Fence design plays a major role in maximizing tiny Bay Area backyard spaces. Depending on your goals for the space, experienced fence contractors will design a fence that helps you create a private, secret garden sanctuary or one that uses surrounding views to create a more spacious look and feel.
Working with an experienced licensed fence contractor is the best way to ensure your fence design and materials are the best options for outdoor spaces.
Fence & Small Backyard Ideas For A More Spacious Experience
Designing a fence with the right materials and specific shapes or dimensions can help make tiny Bay Area backyards seem more spacious than they actually are.
1. Use horizontal slats
The same tenets that apply to line direction in fashion and interior design are equally apropos in your backyard. Lines draw the eye from start to finish. Using horizontal rather than vertical slats draws the eyes lengthwise and creates the illusion that a space is longer/wider than it actually is.
2. Adding space between vertical slats
Picket fences are the best example of this. Picket slats have alternating spaces between them, which provide a view outside the yard. That extended view draws the eye beyond the fence, making the yard seem larger. The spaces between slats also let light into the yard, and light opens things up.
3. Breaking up expanses of solid fencing
Adding space between fence slats is one way to break up solid expanses of fencing. You can also use other decorative materials, like lattice, at the top of your fence for certain fence panels. Long, continuous runs of solid fencing material can make a small space feel smaller and as if you’re boxed in.
However, breaking that up with lattice or other decorative fence insets, you open up the area and – as in the case of a picket fence – you give the eyes a greater sight distance. That inherently makes the yard feel bigger.
4. Focus on lighter fencing materials
Here’s another parallel between interior and exterior home design: when we want smaller spaces to feel larger, we capitalize on “light and bright.” In your home, this means using lighter paint and furnishing colors and maximizing daylight. In a small backyard, you can achieve the same effect using lighter fencing materials or painting the interior of the fence a light color.
Bonus Tip: Keeping trees and shrubs well-pruned and leaving some open space free of branches can optimize the amount of sunlight (daylighting) and free up the sky view – both of which create the illusion of a more expansive space.
5. Design lower rather than higher
We understand the desire for privacy and, depending on where you live, building fences to the maximum building code height may be the best way to achieve it. However, as the above tips outline, the farther the eyes can see, the larger the space seems.
Have your contractor show you the difference in views (and how your fence feels) at varying fence heights. Even a difference of 6 inches can change the long-distance view and enhance the feeling of a small yard space.
6. Use a lattice feature at the top of the fence
Using a lattice feature at the top of the fence is another way to expand your visual sight line while preserving privacy. The holes in the lattice break up the solid wall of fencing material and also let light through. However, it still creates a privacy screen of sorts, so you don’t feel so exposed.
7. Create different zones within the singular space
It may seem like leaving the space as open and undivided as possible will make it feel bigger, but this isn’t always the case. Sometimes, using fencing materials to create distinct zones within a single space makes it feel larger than it is. For example, privacy fencing can be used for the exterior perimeters of neighboring fence lines, while we use lattice or other “see-through” fencing materials – and landscaping – to delineate different zones such as patio, garden, fire pit/hot tub, pet yard, etc.
8. Using color to open things up
We mentioned that lighter fence colors are better than darker ones when you want to make a small yard feel as large as possible. However, artful color combinations can also do that for you. For example, using lighter and darker shades of the same paint color on alternating fence panels can create the illusion of varying depths, with some panels appearing farther away than others.
Another idea is to hire a local mural artist and have them paint a mural on a section of the interior side of your fence. Artists specialising in 3-D murals are adept at creating long-distance views that range from ocean or mountain vistas to replicas of Tuscan vineyards.
Other Tips To Create Space For Compact Outdoor Living
Being creative with your fence design and installation is one way to create the illusion of more space outdoors. Here are additional small backyard ideas to optimize compact outdoor living.
1. Optimize corner spaces
Making efficient use of a small backyard’s corner spaces can transform the way you use the yard. Designing private seating areas, bird baths/feeding stations, or installing a water feature surrounded by year-round blooming plants can bring potentially wasted yard space to visual life.
This is its own version of creating different zones within the united compact outdoor space. Assistance from a local landscaping designer specializing in small-space solutions can provide a multitude of ideas for this.
2. Let the edges work for you
Another way to create more space where there seems to be none is to utilize your edges. Mounted water features on a wall, cascading plants that spill over elevated planter boxes (drawing the eyes upward), hanging outdoor art on walls or fence lines – – all of these tricks can be used to create visual interest around the edges where there is often just blank space.
3. Don’t underestimate the power of a table for two
Using small cafe tables with two chairs and adorning the center with a living seasonal centerpiece or solar light fixture is always inviting. We recommend positioning the chairs so they face a non-traditional visual landscape. For example, if the majority of your backyard furniture faces one direction, perhaps that small table and chairs are set on the opposite side of the yard (or in a corner!), looking diagonally back at the house.
Then, where the eyes land, think about whether a potted plant, an illuminated tree, or a topiary might provide a more interesting view for those sitting at the table. This idea capitalizes on making every inch of your small backyard count.
4. Layer the landscape
Layering the landscape is a garden enthusiast’s secret trick when it comes to creating larger worlds within a smaller one. By layering the landscape and using plants, shrubs, and trees that add visual color/interest throughout the seasons, you create varying depths. This tricks the eyes into feeling like there’s more space than there is. Also, those variations in height, which are the inevitable result of layering, also give the eyes more room to roam upwards – which always makes us feel like a space is bigger.
5. Add a small or elevated deck
Another way to create a separate zone is to build a small deck or patio. Depending on your home’s dimensions, you may be able to elevate the deck, creating usable space underneath it (if there’s enough room), or use landscaping features to enhance the visual appeal below it. This elevated deck concept is to compact outdoor living what loft spaces are to the interior living space.
Duce Construction Deck & Fence Has Plent of Small Outdoor Space Solutions
Are you interested in learning how your fence design can help to create small outdoor space solutions for your Bay Area property?
Get in touch with us here at Duce Construction Fence & Deck. We have more than four decades of experience helping homeowners just like you get the very most from their small side and backyard spaces. Contact us to start designing your spacious oasis.