Tips to Get Your Backyard Ready for Summer

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It’s almost June and summer is almost here. Today I am sharing tips to help you get your backyard ready for summer and entertaining.

I can’t wait for summer to get here. Summer means backyard barbecues, pool parties, and spending time outdoors with family and friends. These tips will help you get ready for all the fun summer activities ahead!

Relaxing Poolside
Make it Pretty

With Memorial Day around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about summer. I have started to get my backyard ready for summer and am sharing some tips to help you get ready as well.

After being indoors with such a rainy winter, I am very much looking forward to spending time outdoors. I can’t wait for days to get longer and warmer and for our backyard and pool to fill with family and friends.

If you are looking for outdoor furniture, I highly recommend taking a look at the Arhaus Hampton collection. We have had this furniture at our home in Pasadena for a few years now and I love it so much, I got it for the beach house also!

Summer Poolside Chaises

A few summers ago, we added furniture by our pool from the Arhaus Outdoor Collection. Featuring a refined, traditional aesthetic, this Arhaus collection was designed with clean lines and no-fuss styling. I love it and it works perfectly at our pool.

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Five Tips to Get Your Backyard Ready for a Summer Pool Party

In order to get our backyard ready for a long summer, I realized there were five things I needed to address. I am sharing these with you today. You don’t have to do all five, just decide which one is the most important and start there.

#1 – Create a Place Where You Can Relax 

Enjoying the Pool

For the longest time, we had no place to sit near our pool to relax. This was an important problem I solved in our backyard when I found some new chaise lounges. I love that now we can relax out here any time during the day. 

Backyard relaxation

When I want to find a nice place to relax, these chaises are perfect. They are also great when my girlfriends come over for an afternoon pool party.

Chaise Lounges

# 2 – Provide Lots of Shade

As much as we all love the warmth of the sun, shade is an absolute must!

You might want to look for an umbrella that is the perfect size and offers a lot of shade. Ours tilts to provide shade as the sun moves throughout the day. Your outdoor space isn’t complete until you’ve included the ideal shade solution for dining areas or seating arrangements. 

relaxing in the backyard

Isn’t this umbrella perfect?

summer chaise

#3 – Have a Place to Dine Outdoors

I love having different places to dine in our backyard, so adding a poolside table was a must.

summer backyard

There is no doubt this table and chairs have had a lot of use next to our pool. I am going to serve lunch out here for my girlfriends at our pool party.

dining by the pool

This is one of my favorite lunch spots. How great is this?

Lazy Afternoon Poolside

We also have another area in our backyard for dining. It is a great place for entertaining.

#4 – Get Away From the Heat

We are lucky in Southern California as our summer weather is warm but still mild. We rarely have humidity and even the bugs are manageable. But, regardless of where you live, you always want to be able to get out of the heat.

Poolside Chaise Lounges

We put a pool in our backyard about fifteen years ago. I wanted it to match our home so I used the same bricks around the pool that matched the patio on the back of our home. There is no doubt the pool gives us a break from the heat. So what do you do without a pool?

Some options include a misting system, a stock tank pool, water toys for the kids such as a slip and slide, and good old-fashioned sprinklers. Of course, ceiling fans are great too. 

Whatever you do, just make sure you have a way to stay cool. 

#5 – Stock up on Pool Accessories

Poolside Views

Every pool and pool party needs towels, beverage cups, suntan lotion, and any items that will make you and your guests more comfortable.

I love my Kindle Waterproof Paperwhite so much because I can read it in the bright sun with our without sunglasses and they are now waterproof. I can also change the screen to black and read it in bed at night and not bother my husband!

Our beach house is stocked with the Cabana Striped Beach Towels and I love them.

I love sharing movies at night and our outdoor Portable Movie Projector and Inflatable Movie Screen are the best! We have Sonos speakers but this Portable Indoor/Outdoor Speaker is wonderful and so inexpensive!

Here are some of my favorites.

Sunscreen is critically important. Sunburns are no fun and sun damage is even less fun. I always have sunscreen on hand so that everyone is covered and can reapply as necessary. Don’t forget your lips and ears!

The Pool in the Backyard

I hope these five tips will help you get ready for summer.

Poolside Afternoon

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Our backyard with a one hundred year old home, a grass area, and a pool with patio furniture.

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23 Comments

  1. My favorite!

    Neutrogena Beach Defense Water-Resistant Sunscreen Stick with Broad Spectrum SPF 50+, PABA-Free and Oxybenzone-Free, UVA/UVB Protection, Face & Body Sunscreen Stick, 1.5 oz

  2. Its all exquisite but I’d like to see this post reworked for those of us who don’t have the luxury of partnering for beautiful outdoor furnishings at deep discounts or perhaps acquired for free. Would be great to see what good looking, well made inexpensive furniture could be bought online or from big box stores & paired with equally inexpensive accessories, perhaps even things we already have around the house.

    1. My daughter bought good-looking, well-made, and not terribly expensive pool chaise lounges and a table and chairs through Lowe’s this spring.

  3. Leslie,
    Thanks for all the wonderful ideas. Hope your Memorial Day weekend was enjoyed by everyone.

  4. I have pool envy!
    beautiful yard, here in New York out door time is a short season, but some good ideas, and not too difficult to do on a smaller budget.
    enjoy!!

  5. How in the world do you keep that many outdoor spaces clean, free of bird and insect damage, and in Tennessee pollen and mold? You must have a full time cleaning crew!

  6. The only thing I would change by the pool area is I’d add another end table in front of the umbrella so the 2 center lounge chairs also has a place for putting drinks or whatever you need on them so you don’t have to put it on the ground next to you.

  7. Leslie, great tips. I just saw a spot on the news where a Dermatologist compared sunscreens. The best “lotion” if you care for this type was Walmarts 50% Equate. It runs for about $5.00. Most economical. Thought I’d share.
    Then I’d like to know if you have a favorite place to go to replace your wicker furniture cushions? Need some help here.
    Thanks, Debi 🌸

  8. Is the pool, tile, liner or gunite type? Looking to put one in. Thanks and yours is lovely by the way. Suzi

  9. Thank you Leslie – it looks like an oasis that you want to share with friends and family.
    Costco is the best for the Neutrogena Sunscreen- I always date it with a sharpie as it loses it effectiveness after a year.
    How do you protect your chaise lounge cushions? We just installed a pool and added chaises but somehow the birds keep finding them for target practice.
    I love your passion for ball jars- Are you afraid of having glass by the pool?

  10. Love the changing seasons and you give us the best ideas for summer time enjoyment and entertainment. Everyone can work their budgets around these decor and fun ways to have summer days of family, friends and fun memories making.

    1. Me too Leslie 🙌🏻☀️ Ah I’m so glad you enjoyed them. Such a great season coming up and so, so glad this post was helpful!

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