DIY backyard renovation ideas come in all shapes and sizes, from the classic and rustic to the sleek and modern. Whatever your aesthetic, the backyard is a great place to show it off while getting in some time in the great outdoors. DIY projects are often the perfect way to make your backyard space your own and set yourself apart from the neighbors. Since they can range from super-simple to deeply complex, there’s a little something in the DIY world for everyone — especially those of us with more Bohemian leanings!
The Bohemian or ‘Boho’ style is heavily influenced by 1970s design, weaving in natural elements and colorful, layered textiles. The whole aesthetic has a sort of casual, collected feeling to it like it’s been pieced together over time. A good boho design will often incorporate vintage pieces alongside newer ones, such as old doors, windows, even dinnerware. Aside from being beautiful to look at, the boho style brings a kind of whimsy and easy elegance to the space.
If you’re looking for DIY backyard renovation ideas that will help turn your yard into a boho paradise, you’ve found a great place to start! The boho style can be a little tricky to feel out, but it can also be really rewarding when you put the final finishing touch on a new space you’re just in love with.
Here are a few DIY backyard renovation ideas that will bring a little boho flair to your backyard.
1. Good Fences
Fences are a great starting point for a lot of DIY projects. A classic wood fence can go from rustic to modern and back again depending on how it’s dressed up and how it plays with the rest of the space. We can use that versatility to our advantage when looking for places to add that perfect touch of boho charm.
To get started on your own DIY boho fencing project, look around online for some good inspiration and take notes on the kind of additions you’d like to make to your existing fence, or what kind of new fencing you’d like to put in. A statement piece fence, like white bamboo, sets off the property line, and the addition of a light source such as globe lights instantly elevates the whole space. The result is an aesthetic space with a lot of functionality.
2. Pergola Paradise
Pergolas are essentially a gazebo’s more open-air cousin. Four solid posts block out the space and a slatted roof lets the sunlight in. These are perfect for a variety of places in your backyard, including the garden, where you can decorate naturally with vines and climbing flowers. Once you have the physical space mapped out and solidly built, you can start thinking about how to decorate it.
Decorating a boho-inspired pergola is a great way to use up small soft pieces you’ve been saving, like long fabric scraps that can be run along slats or tied onto them. It’s also a great place for lighting.
This is also a good time to think about landscape lighting and how people are going to move around the backyard space. Stringing LED fairy lights around the pergola will give it a touch of whimsy while also providing some ambient light to help make sure no one trips over chairs or paver stones.
3. Outdoor Dining
Creating an outdoor dining space is a wonderful way to bring family and friends together. This can be a formal dining table or a more informal arrangement of chairs, couches, and other pieces. While it’s easier to go boho with less formal pieces, you can still pull off the look with some fun mismatched, collected dishware. An accent wall in the space helps ground it and cozy lighting in glass bottles or jars helps pull the whole look together.
A bonus to creating an outdoor dining space is that it essentially adds on a room without the usual cost of home remodeling. Bonus rooms like this are easy to set up and take down as the weather demands too, expanding or contracting your space as you want. Outdoor living space specialists often design these kinds of spaces since it’s just so functional. If you’ve recently done window replacements on your home, you can use the old windows to liven up an outdoor kitchen as well!
4. Room For One More?
Outdoor seating is one of the easiest things to DIY, meaning it’s a great place to start making things your own in your backyard space. A lot of DIY backyard renovation ideas include some kind of outdoor seating area — and for good reason! These areas are perfect summer hangouts. Add to the base color of the seating with fun, colorful cushions and throw blankets for those cooler evenings.
This kind of space will be easier to pull off if you already have a relatively flat yard, or at least a flat section of the yard that you can play with. If your hard is on the smaller side, you may want to opt for a fabric den instead.
A fabric den is a small teepee-like area made from long sticks and your favorite fabric. Once the frame is constructed out of the sticks, attach your fabric to the frame, leaving a loose flap that can be folded back, or leaving an area uncovered entirely so that people can come and go as they please. Build it on soft grass or over a heavy blanket, and add in lots of extra throw pillows for added comfort.
5. Just a-Swingin’
Planting trees is sometimes the first step to creating a little slice of wonderland in your backyard. Planting tall and sturdy trees not only gives you a sense of privacy, especially if your neighbors are close by but these trees can also be used in your DIY backyard renovation ideas. A classic rope swing adds a touch of whimsy to the whole area and can be the perfect place to relax on a chilly autumn evening.
Two lengths of rope and a sanded board are all you need to tackle this DIY project, and the results will be a family favorite for years. Fabric scraps tied to the ropes and fairy lights wound overhead in the tree’s branches create a rustic but whimsical feel — perfect for a boho paradise!
Things to Consider:
Some landscaping design ideas lend themselves a little better to a boho look. A good deal of DIY backyard renovation ideas assumes that someone has a specific type of yard or a specific amount of space to work with and while many of these designs can still work when scaled up or down, it’s generally best to work with what you’ve got first.
So, how much space do you have to plot out your DIY backyard renovation ideas? If you have a smaller yard, you’ll have to be a little more creative with how you use your space and make sure that you don’t take on too much or design something that simply won’t fit where you need it to. If you have a larger space, you have more room to play with, but you can still get yourself into a bind if you don’t plan out your renovations and DIY projects before you start. So what should you be considering, besides physical space?
In a word? Flow. How do you want people to move around the space, and how do you want them to feel in it? Keeping these two things in mind will not only help you keep a consistent aesthetic throughout the space, but will also help you plan things out and use what you have to the best of your ability. For example, if you wanted people to gather around the seating area, you could then figure out where it would be best placed in the yard so that people can gather and not block the doorway or any paths that wind through the yard.
Flow is especially important in the boho style, where comfortable ease and effortless whimsy live. Planning DIY backyard renovation ideas around the flow of a space can really help cut down on backtracking and frustration later on.
The DIY renovation world is a large one, and it can be easy to overwhelm yourself with too many options and ideas right out of the gate. In our case, sticking to the boho aesthetic makes it easier to narrow down our ideas until we have just the pieces we want. Then it’s just a matter of pushing up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty to get them done.
Wrapping up
Boho and DIY go together beautifully, and you only have to look around Pinterest for a bit to see the proof. The trick to any good design is making sure that it looks intentional and when it comes to boho’s ‘collected over time’ feeling, intentionality can really make or break a look.
DIY backyard renovation ideas really do come in all shapes and sizes, from the simple to the complex, classic to hyper-modern. Ideas can range from redoing an old fence to building a den out of fabric and sturdy sticks. Whatever your skill level and free time, there’s something for everyone where these two weird and wonderful worlds — boho and DIY — meet.
The boho style leans more to the classic and rustic side of the spectrum with its found pieces and layered, mismatched, collected-over-time vibe. As such, it’s a great vehicle for DIY projects, especially those that require odd things or can help you make use of thrift-shop finds. Part of the appeal of boho, in general, is the easy, put-together nature of the aesthetic, so it makes sense that DIY would come into play at some point in the process.
Boho is about being free-spirited, so quirky and off-beat designs really ring true for many followers of the aesthetic. In fact, it’s often hard to separate the DIY nature of the style from the clothes and accessories themselves. You might even argue that the very fabric of boho is held together with a glue gun.
DIY when it comes to boho-style specifically is often more about finding the right piece than making it — you’re more than welcome to get crafty as well! In the end, there’s nothing quite like putting together a whole new, beautiful piece of art or furniture from things other people would have simply thrown away. So go have fun! Get some ideas from around the internet, and then make them your own with that unique flair that only you can bring to the table.
By the time you’re finished, your boho backyard will be the envy of the neighborhood — at least among the cool neighbors. Start large. Section off your backyard with twine if you want to, but figure out where all the main pieces are going. From there, you can not only start building but start looking for those perfect accent pieces as well. Then, it’s just down to the detail work — bringing in all your found pieces and seeing what fits best. When it’s all said and done, your space should be a reflection of you and what you enjoy, in a way that’s comfortable and easy for both you and your family.
And if you haven’t already, now might be a great time to push up your sleeves and welcome a little boho spirit into your life with some found pieces and crafty know-how. Who knows what you’ll create with the right materials and inspiration? So happy hunting and we wish you the best of luck building the boho backyard of your dreams!