21 Backyard Design Ideas on a Budget

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Outdoor living is at its finest in the summer and fall here in Michigan. However, no matter where you live, enjoyable backyard living requires only a few strategic elements. Elevate your outdoor living areas with these 21 simple backyard design ideas on a budget!

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Backyard Design Ideas on a Budget

We purchased our last home with 38 acres because of the land. The house had tons of potential, but wasn’t really my style. Over the years, we’ve transformed the inside of our home.

Thankfully, the outside of our home had a great foundation for custom outdoor living already! The previous owners were thoughtful about their outdoor living design.

There are beautiful stamped concrete patios and walkways, and a large custom fire pit.

The front of our outside spaces have beautiful landscaping that I’ve tweaked slightly over the years. But for the most part, we’ve enjoyed the outdoor design our home already had.

Now, I’m excited to share my top 21 backyard design ideas on a budget!

Quickly, here are a few updates we have done outdoors so far.

• DIY Raised Garden Beds
• How to Lay a Flagstone Pathway in the Garden
• How to Paint a Deck
• Best Low Maintenance Midwest Landscaping
• 21 Design Ideas for Landscaping a Large Yard

And our biggest adventure: painting the exterior of our home!

How Do You Create an Outdoor Living Space on a Budget?

Low-Cost Backyard Design Ideas

Whether you have a custom outdoor living area or a blank slate backyard to design, these 21 low-cost backyard design ideas will help you elevate your space on a budget.

Not all changes to your outdoor living areas need to be dramatic and huge makeovers. Small tweaks can go a long way in creating an enjoyable outdoor space for your family and friends.

Create An Intentional Outdoor Living Space With Sweat Equity

The first thing you can do to elevate your outdoor spaces is to set the stage for indoor outdoor living.

Cost: Free.

If you have zero dollars to invest in your yard, then put in some sweat equity. It will go a long way to simply do regular maintenance on your yard. First and foremost, this includes mowing and weeding.

Yuck. I get it. I have about 6 acres of landscaped outdoor spaces to maintain and it can be brutal to keep up with.

However, if you do nothing else, maintaining your lawn, shrubs and weeds will create a presentable yard and give your home some curb appeal.

This is the first step. Next, consider adding these standard landscaping elements.

Add Evergreen Shrubs

Once you’re ready to make an investment in the appearance of your home, add some evergreen shrubs. Evergreens can be kept neat and tidy to give your outdoor landscaping structure and color. Even in the winter, these will help your exterior pop.

Add Landscaped Flowers

Next, add in some landscaped flowers. Whether you like a wildflower look or more proper groupings, adding perennial flowers to your landscape brings so much simple beauty to your home.

You can also see how I use annuals and perennials to spruce up my front door for a welcoming entry all summer long.

These three tips are very basic landscape suggestions that can cost anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to thousands of dollars, if you have it professionally done.

My suggestion would be to start small. Invest in a few perennials every year to keep these updates low-cost and watch your home’s exterior blossom over the years! (Pun intended)

My favorite perennials to start with are boxwood or holly (depending on your zone), hydrangeas and hostas.

Create Zones for your Backyard Living Spaces

The first mistake homeowners make is treating their outdoor space as one large open area. While this can be useful for large gatherings, it more often creates a space that has no purpose.

To build an outdoor area that you will want to spend time in, you need to give it a purpose.

Create zones within your backyard. Each zone can serve a different purpose.

Outdoor Zone Ideas

In my home we have 6 main zones.

1. Back patio for grilling and dining
2. Deck for seating
3. Fire pit for camp fires/smores nights
4. Front field for kid’s activities like soccer, swing set, volleyball, and trampoline fun
5. Pond pad for lounge chairs
6. Garden area

Granted, we have a large property, so it is possible to have this many zones. If you have a smaller outdoor space, choose what is important to you for backyard living. Then, put plans into action!

Perhaps you really want to be able to eat outdoors. Set up a dining area with an affordable outdoor table.

Or maybe you want to be able to have camp fires. Create a simple fire pit with some camp chairs and an affordable fire ring placed right on the grass.

Zones don’t have to be over-the-top or magazine worthy spaces. They just have to serve a purpose!

How do I Decorate my Budget Backyard?

Once you’ve laid the groundwork for backyard living and created purposeful zones in your outdoor spaces, it’s time to decorate!

Personally, I am not huge on outdoor decorations. I’ve seen some absolutely gorgeous outdoor settings with lavish decor and tons of amenities.

However, I’m a pretty simple gal. I really just want to create a space that welcomes people to use it and doesn’t take a lot of upkeep.

That’s where the remaining 16 low-cost backyard living ideas come in!

simple and Budget-Friendly Backyard Decoration Ideas

Hang baskets of flowers or ferns. Ferns are my personal favorite in a pot or hanging basket.

Add a simple table runner to make a dining table feel extra special.

Use fresh flowers (even just picked from your yard) on an outdoor coffee table or dining table.

Hang outdoor string lights to create a magical feel.

Lay an outdoor rug to help define your outdoor zones.

Place a simple bench in a garden to sit and enjoy the space.

Use an outdoor grill cart to make camp fire entertaining easier and have a place to put necessities.

Purchase comfortable seating so you WANT to spend time outdoors.

Intentionally place sun protection to avoid unusable spaces in warm months.

Don’t forget, add bug control and pest repellant for enjoyable backyard living.

• Use various herbs and plants like lemon grass, citronella and catnip in planters around your patio.
• Install lightweight netting or outdoor curtains around covered patios.
• This mosquito shield has been a huge help in our damp backyard.
• Strategically place heavy duty bug zappers. I like this insect trap for it’s appearance and effectiveness in large spaces.

Use a portable serving station when necessary to make serving food easier.

Go for the good dishes when having guests over to elevate the feel of a backyard party. Good dishes can also mean beautiful unbreakable melamine, like these!

Or, paper plates all the way, for casual and convenient entertaining. (See how neither option is wrong and both serve a different purpose?)

Stock up on affordable yard games. These are some of our family favorites that work for large parties as well.

• Bocce Ball
• Corn Hole
• Volleyball
• Ladder Ball
• Badminton
• Spikeball

Simple sprinklers and yard water slides go a long way with the kiddos (and select adults).

Create a theme. Have a little fun with your outdoor decorations by selecting a theme to stick to in each zone. Maybe one is a tropical paradise, another is a desert oasis, and another is a rustic camp site. Run with whatever your imagination creates!

Create a kitchen garden, or larger! Using raised beds is an amazing way to have kitchen herbs and veggies at your fingertips.

Create a Budget Backyard that Meets Your Family’s Needs

And last, but not least, create a space for your family’s needs.

Have a brainstorming session with the whole family to see how you want to enjoy your outdoor spaces. If you don’t like to play lawn games, then don’t buy any!

So often we tend to look to what others are doing to recreate in our spaces. But, someone else might not enjoy the same things as your family.

It’s so important to design around your needs and set intentional goals to meet those needs. That is the foundation of my book, where I teach you the basics of creating a haven.

Maybe you need to carve out a very small space to put a comfortable reading chair. Or maybe you need a space for a small garden for fresh ingredients. Perhaps you need a concrete slab for your kiddos to play basketball.

Everyone has different needs and the way you design your outdoor living spaces should be personal to those needs.

Your Next Step

I hope that these 21 backyard design ideas on a budget have been helpful to spark some creative thinking for your own outdoor space!

My goal is always to give you ideas that span years instead of seasons. I hope you can take these ideas and create a space that is sustainable and enjoyable for years to come!

Make sure to write down a few short and long term action steps that you might have thought of as you read this article.

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today! Make sure to subscribe to access all my free guides. Plus, you can follow along with me daily on Instagram and weekly on YouTube!

~Sarah