The 7 Biggest Outdoor Living Trends for 2025, According to Pros
Much like our interior spaces, our outdoor spaces can use an infusion of the latest trends to look fresh and appealing. In fact, it can be helpful to keep in mind that these outdoor spaces are simply an extension of our interiors.
“Outdoor living spaces expand the overall usable entertaining area of your home. They give you another place to go, another experience of your home, another place to gather—even another place to watch a movie,” says Stephen Block, president of Inner Gardens.
Melissa Reavis, partner at Hollander Design Landscape Architects, remarks that these outdoor spaces can invite people out into the garden. Delighting your guests with visually pleasing touches is another motivator when integrating a trend or two into your yard.
Ahead, we’ll share the top things to look out for this year so you can take outdoor living to another level. Here, the seven biggest outdoor living trends for 2025 and beyond.
Embracing the Local Environment
Reavis believes that there’s been a huge effort “to incorporate placemaking” into residential landscape design. In other words, you can nod to the home’s local environment and add sense of place through the landscaping.
“We do this through using as many local materials and native plants as possible,” Reavis describes. “The most luxurious thing in the world is to have something that couldn’t be anywhere else in the world. The more we can reflect the local experience, the more likely it is that this home is entirely unique and not able to be replicated somewhere else in the world.”
Fountains in Sitting Areas
Water is becoming a sought-after feature in outdoor spaces, and to accomplish this in an on-trend way, Block recommends adding fountains to your seating areas so you can experience the soothing movement of water.
“Water should always fall or gurgle in the fountains—there’s nothing worse than aggressively, forcefully moving water,” he advises.
Salinas Cast Stone Fountain
Connecting Tech and Landscaping
“We’re seeing an increased reliance on technology in the landscape,” Reavis says. According to her, this can include extreme control over outdoor lighting, which allows for changes to intensity and color, and sound systems in which music can follow you as you stroll through your garden. It’ll even turn off as you leave.
“There’s also been an increase in hardwired mosquito repellent systems that allow you to eliminate harmful chemical applications, and control the areas that repel insects, keeping you comfortable at your seating areas while still allowing the insects to pollinate and visit the rest of your garden,” she adds.
Spa Features
Homeowners are increasingly turning their outdoor spaces into spa-like escapes. These features can include things like hot tubs, cold plunges, and saunas, things which Reavis says were previously private experiences, “but now we’re seeing the return of the spa as a communal space,” she notes.
Reavis goes on to explain, “Our clients are now entertaining with contrast therapy in a social setting. Instead of cocktails, there are juice bars and food directly from the garden. This feels like a return of more traditional forms of sauna culture that you’d likely see in Sweden or other European countries.”
Spaces to Sleep Outdoors
One trend is throwing it back to an old-school, and idyllic, summertime activity—sleeping outdoors. Reavis says that while many homes have traditional sleeping porches, people are now getting more adventurous.
“We’ve seen the increase in screened-in pergolas offering the ability for people to sleep comfortably outside,” Reavis says. “It’s a wonderful way to take advantage of cool summer nights.”
Welcoming Wildlife
Reavis shares that many clients are asking for ponds and “water gardens” to expand the amount of biodiversity on their property.
“We can then support a much larger array of wildlife, insects, and plant life,” she says. “It brings nature even closer to home. It can also help with stormwater management and increase aquifer recharge directly on the property.”
“Jewelry” in the Garden
One on-trend decor touch that Block says is making its way into landscapes is adding “jewelry” to one’s garden. Specifically, he says that this entails collecting antique and vintage garden objects that can be scattered throughout a garden, bringing age, texture, and soul to the outdoors.
He suggests tracking down a beautiful vintage bench, a bistro table with patina, or a reclining lion statue to capture the look.
Antique Pair of Cast Stone Recumbent Entrance Way or Garden Lions Statues
Shelby Deering is a freelance lifestyle writer who frequently covers home design and decor for national publications. She has worked as a full-time freelance writer for over a decade, and has worked in the industry for nearly 20 years, writing home tours, interviewing top designers, and beautifying her own home. She holds a master’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and when she’s not writing, you can find her at thrift stores and flea markets, running, or exploring local trails in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband and corgi, Dolly.
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