Even in the middle of the harsh Alberta winter, most Calgary homeowners are already starting to dream of the snow melt-off in spring and the warmer days of summer. Given that you’re inside with not much do all season, winter makes for the ideal time to plan how you’re going to spend more time outside, and how to get the most out of your patio.
Patios are a wonderful transition between your home and your garden, but too many people treat them as such; a walkway or thoroughfare that simply connects one place to another. Learning how to get the most out of your patio requires you to see it as its own individual space, with the potential for parties, relaxing and even gardening. Once you change your mindset, you’ll need some ideas about how to use your patio to the best effect once winter is over:
- Create some shade – part of the reason that the patio gets overlooked as a place to party is that it’s open to the sun and elements. Consider installing a Desert Sun Patios patio cover to provide some much needed shade. A patio with cover options will feel like it has a roof, and therefore will feel like an extra room in your home. However, this room has all the benefits of summer – the warmth, the view, the smells of flowers blooming – without the heat and bright sunlight. It will make your patio the perfect place for a family barbecue or summer birthday party.
- Make an oasis – if your garden is designed to be your quiet space, then your patio should become the focal point of your own private oasis. Installing a free standing patio cover with a low post and beam setup will create the feeling of comfort and privacy right outside your home. Add to this effect with a swing seat or hammock, or, if your finances stretch that far, a hot tub that will fully relax you all summer long.
- Grow green – if you bought the house with the patio installed, and you’re thinking about how much of the growing space in your garden it takes up, it’s time to get create. Patios allow for all sorts of potted plants – think your very own herb garden right outside your kitchen door – as well as the opportunity to create a Mediterranean style dining space with a lattice pergola draped with vines (or even dangling strawberry plants!). A pergola is one of the easiest patio cover ideas to install, and all you then need is a big pot for each post and a climbing plant, such as ivy or clematis, to put at each corner.
In the middle of winter, it can be hard remembering that the world will one day be warm and the snow will melt, but all of these memories will come flooding back when you talk to a Desert Sun Patios representative about how to get the most out of your patio with a patio cover this year.