51 Modern Landscape Design Ideas That Make You Want To Live Outdoors

These 51 fabulous landscape design ideas will make you want to live your life outdoors, during work, rest, play, and every meal time in between. Don’t be intimidated by the size of some of these great gardens, even when scaled down these combinations produce a superb effect that is sure to delight and impress. We’ll tour through tiered garden spaces with layered green panoramas, paved exteriors with green interludes, pristine box hedge borders, elegant garden water features, and tree-lined landscapes that look plucked from a storybook. Whether you’re carving out an outdoor entertaining space for guests or a secret hideaway from the world, there is inspiration here for all.

A pathway to heaven. Build up lush borders around a wide pathway that guides the eye to a green panorama of perfectly aligned mature trees and neat shrubs.

Be artistic with your patio. Patios don’t have to be a series of uniform paving slabs. By employing a combination of paving options you can create something far more unique and interesting.

Textural evergreens. These shapely plant beds are jam-packed with contrasting textural evergreen perennials to create a tactile border around the patio. A combination of grasses and creeping groundcover has a surprisingly impactful effect.

Squared up. Simple squares create a highly formal landscape layout, which can be achieved with low boxwood hedges. Place more delicate plants at the centre of your square plant beds, or make a focal point with an attractive pool and fountain.

This squared landscape design preserves topiaried boxes of solid hedge to achieve an even one-level look.

Superior symmetry. This luxury garden landscape layout achieves its high-end look with a perfectly symmetrical arrangement of mirror image garden steps and tree rows.

Peaceful conversation pit. Dipped low into the patio, this outdoor conversation pit goes almost unnoticed if not for its fabulous modern waterfall feature.

The patterned patio. Small linear plant beds and tonal patio slabs interrupt this large courtyard to create a captivating pattern between small trees. In autumn, the focus switches from the purple flower beds to the treetops, which blaze bright flame orange.

Sculptural beauty. Topiary provides green, sculptural beauty in a garden, but you can also incorporate man-made creations as an outdoor focal point too. This wall-mounted sculpture is combined with atmospheric exterior lighting for impact after dark too.

This dynamic garden statue inspires a landscape filled with motion. Water fountains bubble from the paved terrace and a vertical garden wall creates a visual cascade.

Take a walk on the wild side. Let loose in your landscape layout with meandering pathways that scoop loosely around wild planting arrangements and majestic trees.

Start a riot of colour. Jacaranda trees are a sub-tropical tree native to South America that burst with vibrant, long-lasting violet flowers. As the petals fall like confetti, a purple carpet forms beneath.

Equally pretty but with a delicate white star-shaped spring flowers, a Juneberry tree is a hardy option that grows well in most positions, including damp landscapes and under light shade.

In this courtyard design, the Juneberry tree creates a stunning canopy over an outdoor dining room.

Eat al fresco in a jungle of greenery. This modern outdoor dining table is situated in a spot that is completely enveloped with climbing plants and tropical shrubs to create a 360º jungle view.

Sweeping beds of colour. Make a garden pathway into a curving journey of delight through borders of colourful shrubs in contrasting sizes and textures. This loose approach makes a great contrast against sharp linear architecture.

Fill in the gaps. A groundcover of Mind-your-own-business perennials will quickly fill in the gaps between stepping stones to achieve a well-established look. Add planters of varying heights to bring greenery to terraces.

On the straight and narrow. A narrow pathway along the perimeter of the household provides an easy tour of the garden. Plant beds and a water feature are set perpendicular to the path to form avenues of beauty.

Carve out a moment of zen with a minimalist deck, serene focal point, and a comfortable modern outdoor chair.

Multistory planting. Incorporate rooftops and overhanging balconies to bring more greenery into your garden or courtyard. A multilevel planting scheme grows a calming feeling complete seclusion and safety.

Pond perfection. This precise circular pond with fountains, a built-in plant bed, and an encircling pathway is a sizeable design that can be effectively scaled down to suit smaller environments.

Streamline your design with built-in benches. In a minimalist modern landscape design, a laconic materials palette is key. To maintain the simplicity, forego freestanding seating in favour of custom cast concrete alternatives.

Make an abstract compilation. A lush green lawn, a paved patio area, and a pond filled with monolithic forms come together in an abstract, angular formation. The elements are both defined and held together by a clean concrete border.

Create a water world. Each section of this unique garden appears as a floating platform due to fully flooded borders. Linear pathways provide passage over and around the ponds.

Fashion a garden that ruffles in the wind with soft Mountain Sedge, and Big Bluestem from the Great Plains and grassland regions of central & eastern North America.

Lush lawns with sharp edges. A healthy green lawn is a beauty to behold on its own but becomes more of a jewel with a clear cut paved border.

Geometric climbs. A table and modern outdoor chairs are positioned casually at the base of a spectacular geometric hillside garden in this unique landscape design. A channel of water draws the eye to the focal centre of the climb.

Build outdoor rooms. Bespoke box benches construct walls of utility and separation.

A colour changing cube. Encase courtyard walls in copper that will change from brown to blue and green as it ages.

Evoke traditional Japanese serenity with ornamental stones, a pebbled bed, and a stone water basin.

Slices of nature. Whether you’re planning a pond or raised plant beds, these chamfered volumes splinter from one central mass to make a cool combination.

Make gardening a game with a cacti chess set.

Set your landscape overflowing with life and colour with a hardy Creeping Jenny perennial. Its leaf colour depends on sun exposure, appearing chartreuse in shade and golden in full sun.

Clean-cut and calm. Tame nature within smooth, polished perimeters. Add exterior uplights to underscore plant textures.

Full and flourishing. An abundance of mixed groundcover and perennials around rugged rocks fashion a thriving primeval quality.

Stepped terraces. Combine exterior staircases with staggered terraces to ascend a layer cake of lush greenery.

Another stepped landscape design, but this time with battlement-shaped planters.

A raft of greenery. Set inside a pond, this platform of planting makes a raft-like landscape.

Look into the future with futuristic pod-like planters and pixelated sculpture.

Conquer challenging plot shapes. This tight, triangular shaped garden presents landscaping layout challenges. In answer to the conundrum, one wall of the building has been incorporated into the pool as a water feature. A bamboo border draws attention to the abundance of height instead of the lack of square footage.

Simple squares of paving slabs crisply accommodate an outdoor kitchen and a patio dining room.

Just part of the landscape. This cosy fireside lounge looks as though it’s been there forever thanks to the introduction of creeping ivy around the outdoor fireplace.

Construct a poolside planter with dual function. Not only a home for plants but a water feature too, this rustic stone-walled planter makes an ornamental backdrop for a small swimming pool.

Concrete and commanding, this unique pool design and industrial backdrop add monolithic majesty to the green landscape.

Trimmed trees. Trees are always stunning in their most wild and natural form but another approach is to cultivate sculpted canopies with topiaried boxwood bases.

The beauty of blank space. Developed in Japan in the late Kamakura period, karesansui gardens are built upon the principal of yohaku-no-bi, meaning the beauty of blank space. In this example, blank borders of raked sand draw attention to enchanting mounded groundcover and fiery red shrubs.

Dip into a deck to make warm memories around a firepit.

Form a corridor of colour with boldly contrasting grasses.

This cosy firepit design is bedded down in a sandy base to evoke beach vacation vibes.

Speaking of vacations, palm trees and hammocks have five star tropical hangout vibes written all over them.

Sculpt fabulous borders. Margarinata American Aloe and the wide-leaved Red Poker Aloe build engaging definition around a raised terrace. An Organ Pipe Cactus creates towering height.

Need guidance on plant names and combinations? Check out the The Dream Home Kit by Home Designing where we dedicate an entire book to great looking plant combinations with plant names and zones.

Recommended Reading:  Courtyard Design and Landscaping Ideas

Did you like this article?

Share it on any of the following social media channels below to give us your vote. Your feedback helps us improve.