergola so that they can enjoy the benefits of outdoor living despite the spiritic southern Albertan weather changes we are all too familiar with.
Plant Some Flowers: A beautiful garden ripe with flowers has the power to provide instant relaxation. We love perennial flowers like tulips, because they bloom each spring. The best time of year to plant your bulb type flowers is in the fall. Greenhouse Nursery have 3 locations in Calgary and has great selection of plants.
Invest in a Blue Tooth Speaker – This summer, chances are the Calgary Stampede will look and feel a lot different than it would in normal years – but just because you won’t be making it to the grounds this year to experience the greatest outdoor show on earth doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the yahoo spirit at home. For the ultimate in back yard living, we recommend setting up Bluetooth speakers you can easily connect your favorite country (or another genre) playlist too.
Stock-Up on Citronella Candles: Mosquito bites are the worst! Just like true vampires these nasty insects seems to come up at dusk. To help keep you mosquito bite free this summer, we recommend on stocking up on citronella candles. They work miracles for keeping the bugs away.
Organize Your Outdoor Dining Space – The plates, cutlery, drinkware, serving dishes you use outdoors is different than your indoor china. Outdoors, we want plastic plates and glasses that won’t break. If you plan to host a lot outdoor this summer, we recommend building an outdoor storage place for your outdoor dining dinnerware. A simple wood cabinet can be the perfect complement to your backyard living space and will save you countless trips inside to the kitchen.
Keep Your Lawn Manicured – If you have kiddos as home, a manicured lawn in the perfect play space for your little ones. Give the kids a place to run around, and you’ll buy yourself extra time to truly enjoy that margarita you’ve been craving.
Now that you have our tips for turning your backyard into your outdoor living oasis, we wish you many enjoyable nights soaking up the best of Alberta’s summer side in comfort!