How to Prepare Your Outdoor Space for Entertaining

After months of hibernating indoors, it’s time to prepare your home for outdoor living. Where do you begin? By taking one step at a time. At Pottery Barn, we’re all about outdoor entertaining no matter your square footage. We’re excited to pass along our helpful tips to get you motivated. 

Dream It

First, dream a little. What was it about last year’s space that you’d love to change? What do you envision for this year? Maybe you need more outdoor seating. Maybe you want more planters filled with fragrant, colorful flowers. With all of this in mind, you’ll have a clearer picture of what you need to do. If structural fixes for your deck, patio, gates and fences or even your lawn are necessary, get them in order before you let loose with all the fun of decorating your outdoor room. To make any outdoor space feel instantly like an outdoor room (or to cover up a bare spot), lay down an outdoor rug. They come in a variety of colors to show off your style.

Sit in It

If you love your sectional sofa, you’ll love the outdoor all-weather versions. Today’s sectional patio furniture looks as stylish and feels as comfortable as indoor sofas. Adding a sectional to your outdoor room is a welcoming sight for family and friends. It signals that it’s time to relax. Not all sectionals are over-sized. Find compact outdoor sectionals or designs that let you build your own configurations with components to fit your space. Are you looking for an outdoor lounge chair so you can put up your feet? Consider adding a lounge chair or chaise built for two. 

Don’t stop there! Add to the care and comfort of your guests with outdoor lumbar pillows and toss pillows. These all-weather amenities give you extra lumbar and back support for serious lounging time.    

Cover It

For covered outdoor seating in addition to a gazebo or a cabana, simply position multiple umbrellas. They can form a canopy over your lounge furniture or sectional outdoor sofas. That way, there’s plenty of cool, shady and comfortable seating for daytime entertaining when the sun is at its strongest. 

Remember to add little pockets of seating in your garden. Nestle a single chair with a small accent table in a wildflower patch for sipping lemonade. Set up a dining spot with a bistro table among roses and under a small arbor lit with white lights.  

Light It 

Magical nighttime outdoor entertainment spaces begin with lighting, from candles to lanterns to hanging pendants. Place groupings of various-sized lanterns with candles next to sectionals, chairs and lounge seating. They’ll create a subtle glow all around the space. Accent structures like railings, gazebo rooftops and fences with string lighting. Stuff white lights into clear vases and cloches placed on tables for additional evening sparkle.

Serve It

You have the seating and lighting down, but you need tables for true vacation-worthy outdoor entertaining and living. Square, rectangle or round, there’s a size for every space. For large outdoor spaces where you envision evenings of communal-style meals, you have the option of sitting around an outdoor extending dining table. These come complete with a removable leaf to make your dining surface bigger.

The popularity of outdoor kitchens also means you’ll want to update your outdoor dinnerware, serveware, flatware and drinkware. Today’s melamine plates look as good and as vibrantly colorful as your everyday indoor dishes. Even modern acrylic pitchers don’t look like your grandmother’s patio pitcher. They look more like beautifully designed glass you’re used to for indoor entertaining. Party buckets and beverage dispensers are indispensable outdoor entertainment accessories. They’ll quench the thirst of handfuls of parched guests, and they’re pretty enough to use indoors, too.

Organize It

However you entertain, storage for outdoor living is key. As with furnishings, there’s more available weather-resistant storage tools that look as good as any indoor version. Look for cast-iron hooks and wall-mounted, basket-style shelving to hold everything from suntan lotion to beach towels. 

For your dinnerware and accessories, set up a small outdoor bar with storage capacity or opt for an all-weather buffet piece that might be mistaken for your indoor dining room furnishings.