Make a Small Backyard Feel Bigger With 8 DIY Garden Designer Tricks to Maximise Your Outdoor Space

If you’ve got a small backyard or a compact urban garden, there are all sorts of clever ways to make it feel larger, many of which are fast and affordable enough to do yourself. Garden designers draw on a catalogue of tried and tested rules to make the very most of a petite plot, using simple illusions to turn the limited room available into an outdoor living space that appears far bigger than it is. Some of these garden design ideas involve days of digging but there are plenty more that are quick enough to DIY in an afternoon.

These eight simple ideas can all be done in a weekend, and one can be achieved in just five minutes! I’ve included some product links for inspiration, so you can start thinking about what would work best in your garden, and to show you how easy it is to put these smart design solutions into practice.

While there are plenty of creative ways to bring style and growing room to a small garden, such as adding an imaginative planter box or using your vertical space with a trellis, all these ideas rely on optical illusions that magically make your brain perceive the outdoor space as bigger. Trying just one of these small-space tricks will make an impact in a compact garden; do all eight and you’ll not only get a light and airy outdoor space, but a designer look on a budget. Which big idea for a small garden will you start with this weekend?

1. Soften Edges Where Hard Landscaping Meets Boundaries

Our brains are constantly churning in the background to work out our position in relation to the environment we’re in. Those points where horizontal ground meet vertical walls are particularly important to this spatial reasoning process. So, by softening that hard line with planting, we will become far less aware of those limiting boundaries.

This garden uses this design principle particularly well by also cloaking the boundary fence with climbers and a living wall, to further blur the distinction between upright and horizontal. You can achieve the same effect by pairing a fast-growing climber that doesn’t scramble out of control with a low-grower that spills and thrills. All Gold Japanese forest grass (Hakeonechloa macra ‘All Gold’) is a super choice for a fully or partially shaded spot (available from Nature Hills), while Feather Falls sedge grass is better for a sunnier spot (also available from Nature Hills). Both thrive in zones 5–9, form mounds of cascading foliage, and are well-behaved enough for a small garden.

2. Paint Fences a Dark Tone to Make Them Recede

It might feel counterintuitive to paint boundary fences a deep color, but creating a dark backdrop works wonders in a small garden. It has the effect of making fences seem further away, and also makes the lighter colors in your backyard seem brighter, whether that’s flowers or furniture as in this tiny outdoor living space.

BEHR Solid Color House and Fence Exterior Wood Stain gives great coverage on wooden fences and is available in many shades at The Home Depot. Espresso Beans is a deep but characterful brown, Slate is a short but stylish step away from black, while Equestrian Green is every bit as classy as it sounds.

Then add some bright, fast-growing annuals for a riot of colorful flowers – job done!

3. Link Your Interior & Exterior Spaces to Blur the Boundary

Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting you fit a set of bifold doors – we can all dream, right? – but by linking your interior and exterior spaces, you make both appear much bigger. There are so many ways to achieve this effect, and employing two or three different ideas really amplifies the illusion. In this garden, the outdoor storage cupboards next to the barbecue line up perfectly with the kitchen units, while the top struts of the pergola perfectly match the height of the ceiling indoors.

A super-easy way to achieve this boundary-blurring effect is to choose plant pots that can be used both indoors and out, and fill a couple with houseplants indoors and a few with foliage plants for your patio. Take a look at these well-priced Sun Bleached pots from Threshold at Target and, while you're there, these fabulous modern terracotta planters. Both are effortlessly stylish for indoors and out, yet are distinctive enough to make a big impact and visually tie the two areas together.

4. Demarcate an Extra Seating Area With a Fence Detail

This small table, chair and stool take up hardly any space, yet by the clever use of trellis to frame the seating spot, a stylish new area brings another dimension to this garden. Adding another ‘room’ to your backyard is such a smart way to make a small plot feel bigger, turning an underused spot into an impactful, welcome destination that adds to your garden design.

Another savvy trick employed here is the choice of slight, open-framed garden furniture. Rather than using solid furniture that truncates your view, this bistro set allows you to see the paving continuing under and behind it, so you perceive there to be just as much room as if this seating area wasn’t here at all.

Expandable willow trellis such as this 3' x 7½' panel from Amazon is cheap to buy and simple to fit to a wooden fence. What makes it work so hard to define this seating area, though, is its stylish, eye-catching shape: that’s easy to achieve by snipping the trellis to size with secateurs. This bistro set of table and folding chairs from Ikea would afford the same optical illusion of more space.

5. Hang Up a Mirror to Bring the Illusion of Extra Space

Our brains process so many thoughts every second, we continually make automatic assumptions to make sense of our environment. So while we know this is a mirror hanging on the wall of this small garden, we subconsciously perceive that the garden continues into the space behind the wall.

To achieve the same effect, this shuttered, distressed garden mirror by Esschert Design via Amazon comes in a stylish blue or green finish, while this framed window mirror from MirrorOutlet, also via Amazon, would be perfect for a modern garden.

6. Add an Abundance of Spheres For an Airy Feel

Our brains love to look at spheres and, as you can see from this pretty little garden, an abundance of them makes your eyes bounce from one to the other, creating the impression of a much bigger backyard.

Wayfair has all sorts of spherical goodies at the moment, from fibrestone planters to garden gazing balls, and a fabulous rocking egg chair. And how about planting the biggest blooming balls in town with a Hydrangea Incrediball, suitable for zones 3–9 and available from Fast Growing Trees?

The bulbs you see in this garden are alliums, which are hassle-free to grow from bulbs. The time to plant them is September so pop a reminder in your calendar, and take a look at Burpee’s lovely allium range as motivation!

7. Set Furniture at an Angle to Make Your Plot Look Wider

Your eye naturally follows any straight line and, if you position furniture at right angles to, or aligned with, your boundary fences, that will highlight the shortest distance across your backyard. Move furniture so it sits an an angle to your boundary fences, however, and your eye will draw a line that’s far longer, making you perceive the space to be much bigger.

Sound too simple to be true? Take a look at this cleverly designed garden for a moment, and notice where your eyes travel. I’ll wager your eyes follow the diagonal lines of the seating area or table edge, rather than noticing the boundary fences. Take a second, more objective look and you’ll see that this garden is actually far narrower than you first thought!

8. Employ an Accent Color to Link Your Garden Together

This is such an easy trick, but it works a treat! Your eyes are naturally drawn to color, and we love to find patterns, so using a particular accent shade in various spots all around your backyard will mean your gaze travels between them, all around the garden. And yes, you guessed it, that makes it feel bigger!

Consider what the common colors are among the blooms you already grow, and choose one to be your accent shade. It doesn’t need to be the most abundant color, but opt for a brighter or contrasting tone that stands out. Then all you need do is add a few outdoor cushions, an inexpensive patio rug and a color-pop patio table, sow some quick-to-bloom annual flower seeds in the same color, and you’re done!

Suspending a hanging basket from your pergola is another fast way to add accent color. As well as selecting a variety in the right shade, pick the best fast-flowering hanging-basket plants for your conditions and you’ll get far more abundant blooms.