Fence + Pergola

A privacy fence painted dark brown and lined with ladder trellises planted with climbing ivy gives this Florida patio from Calimia Home a comfortable feel. A matching pergola helps filter light and makes it feel cozy.

Hedge Your Bets

If you want to create a degree of privacy from the neighbors without putting up a fence, consider placing a strategic hedge, bush, or tree that will shelter your seating area from prying eyes like this backyard patio from Urbanology Designs.

Add Another Story

Blanco Bungalow topped off a painted brick wall with wood fencing to add extra privacy for this backyard patio that is used as an outdoor living room. Don’t be afraid to mix materials to add interest or make your backyard privacy project easier to accomplish.

Striped Awning

A striped awning protects this outdoor dining area from Calimia Home from unwanted rays, sudden rain showers, or your neighbor’s kid’s drone from spying on your dinner parties. The patio awnings of this Florida home were carried throughout the exterior including the home’s front windows for a cohesive look that also helps to shade the home and help minimize the need to crank the A.C.

Add a Privacy Screen

This backyard patio designed by Emily Bowser for Emily Henderson Design includes a tall wooden privacy screen with a laser cut pattern that adds style to the seating area while sheltering it from view from unwanted surveillance from next door.

Screen Off the Outdoor Bar

The same screen was used to block a window in the house across the fence, adding privacy while defining the outdoor bar area.

Detached Patio Oasis

Even if there are no neighbors around, creating a private patio in the context of a larger open space can make it feel more intimate and encourage you to use it. On this property from Fantastic Frank, an oval brick-lined patio is surrounded by hedging in various shapes and sizes to add privacy and interest. Equipped with a simple table and chairs, it is flanked at the entrance by two potted urns that give it a sense of grandeur that matches the sweeping lawns and nearby hedge maze.

Tall Hedges

Tall hedges lend this spacious Portland, Oregon patio from BASE Landscape Architecture a sense of privacy and a mood-boosting dose of greenery. The architects used a range of stones to build a neutral, chic outdoor living room with a mix of seating, sculptural side tables, and a custom banquette with a high back that houses firewood beneath the seating for the stainless steel fire pit that is topped with a safety screen cover.

High Walls + Metal Doors

This Palm Springs pool patio from Michelle Boudreau Design has a sense of privacy thanks to high solid walls and a series of metal doors that give it an exclusive feel.

Planters + Vertical Hedges

On this patio designed by Emily Bowser for Emily Henderson Design, privacy fencing was reinforced with a row of wooden box planters with tall vertical hedges that provide more privacy as they grow. The plants add atmosphere to the seating area while creating a natural privacy screen that is durable and sustainable.

Build a Few Walls

If you are building a home from scratch, think about building in privacy and light control using architecture and hardscaping, taking into account the location of your lot. Freestanding walls around the patio of this Spanish island new build property from Fantastic Frank create shelter from views and excess sun depending on the time of day.

Wall of Greens

A neighbor-friendly way to screen yourself from unwanted views is to allow your trees, hedges, and other plants to grow tall and wide to help shelter the view to your outdoor space, like this back patio designed by Emily Bowser for Emily Henderson Design. Not pruning every plant within an inch of its life will lend your space an effortless, lived-in feel that will help you relax.

Surround It

Michelle Boudreau Design added vertical plantings along the three sides of this U-shaped Palm Springs patio to add greenery and privacy to the yard and outdoor seating area.

Change Directions

If you live in a neighborhood where putting up a fence is discouraged or prohibited, you can find ways to steal a sense of privacy by laying out your furniture facing away from the folks next door. This backyard patio from Christina Kim Interior Design is in full view of the next door neighbors, but a curved banquette is placed with its back to the fence facing inward to create a place to relax and forget you share the space. Lounge chairs facing forward will help keep you focused straight ahead.

Top Off the Fence

Home Consultant added a row of planters on top of the wall separating the neighbors’ property. The fluffy grasses and plants soften the driveway turned patio, are more pleasant for the neighbors than another layer of fencing, and add a touch of nature to the hard surfaces of the outdoor space.

Add Midcentury Modern Style

A midcentury modern-style pergola adds privacy to this backyard patio from A Beautiful Mess. The geometric design both obscures the house next door and helps to camouflage the car in the car port so that you can focus on relaxing on the sherbet-colored painted concrete patio.

Make It Just High Enough

The backyard of this Palm Springs property from Michelle Boudreau Design is landscaped with hedges that are just tall enough to obscure the windows of the house next door without completely hiding it, allowing the view of the surrounding mountains to steal the show. The patio itself is divided into zones that offer space for different groups to gather. A row of tall cacti on opposite corners of the fire pit help define the space while leaving it open.

Add an Awning + Curtains

This backyard patio from A Beautiful Mess has a canopy that gives it shelter from the elements and curtains that can be pulled when you want a bit of extra privacy.

Install a Wood Slat Fence

This warm and relaxing San Francisco patio and outdoor kitchen from Seed Studio Landscape Design features a tiled, wood-fired pizza oven and grill that is seamlessly integrated with vertical wood veneer slats that match the same tones as the horizontal wood fencing. A vibrant blue Moroccan-style backsplash adds some color and indoor sophistication, and light toned concrete pavers and integrated lighting adds modern polish and a pleasing nighttime ambiance.

Keep It Simple

Interior designer Maite Granda chose simple wood fencing around the periphery of this Florida property that fades into the background while adding privacy for the back patio, yard, and stone fire pit patio that is the centerpiece of the outdoor space, reached by a walkway.

Choose Large Plants

Blanco Bungalow chose large scale plants to add privacy to the fire pit and banquette seating in this Los Angeles backyard. The giant leaves add drama and help give the space a sheltered feel.

Grow Thick Hedges

Thick hedges add privacy and a vibrant splash of natural greenery and color on the edges of this large, neutral-toned patio from Living With Lolo that includes a fire pit area, small outdoor kitchen, and pool.

Go Light

This patio from Mindy Gayer Design Co. takes a light approach by adding just enough privacy so that you can relax when seated without trying to block all the neighboring houses from view. A row of boxwood hedges behind the L-shaped sectional is just a head above the back of the seating, and can be left to grow wild or pruned to retain an open, semi-private feel.

Get Horizontal

Horizontal wood fencing around the periphery of this lounge-y San Francisco back patio from Seed Studio Landscape Design adds contrast with the concrete of the outdoor bar and fire pit and warmth against the cool contemporary furnishings. Lush plantings on the other side of the fence add greenery and softness.

Layer It Up

A privacy fence, bushy trees, and a poolside cabana that feels like a room within a room give this large outdoor space from Cathie Hong Interiors a private feel.

Plant at Various Heights

This small detached front fire pit patio from Brophy Interiors is sheltered by shrubs that protect the seating area from unwanted views, while native grasses fill in the space, and trees offer shade and cover.

Add a Freestanding Wall

An L-shaped wood slat wall shields the fire pit and seating area of this rooftop patio from Seed Studio Landscape Design, helping control wind and adding privacy to a corner of the open space located in a dense and hilly San Francisco neighborhood.

Hang Some Breezy Curtains

This outdoor patio from Fantastic Frank has a rattan canopy and billowing white gauze curtains around the periphery to shield harsh rays and add a sense of privacy and comfort to the outdoor dining space either day or night. Warm woods and natural textures add contrast with the patio flooring, and a few black accents add a graphic note.

Consider Layout

In this Northern California backyard from Cathie Hong Interiors, a high fence keeps the large outdoor space feeling private. On a small freestanding patio, a concrete and wood L-shaped banquette creates a sense of privacy from the rest of the space, making it more inviting to use.

Keep Furniture Low

Low slung seating hugs the high wood-clad retaining walls of this spacious rooftop patio from Seed Studio Landscape Design, creating a sense of privacy around the fire pit despite being surrounded by the urban jungle.

Plant a Container Garden

Fantastic Frank added a raised garden bed to this ground floor apartment patio that provides space for a small vegetable garden and a place to train vines that will eventually add extra privacy from passersby in the courtyard.

Fence-in the Front Yard

For those with more yard in front than behind, or who want to turn a large front yard into a usable grown-up space that doesn’t require watering or mowing, consider creating an urban fortress by putting up a wall. Home Consultant added 6-foot-high fencing on all sides of this front yard patio to create a private space that includes a wood deck and a gravel patio with a small fire pit seating area, optimizing the space.

Rooftop Privacy Planters

This rooftop patio from Fantastic Frank has sweeping ocean views. But the price of a million-dollar view can be the sense that you are on display, too. An easy and stylish solution to this problem is to line the periphery of the patio with a row of privacy planters that create a green screen from neighboring buildings and makes the seating and dining areas feel more relaxing to use without producing a fishbowl effect.

Decorate the Fence

Get creative and strategically decorate your privacy fence so it doesn’t feel too stark or foreboding. Arbor & Co. added high fencing to keep this converted driveway patio private from the next door neighbor, and hung a group of decorative woven baskets on the wall behind the outdoor sofa to anchor the seating area.

Decorative Screen + Hedging

This long and narrow patio-style deck from Fantastic Frank is a few steps down and visible from the living room, making it important to keep it looking as polished as the interior. To keep it feeling private, a decorative Moroccan-style lattice screen runs the length of the long wall, with bushes on the outside to keep it completely private from the next door neighbors.

Without the bushes, this type of privacy screen can add a decorative element that filters the light, creating interesting shadows depending on the time of day and providing partial privacy where you need it.

DIY Wood Slat Privacy Fence

A Beautiful Mess made a DIY privacy fence from white lattice strips that also serves as a vertical wall to hang plants. The simple fencing adds privacy without totally blocking views from the inside, keeping the outdoor seating area feeling open and bright.

Try a Bamboo Screen

You don’t need a huge outdoor space to create a cozy outdoor living room fit for afternoon reading or cocktails under the stars. This Mallorca apartment from Fantastic Frank has an ultra-private terrace thanks to high walls and some inexpensive bamboo fencing that blends in perfectly with the setting for a seamless look. A leafy potted plant, rattan furniture with vintage vibes, pale blue and white textiles, and LED string lights turn the space into an urban oasis that’s easy on the eyes and the budget.

Hide Beneath the Hedge

Dazey Den placed a small outdoor seating area comprised of white painted vintage rattan outdoor furniture in the shadow of a large hedge that provides both privacy and much-needed shade in the desert setting.

Zone It Off

This outdoor patio from interior designer Maite Granda uses different solutions to add privacy to different zones of the outdoor Florida space. This includes a covered outdoor sitting area with open sides and a wood slat roof awning and wall near the outdoor kitchen that provides shade and privacy. And a cozy elevated outdoor living room space has a cozy seating arrangement in shades of gray and white, an overhead ceiling fan, and a pair of curtains flanking the entrance that give it a VIP room vibe.

Turn Up the Volume

This NYC apartment patio from Manscapers used generous plantings in neat contemporary gray planters around the periphery to provide privacy from neighboring buildings and to create an urban garden setting for the space that is set up like an outdoor living room.

White Painted Lattice Panels

Kate Marker Interiors surrounded this outdoor patio seating area with high white painted lattice panels on the periphery of a half pergola supported by decorative columns that add privacy while retaining an open and airy feel. The lake cottage patio is covered with gravel and outfitted with Adirondack chairs to give it a cozy feel.

Plant a Tree

Interior designer and blogger Anita Yokota added wood accents with hanging plants around a large tree to add privacy and style to her backyard space. Then she defined her outdoor living room in a large backyard by installing a pergola, U-shaped seating, and anchoring it with an area rug.

Turn Your Back

To preserve a sense of privacy without blocking views on an outdoor patio or balcony, position seating facing in, like this outdoor space by Design Lines Signature that is accessorized with bright floral throw pillows and neutral outdoor furniture.

Paint the Fence

Dazey Den painted a sunny bright yellow circle on the fence that adds a touch of decor that is only visible from one side, adding personality to the privacy fence that anchors a seating area that feels like a secret but gets the job done.

Add Layers

This backyard pool patio and dining space from Fantastic Frank has built-in layers that turn it into a private and inviting space with the allure of a boutique hotel. A long banquette has a high back to keep it private and cozy, while a wooden canopy roof protect it from the elements.

Add a Curved Hedge

A Beautiful Mess added a tall, thick, curved half-circle hedge that hugs the pool patio Jacuzzi, providing a total sense of privacy from beyond the fence and defining the space from the adjacent pool.

Add a Canopy Roof

Blanco Bungalow added a canopy that shelters this outdoor patio seating area from the elements while adding extra privacy. The white-washed structure practically disappears against the light palette of the boho-style decor.

Stagger the Fencing

Home Consultant added staggered height fencing around this small gravel backyard patio that is adapted to the space, ensuring that there is adequate privacy from prying eyes without making the small space feel too closed in.

Add a Pop Up Canopy

A pop-up canopy is a simple way to add privacy to your patio. This driveway turned patio designed by Ajai Guyot for Emily Henderson Design frames a dining room set for a special meal, with tie-back curtains that can be closed for an extra layer of privacy.

Cover Up

The outdoor patio dining area can be completely covered once the canopy is closed. The warm tones of the fabric create an atmospheric glow inside, encouraging guests to linger until the candles blow out.