Modern Garden Ideas: 37 modern design ideas to transform your outdoor space

We've found 37 modern garden ideas to help you refresh your outdoor space in the months ahead.

These days, outdoor spaces are increasingly becoming extensions of our indoor spaces. One of the biggest outdoor trends is a seamless transition from your home to your patio, terrace or garden – with outdoor dining areas, outdoor kitchens and outdoor entertaining areas.

Flooring merges seamlessly from inside out, floor-to-ceiling glass extensions are more popular than ever, creating a floor-to-ceiling flow between the two spaces, and modern furniture is taking things up a notch with weatherproof, upholstered outdoor furniture.

So make your modern garden a space you'll love to spend time in, whether that means lazing in a hammock or swing chair, sunbathing on a lounger, planting a vegetable patch , or enjoying a glass of rose in the late afternoon sun.

Planning to do a lot of entertaining? Invest in a warming fire pit or heater lamp, or build a gorgeous brick fireplace or pizza oven. Aside from creating a cosy focal point and an area for enjoying cooler summer evenings, they'll also allow you to use the garden during cooler spring and autumn months. With the British weather being notoriously unpredictable, it's worth creating some covered areas too, for example a traditional awning or canopy.

For extra style points, layer a garden over different heights and levels to create interest and intrigue. Wall-mounted bench seating will maximise floor space. Add custom-made cushion pads in bright colours and patterns to add instant pizazz.

Tiling the floor or the walls provides another opportunity to introduce colour or funky pattern. To blur the boundaries between indoors and out, continue the same flooring you have inside out into the garden too.

Water features have also surged in popularity over the past year, and there are plenty of affordable options out there. Aside from the soothing trickle background sound they make, they're eye catching focal points too, and add interest to a patio garden.

Ready to get inspired? Here are 37 striking modern garden ideas to transform your outdoor space into a garden you'll want to use all year round...

1. Add built-in bench seating

Built-in bench seating not only lends a more designed look to your space, but it can also seat more people than regular garden chairs.

Below, plants sit on a raised level, with a sunken level for seating. Built-in banquette seating is the piece de resistance, with chic striped upholstery. Featuring lush evergreens, meaning that the space is green all year round, the plants have been arranged in such a way as to appear wild and spontaneous. The stunning roof terrace was designed and created by Hay Joung Hwang.

Meanwhile the built-in bench seating below maximises a small garden space. The bench seating incorporates built-in planter boxes, so you can sit nestled in between the flowers while also freeing up floor space. 

2. Tile the floor for instant pattern

Tiling the floor is an easy way to introduce modern pattern to a tired garden space. Tiles are waterproof and weatherproof, so why not use them outdoors?

In this courtyard garden, designed by Barbara Samitier, the bespoke Bauhaus-inspired tiles create a party vibe and distract the eye from the boundaries, making the space appear bigger. A chic black unit creates a practical workstation, while a bistro-style table and chairs would complete the look. They can be easily set to one side when more space is needed.

For a more traditional look, reclaimed vintage tiles will add character and charm.

A tiled floor adds instant colour to this Spanish patio garden below. Design studio Guta Louro gave the unloved patio space a simple refresh, opting for marble-top tables and bright patterned cushions that complement the tiled floor. 

3. Refresh garden walls with colourful tiles

Tiles work just as well on the walls, and colourful gloss tiles work particularly well. They give a garden a fresh, clean, shiny and colourful look.

The metro tiled wall in the modern garden below offer a modern twist on traditional brick. With its layers of textured tiles and fabulous finishes, it’s a great example of how to mix colours and patterns whatever their setting. 

Gloss teal tiles add shiny colour to the patio garden below, creating a clean look and bouncing light around this patio space. 

Meanwhile the small black and white hexagon tiles below create a fun feature wall by being arranged to spell out a message.

4. Paint walls an unexpected bright colour

Few people are brave enough to give their garden a bright wall colour – but it can work wonders in freshening up the space.

A small garden with a turquoise wall draws the eye out to the back, making the space appear larger. A pop of vibrant colour adds interest even in the middle of winter.

Deep colours can bring drama to outdoor spaces like this Sao Paolo patio garden owned by set designer Michell Lott. The plum wall works brilliantly with the burgundies and purples of the plants, which include Euphorbia cotinifolia, dark philodendrons, begonias and coleus.

5. Welcome the rewilding trend

One of last year's biggest garden trends was the emergence of 'rewilding', which is all about allowing plants to lose their manicured neatness without letting them take over. Free-flowing plants help to give sleek, minimalist gardens a more relaxed, informal feel.

This meadow inspired city roof garden is a prime example. Designed by Aralia's Alastair Henderson, this eighth floor city roof garden feels immersive and naturalistic thanks to wildly planted garden borders.

Despite neighbouring blocks, the city roof garden feels private thanks to the layered planting and carefully placed trees.

When it comes to gardening, every roof terrace has its issues, but this city roof garden is buzzing with design and planting know-how. Strong winds and extreme exposure can desiccate even the toughest plants while weight restrictions, safety regulations and getting materials to the top of a building all make vertiginous outdoor spaces among the most challenging sites.

The main planting included osmanthus hedging with its rich jasmine-scented flowers in mid-spring as well as several trees; amelanchier (with beautiful blossom in March), small olives and multi-stem heptacodium trees that flower in autumn and are beloved of bees. Dotted in between are ilex balls, pittosporum and Pinusmugo – a tough, slow-growing shrub. The terrace is always buzzing with bees and there are often birds, too.

Whether you have a sprawling patio garden, a small garden or even a tiny balcony, this look can easily be achieved with 'potted meadows'. 

Isabelle Palmer, @thebalconygardener and author of Modern Container Gardening (£16, Hardie Grant), has a way to get the look in miniature. She cuts circles of wild flower turf (from pictorialmeadows.co.uk) to fit compost-filled pots. ‘The turf is easy to establish and these containers will attract bees and butterflies,’ Isabelle explains.

6. Opt for low maintenance plants

This Mediterranean-inspired patio is easy to keep clean and chic all year long, with potted trees and boxus balls, but no grass or other plants to worry about.

Meanwhile low maintenance potted grasses cocoon this roof terrace, giving privacy and a pop of colour. 

7. Install spotlights for added drama or to highlight features

The modernist-inspired granite and glass-tiled waterfall in this small urban garden creates a bold streamlined statement. Designer Amir Schlezinger has used spotlights to create dramatic shadows as evening falls, while a bench with a lit cavity echoes the fireplace in the adjacent living room. Raised beds double as impromptu seating and the hardwood flooring creates a seamless flow between indoors and out. 

8. Short on space? Plant vertically 

The patio below may be small, but a sea of green against the wall makes it feel more like a garden.

The same was achieved on this tiny balcony, where the wall boasts a living wall of cascading foliage.

9. Make the most of a small garden with glass walls

Got a small garden? Consider swapping your walls for floor-to-ceiling glass, to turn that space into a manicured display or 'fifth room'.

10. Blur the boundary between indoors and outdoors

Whatever your outdoor space, blending it with the indoor spaces will help to make the most of what you have.

Below, a retractable roof allows guests to dine alfresco when the weather allows. Living walls make this courtyard space feel more like a garden. 

The below modern garden also continues the indoor/outdoor theme, as both the cantilevered table and the tiled bench continue through the bifold window to the terrace outside. 

Both the wood flooring and the living wall below continue from the inside out, providing a flow and a connection between the spaces. Inside, the living wall is illuminated with spotlights in the floor, while outside up-lighters bring out the plants as well as the smart pond feature that's built into the patio floor.

The only thing that could have made this even better is if the pond also started indoors and continued through the glass doors out into the patio garden.

11. Install an outdoor kitchen

The tiled outdoor terrace below features an enviable outdoor kitchen, complete with sink, fridge, pizza oven and the best barbecue. It's perfect for summer entertaining.

12. Plant a vegetable garden

You don't need to have a vegetable garden in order to grow your own –  use raised planter boxes or even regular plant pots to have a go at planting herbs, fruits and vegetables. 

This New York roof garden has raised beds full of vegetables and extraordinary views out across Manhattan.

No dig gardening has become a popular method for getting this done, and is much eaier than traditional tilling.

13. Create an outdoor living room

Don't settle for hard, uncomfortable seating – modern outdoor furniture these days include inviting upholstered options.

Modern, weather-proof furniture from Ligne Rosset transforms this small patio into an outdoor living room.

14. Build a garden room or guest house

Want to add living space without the stress of an extension? A garden room could be the answer as you can make it be whatever you want it to be – a home office, a home gym or even a playroom / play house with toy storage to keep the kid’s toys out of the main house.

The below garden room – painted bright white – looks light, inviting and cosy, with a log burner and lounge seating. Perfect for throwing the doors open during warmer days, blurring the line between outdoors and in, but also cosy on cold, wet days, as a mini back garden retreat.

Or what about a garden guest house?

The below clever garden room design by London-based architects De Rosee Sa incorporates an open-plan living and kitchenette area, and can accommodate guests too. It even has its own shower room.

It's the kind of design we expect will become increasingly popular in the current climate, where people are working from home more often, and entertain kids at home too, so having an additional space to escape to is hugely beneficial.

The guest house is also ideal for offering grandparents, in-laws and friends their own little private retreat to escape to when they come to stay.

The garden room doubles as a 'granny flat', with its own kitchenette and shower room, and a striking colour palette. Explore the garden house in full here.

15. Make the most of your rooftop

Got a roof? Transform it into a roof terrace to enjoy day-long sunshine, complete privacy, and gorgeous views. 

Modern furniture and a simple olive tree keeps this London roof terrace looking chic and simple. 

A glass border will give you optimum views.

16. Use potted plants to create an urban oasis

Can't dig down to plant your trees, shrubs and flowers? Transform your urban garden with potted plants instead.

Three years ago, this place was a dilapidated industrial unit in a pre-war building in Manhattan’s Garment District, but it had a vast terrace and knock-your-socks-off views, so the owner immediately knew it could make an astonishing home. 

A collection of containers is the new way to garden, but there are tricks to make it work. ‘Sticking to either angular or round pots leads to a coherent finish, as does limiting the materials,’ says Tom Harris, author of Pots for All Seasons (£20, Pimpernel Press). Here, Tom combined spiky cordylines and phormiums with soft Japanese maples for a low-maintenance scheme.

17. Divide your garden into 'rooms'

The Dutch are known to create different 'rooms' in their gardens, and this approach works well in this English garden too. A living area further back helps to draw the eye further out, and makes better use of the space. It would have been tempting to place the outdoor furniture directly outside the back doors for ease, but the garden space would have gone to waste. Now the outdoor space becomes a separate retreat. 

18. Create a recessed seating area for a cosy and cocooned space

This cosy seating nook is cleverly hidden from the main patio area, as it sits just a few steps lower. This creates a cocooned and cosy feel, a perfect garden escape.

19. Soften angles and modern architecture with wild plants

Contrast and complement modern architecture with loose foliage and wilder plants for a less structured look.

In the garden below, weathered clay pavers were used that recall historic gardens, alongside more rigid, formal structures. Then, of course, to loosen things up a bit, there is always the swaying, fluidity of nature.

20. Choose poured concrete for low maintenance

Poured concrete is low maintenance, and offers a highly contemporary look.

Poured concrete patios at different levels make the most of this sloped garden below. The poured concrete also creates an interesting contrast to the wood decking areas.

21. Or choose brick or stone for a more classic, traditional backdrop

Brick flooring creates a traditional, but clean look in a garden.

Stone cobbles also create a more traditional look in this gorgeous English garden.

22. Install an outdoor fireplace

An outdoor fireplace will give your modern garden a focal point – somewhere to gather. It's a great excuse to use the garden year-round, plus it's great for entertaining.

This gorgeous outdoor space below has an open-air fireplace – great for toasting marshmallows (it also has a 5ft-deep cedarwood hot tub for when it gets chilly). 

This cool fire feature below is particularly dramatic, set inside a concrete column on the patio.

Meanwhile the integrated fireplace below is guaranteed to take off the evening chill, while its minimalist Corten steel surround makes a stylish focal point – day or night.

Install the fireplace in a boundary wall or, in a larger garden, enclose your seating and dining area with a freestanding screen, such as this one from WWOO’s modular system. And burn only low-emission dry wood or manufactured solid fuels. 

23. Add a water feature for peaceful retreat

In this small, quiet garden designed by Katharine Pooley, a wall fountain makes a gorgeous feature without taking up too much space. It means there's always the soothing of trickling water in the background, soothing the senses and blocking out other noise.

An open fire with a traditional mantel and over-mantel mirror, plus two illuminated water features both at different heights all add interest to this tiny London garden.

No garden for a pond? A large urn or pot filled with water can create a fun feature, especially with additions like water lilies and pretty pond plants, live fish or a water feature / fountain. 

24. Use unexpected materials to create a feature wall

Use a contrast material – like red clay, copper, cement, wood cladding, tiles or even moss to create a minimalistic feature wall in your garden.

 A vibrant feature wall at the Bacoc Hacienda in Mexico, designed by Reyes Ríos + Larraín Arquitectos, creates a warm contrast against the modern concrete main house.

25. Play with modern, asymmetrical lines 

Asymmetrical lines create a more interesting look in this Victorian terrace garden in London. Contrasting materials – a cork wall and dog bed, a concrete patio, a gravel path, wood planter boxes and a grassy patch – all add interest and intrigue in this small urban space.

26. Add height and dimension with raised beds

Add height to your garden by splitting the garden into different levels.

Builders reworked this steep garden below, turning a long, rutted slope into a series of stepped levels. A total of 15 loads of soil were removed, which entailed plenty of mud and machinery.

The garden below is cleverly arranged over two levels, with the patio area at the top, and a landscaped slope stretching down to the basement level to let in natural light. Nestled in between the step planters is a a cascading waterfall, that ends in a small rock garden at the bottom. A thousand times more interesting than a plain light-well.

27. Incorporate tiered seating

Tiered seating draws the eye up, breaks up a tall space, provides additional seating and makes the most of garden views.

The slice of garden below is cleverly designed in receding sections – decking, seating, hedge, lawn and a raised bed – which creates the illusion of depth, as if it fades into the distance. The white concrete retaining wall has been customised into a tropical bench. 

Below, lounge seating rests against tiered planters, creating comfy seating as well as plenty of greenery. 

28. Divide two zones with an arch

This sophisticated London garden has been divided into different zones; a patio for alfresco dining, with an arch leading to a relaxed lounge area at the back.

29. Give your garden loose, spaced paving to allow nature to flourish

Hardscaping is becoming greener with crazy paving or spaced pavers that allow rainwater to seep into the ground rather than run off into drains. In a small urban garden, designer Stuart Craine used spaced concrete beams to create a path that allows plants, such as mind-your-own-business to creep into the crevices. This looser approach to paving softens the look of a path, creates better drainage and provides habitats for wildlife, too.

30. Mix materials to create an interesting, balanced scheme

This small garden space feels calm and soothing, with clean stone flooring, bedded plants, exposed brickwork and sleek, slatted wood fencing. 

31. Consider concrete for modern outdoor furniture

Modern outdoor furniture made from cement offers an eye-catching contrast to this patio's warm woods.

32. Consider an outdoor cinema

For the ultimate feature, set up an outdoor cinema in your garden to enjoy alfresco movie nights with friends.

NW3 Interiors created a stunning modern garden and outdoor cinema space in this Hampstead family home.

The patio was extended to accommodate a long, heavy swimming pool and hot tub. New tiles create a rug effect, while upholstered outdoor furniture is quick-drying (it dries off in 30 minutes).

Meanwhile a sunken seating area creates an enclave in the modern garden below, transformed by lights into a starry stage set at night. Sally Storey of John Cullen says, ‘Light key features, such as trees, to show off their textures and colours, and also steps to guide you safely.’ 

There's even a wall-mounted flat screen TV under a nearby covered porch area, offering an outdoor cinema vibe – perfect for sporting events or movie nights.

Cottage-style planting softens the state-of-the-art technology. 

33. Introduce unexpected lighting – like floor lamps and outdoor pendants

An oversized Anglepoise floor lamp offers a pop of colour in this London garden. 

Pendant lights create just the right night-time ambience in this modern garden by Stefano Marinaz, while matching cushions unify the design. 

The oversized Twiggy Floor Lamp from Christopher Wray creates instant wow-factor in this grand patio.

34. Keep plants along the border to free up space

Simple, shady plants are kept to a minimum in the roof terrace below, so there’s space for all to roam. 

35. Got a basement level? Incorporate glass skylights in the flooring

Glass panels built into the garden decking let in light to the basement below. A fire pit acts as the focal point in this garden, with lounge seating facing towards it. This generously planted space provides a sense of nature and privacy in a busy district. Sleek light wells built into the wooden flooring channel extra daylight into the ground floor below. 

36. Built-in hot tubs

Better still, use your garden decking to disguise built-in hot tubs. Just dig, plumb, then cover with a matching lid.

Designed by LTD Architectural Design Studio, this decked patio of a home in New Zealand features built-in hot tubs, perfect for watching the sunset. Then when you're done, just put the wood 'lid' back over it and it transforms back into a smooth deck.

37. Add a swing chair or hammock

Recreate the ingredients of a relaxing holiday in your garden with a hammock in a sunny spot. 

Tight on space? Hang a simple swing (or hammock chair) for a playful touch.