Patio must-haves?

I would love to have a clay Chimenera - here we have cool It would be great to sit around for warmth and not have to worry about embers and ashes starting fires. Also, my daughter found them great to burn documents instead of shredding them. You can also cook or bake in them.

I have to put my feet up - so chairs with ottomans or I love outdoor poofs.
A rug, decor to make it feel like a real room: lanterns, potted plants in nice pots, a coffee table, bistro lights etc.

Do you have mosquitos? I would say a screened in area.

Ditto on anchoring a conversation area with an outdoor rug, lots of potted plants, lights and shade!

We have a three cushion couch plus two oversize club chairs and a glass topped table. I'm so glad I held out for bigger furniture rather than a loveseat set. If I find the right one, I'll probably replace the table with a fire table at some point.

There is also another wicker 2 chair/table set in the space. This was inherited from friends moving and didn't match our other stuff so I spray painted it to fit in better. 

As well as the main seating and eating areas, we have 2 sets of 4 stacking chairs that get pulled out as needed and a couple lounge chairs along with a bunch of stacking side tables.

It is also nice to have a few patio games like an oversized jenga set and ladder toss.

this sounds amazing!

Fans (ceiling or free standing) to discourage bugs.

I love the zero gravity lawn chairs!

Twinkle lights.

If you get a fire pit I suggest gas. The wood type take forever to get started. I like a few Adirondack chairs around them. A retractable awning. A stone wall around it doubles as seating. We have a screened patio which is great if you have a lot of mosquitoes or bees. 

We replaced our patio last year. We have a large deck and a patio we step down to. We also have a small (like 10x10) screened in porch that connects to the patio.

On our deck we have 6 person table and comfy non-cushioned chairs. They are not rockers but kind of rock/move when you lean back. We have had them for over 10 years and they are awesome. We have a 10’ umbrella that ca tilt.
We also have herb planters, a solar fountain for the birds in a big clay pot, our grill, and a smoker.

Our patio has a loveseat and 2 chairs around a propane fire pit with glass marbles in it. It has a lid as well that is flat so it can be used as a fire pit or a table. It is on an outdoor rug. We also have a propane heater. Last year we got large pots and used concrete and wood beams to make stands for cafe lights we hung across the patio. They are controlled by Alexa which is nice because we can turn them on and off and dim them with our phone or the Alexa.

We used our patio constantly last year and got a movie screen and projector. Just about every weekend we had friends over to watch a movie. We also bought a huge industrial fan to cool us off and also it helped with the bugs.

I have asked for wicker couch or a comfy outdoor lounging couch for Mother’s Day and matching chairs for our screened in porch. It already has a ceiling fan and I would like to sit outside and read in the summer.

I would love to make another “cooking” patio off the other side of our deck. We have talked about doing that and building a pizza oven and moving the grill and smokers there. We don’t have great plugs outside and I wish we had some nice speakers as well.

COMFORTABLE furniture with Sunbrella fabric. My cousin-in-law has some that is amazing and though I’m not an outdoor girl I really enjoyed curling up out there. A big shade stand with a huge umbrella to go over the area where you will be spending most of your time during the day. A TV. Definitely a rug to anchor the furniture and small touches that make it more welcoming. Have fun!

eta: A container to store your cushions/extra pillows if you live up in north Texas and will be putting them away at some point during the winter. Plates/utensils/glasses that don’t break but look nice. Melamine is the material I believe. If you like to grill consider a little green egg. This is Texas...has your DH always wanted a smoker? Budget money for landscaping. You’ll want something pretty to look at. And don’t forget the flower pots, they can be so expensive!

If it’s a covered patio I’d consider curtains to block the sun at the end of the day if you plan to be there during the evening, depending which was your porch faces.

I am bookmarking this thread! We are planning on rebuilding our small deck into a larger one, with a patio below. So many great ideas!

I’ll second this. We’ve always had a fire pit at our lake cabin, but when we regraded our yard we buried it. DH would really like an outdoor fireplace instead so the smoke is sucked upward instead of the constantly shifting smoke that blows in everyone’s face all night.

For me, I can’t stand being out in the bugs and the heat which is why we now have a 16’x28’ screened in porch. We were originally just going to have it open air, but then decided to upgrade to screens and ultimately upgraded again to actual sliding screened windows that close. I think because we have the screened porch that is attached to an open air deck way up off the ground where there are way less bugs, is why we haven’t really missed our fire pit over the past few years. I would like to add some fun colored lighting once we get our flooring installed. When we were building our porch, we had it wired for speakers so we could connect our sound system to them and play music out there or maybe at some point watch movies.

Comfortable furniture is a must. I would love a big porch swing or a hammock.