While decorating the inside of a house is a straightforward, time-honored process in most respects, doing something inviting and fitting for a side yard, backyard, patio, deck or garden area can quickly turn into a daunting task. But in the life of the modern family today, evaluating the outer spaces of a home is almost as important as sizing up the interior spaces. And now more than ever, we have some amazing products and choices for how we will decorate our outdoor living spaces.

When making decisions about how to utilize a space for outdoor living and entertaining, many new homeowners make the mistake of starting with furniture, and then get stuck when furniture alone does not make the completed look they were going after.

To help explain why this doesn’t make sense, consider this analogy: you would not think about decorating the inside of your new house until you understood where the walls were going to be and what the structural elements were. The same is true in outdoor spaces. Even though outdoor design is less about walls, doors and windows, it still makes sense to start with the structural elements of good design. Let’s look at a few now.

Pergolas date back to the 15th century in Italy. Typically these were stone pillars with open wood lattice work, upon which woody vines such as grapes would be trained to climb. Today, there are many beautiful garden pergolas on the market. Pergola kits can be purchased and assembled on site with relative ease. Small pergolas can be used as entryways into garden spaces or to transition from a structured area into a part of the yard left untamed. Large pergolas make ideal places to place a patio set, or even a hammock.

Arbors, as their name suggests, are built to provide structural support for flowering vines, grape vines, and climbing bushes. Handcrafted wood arbors made of cedar or redwood can be beautiful works of art, needing no further adornment, and they provide elegant entry into a yard or garden. Available in all shapes and sizes, with many designs and styles to choose from, arbors are a great structural choice.

The bare side of a house is not that pleasing to look at, so for garden patio areas that are anchored close to your home, trellises are a perfect way to break up the monotony of a long wall. Climbing plants, bushes and vines can easily be trained to meander over and through the grid-work of a trellis, and when placed up against the house, add vertical beauty, color and interest to an otherwise unremarkable landscape. Garden trellises make for a living wall, full of life and natures pleasures.

So when planning your garden getaway space, think long and hard about how garden structures such as pergolas, arbors and trellises can help to define the shape and the feel of any back yard. Start with identifying the best structural styles and materials for your design aesthetic, and then have fun making your garden a wonderful place for nice outdoor furniture.

Your yard will look great with the addition of a garden arbor or a beautiful outdoor pergola.