Last Updated: September 2026
Planning your landscape is always a significant undertaking, having a substantial impact on the property value and lifestyle experienced and gained through your outdoor spaces. This process is difficult enough when the space is large, but the challenges are more complex and limiting when the backyard is small, requiring creative solutions. With a specific approach and a focus on details, the results can be surprisingly well-suited to your preferences and enhancing to your backyard experience. Consult an Above All Landscaping design professional and discover specific solutions for creating stunning designs in small backyards in Huntington Station, NY.
Design on Diagonals
One of the first unique ideas for a small backyard space is to emphasize diagonals. Whether you literally break up the yard into diagonally shaped spaces or lay the pavers in a diagonal direction for walkways and patio spaces, this choice will open up the area and make it appear larger by allowing for longer lines that run from corner to corner.
Use Vertical Space
Having a smaller backyard will naturally demand that you do more with less. Since the backyard is limited in terms of horizontal surface area, look up, and go vertical. Creating elevated levels will break up the monotony of the yard, creating the perception of a larger backyard. You can also choose to hang potted plants, effectively using the vertical room available. On the other extreme, some homeowners may choose to construct patios within tree-scapes or have more than two elevated levels within the yard. With the assistance of an Above All landscape design professional, you can transform your backyard space in a way that is appropriate to your situation.
Divide Space into Rooms
When space matters, literal walls will only make the area seem even more limited. Rather than constructing hardscape walls to separate your backyard, create separate spaces according to function, using plantings, decorative items, borders, or walkways to make clear the boundaries. Some spaces that you could incorporate into your backyard include an outdoor kitchen, a relaxing refuge, a dining space, a play area, and many other choices. These functional spaces should depend on your family, lifestyle preferences, and entertainment goals. The outdoor rooms created should be ones that you and your family are sure to use and enjoy.
Every Detail Matters
In a small space, details matter even more. With so much less to draw the eye, a poorly placed or non-matching feature can become an unfortunate eyesore. Each item should be carefully considered in relation to the yard in its entirety. For a large yard, items with great proportions are well-suited, but for a smaller space, plantings, sculptures, and even outdoor rooms should have smaller proportions to avoid a skewed sense of scale and prevent them from dominating the area.
Functional can be beautiful with a detailed and focused approach to landscape design in conjunction with guidance from a professional in the industry. Making good choices and being satisfied with the results is well worth the effort that a considered, professional approach can offer.
Which features fit in a small backyard?
In a small yard, the features that earn their place do two jobs at once.
A fire pit is the clearest example. It gives you a reason to use the yard through the cold months, and a low seat wall around it replaces the bulky chairs that would otherwise eat the space. Give the wall a comfortable coping and it seats guests. Build a bench section with a hollow interior and it stores cushions and tools as well. Set that section back from the fire rather than against it, and keep firewood and anything else flammable out of it. Keep the seating far enough off that nobody’s knees are in the heat, follow the clearances the fire pit kit or gas insert calls for, and check your town’s rules on fire features before you build. They aren’t the same across Nassau and Suffolk. A gas fire feature needs a vented enclosure and a licensed installer, never a sealed cavity around a valve or a cylinder.
Where there isn’t room for walls, a pergola does the dividing instead. Four posts over a seating area mark that space as its own room without closing anything in. Keep it clear of the fire, though. A wood burning fire feature needs open sky above it.
Keep the materials quiet. Muted colors and subtle textures sit together better than strong contrasts, and in a small space a busy mix reads as clutter. Large format pavers in neutral shades help, since fewer joint lines make the surface look bigger than it is.
A pool is still possible, though the yard has to clear a few hurdles before the shape matters: your town’s setbacks from property lines, the house and the septic system, a code compliant barrier, and clearance from the overhead electric service. Once those are settled, a narrow rectangular pool along one edge takes far less room than a free form shape and leaves usable deck on one side. Soft lighting and a couple of loungers finish it.
For a real-world example, take a look at Elegant Stonework, a recent project of ours in Merrick, NY.
