Outdoor living is inevitable in Dallas-Fort Worth. With its mild winters and abundance of bright sunny days, area homeowners practically invented outdoor living. Long before patios, decks, and porches became hip, Metroplex residents were already nesting in their cozy outdoor environment. You can add some value to your home by updating your outside living space with one of these hot trends.

1. Start a Fire

Ever more frequently, homeowners are adding an element of fire to their landscape. It could be a built-in fireplace on the patio or a cozy fire pit with benches around it for roasting marshmallows on a fall night.

If you choose to buy a fire pit, consider an electric or fueled variety rather than one that burns wood. A fire pit that uses electricity or fuel can be decorated with fire pit stones, available in a variety of colors, that make the fire warmer and reflect the light off their polished surfaces.

2. Get Cooking

Many people in the Metroplex crave the biggest, baddest barbecue grill they can find. According to the Hearth, Patio, and Barbecue Association (HPBA), one of the hottest trends is outfitting your current grill with accessories that help you get the most out of your outdoor cooking experience.

The newest innovations include grills that allow you to cook an entire gourmet meal. Look for pizza stones and even baking racks with the newest designs. These grills are great options if you are not willing to fork over the money for an entire outdoor kitchen.

Grill cleaning is much easier with new designs engineered to require less scrubbing—or equipped with a robot to clean up the greasy mess. Yes, some of the most sophisticated grills come with what the HPBA calls the “R2D2 of grill clean up” to get the grease and grime off with minimal effort.

3. Take a Seat

Seating in outdoor space is much more sophisticated than it has ever been. You can, of course, have your favorite Adirondack chairs, like what North Texas’s Sunnyland Patio Furniture offers. Or some of the best outdoor designs feature groupings for socializing, eating, or just relaxing. Benches are indispensable around your new fire pit.

Look on the internet for great do-it-yourself seating projects, especially if you want a dining set outdoors. Outdoor furniture can be very expensive, but with a little skill and know-how, you can build something similar at a fraction of the cost.

4. Put Some Light on It

The greatest thing about outdoor lighting is that you can make an impact no matter what you want to spend. Who has not seen the black spray-painted hula-hoop draped with white twinkle lights a dozen times on Pinterest?

The biggest trend in outdoor lighting is LEDs. It is as simple as that. You can create a color-changing centerpiece or simply hang Japanese lanterns with a single LED inside. There are hundreds of light strands in as many themes to choose from to provide accent lighting.

Because it stays hot in Texas at night in July and August, many Dallas-Fort Worth homeowners install ceiling fans on their covered decks and patios to circulate air. Adding a light fixture similar to that of indoor ceiling fans provides light for reading or playing Texas Hold ’em.

5. Cultivate a Green Thumb

Another trend in outdoor living is the addition of a vegetable garden as part of the ensemble. Vegetables such as squash, tomatoes, and onions grow easily in backyard gardens, and many varieties are available for container gardening. Container gardening is much less labor-intensive than plowing up part of your yard, and you can move your plants indoors if there happens to be a late or early freeze.

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