How to Add Shade to Your Yard and Extend Your Living Space

Your backyard represents a place for relaxation, exciting barbeque sessions, beer troves, and jolly sit-downs with your friends. Up until it rains, that is – then you’re bang out of luck.

Unless you have a giant umbrella overhead!

Or some strategically-placed trees, sunscreens or other means of protecting yourself against the elements. Indeed, if anything has the capacity to throw a major spanner in the works of your barbecuing session, it’s a particularly violent bout of torrential rain. Without some means of protection or the other, you’d really be up to the creek with no paddle!

The same goes for too much sun. On a scorching hot day, a backyard without some means of sun-protection can feel like inferno itself.

In this article, we’ll talk about this annoying occurrence and more importantly - what you can do about it. We’ll offer you different suggestions on how to bring more shade to your backyard so that you can enjoy merry barbecue days and worry-free family get-togethers!

Right then, folks, without further ado, here’s the deal.

Ways to Add Shade to Your Yard

Plant A Tree

Sounds rather simple - and it is.

If you need some shade in your backyard, but you don’t really mind waiting for a couple of years, or decades even better, planting a tree can be the way to go for you.

One of the best things about this simple approach is that it won’t cost an arm and a leg, and the solution is completely green and environmentally-friendly if you’re into that sort of thing.

Giant Patio Umbrella

Representing the polar opposite of the tree option, giant patio umbrellas work wonders in the department of setup speed, so speak.

While trees may take years to grow, a patio umbrella can ‘pop-up’, or be made to ‘pop-up’ rather within minutes! This can be a great option in case you’re expecting guests and the day looks a particularly sunny or a potentially rainy one.

The way this thing works is as its name itself suggests it. What you get is a giant umbrella you install in your patio. When it’s securely stuck in its place, spread it to its full extent, get some chairs under it, and Bob’s your uncle.

Pop-Up Canopy

Often seen at old WWI weapon exhibitions or summertime celebrations of local saints in small towns, canopies are a great way to get some protection against the aggressive sunrays and the rain, as well. For domestic use, so to speak, moderately sized pop-up canopies will suffice in protecting you and your friends from tough weather.

Pop-up canopies usually look like mini tents, which don’t go all the way down. The idea is to get some instant protection with as little of the canopy material used, as possible. A pretty handy invention, really.

Sometimes all you need to do to protect yours and your friends' noggin against rain, hail, and sunshine is a roof. Ever since first out-of-cave humans figured that getting hit with a tennis ball-sized hail wasn’t all that fun, there emerged a certain need to build roof-like structures.

Thus, if you can’t be bothered to experiment with gazebos, patio umbrellas, and other alternative means of providing shade for your backyard, simply building a roof can be the perfect course of action for you. Whether it’s tiles, tar ‘n’ gravel, or some copper roofing you’re interested in, getting a piece of your backyard well-covered by a sturdy roof will always be your best bet for protecting that particular patch of land against the elements.

Sun Shade

This one represents perhaps one of the weirdest sun-screening options on this list. In fact, what these sun shades are pretty much amounts to your standard indoor blinds – used outdoors.

Boasting a cheeky name that reminds one of a small, endangered African antelope, this form of protecting your backyard against the elements represents perhaps the most limiting way of doing so. The thing is, the patch of your backyard that sits under the gazebo itself will, indeed, be decently protected against all the aforementioned elemental disasters.

That said, gazebos aren’t that spacious – especially if you have a large party of people to take care of. Some bigger examples of these structures can house perhaps up to ten people, but they usually aren’t that good of an option for bigger celebrations and parties.

Build a Fence

Although erecting a fence may not be exactly the first thing that springs to mind when it comes to protection against aggressive UV rays, it just may do the trick. The idea here is similar to that of sun shades. The protective structure doesn’t necessarily stand overhead. Instead, it’s placed to the side of you, so you have to sit close to it to really reap its benefits, so to speak.

It all depends on the design of your backyard, really. If it’s awkwardly made so that a roofing structure may be difficult to pull off, a simple fence may do the trick just fine!

Get an Arbor

An arbor represents a curious structure that comprises high beams on top of which there is a sort of roof, which mainly serves to accept various species of plant.

The idea here is that vines or similar plants will get the job of protecting against the sun done as well as a regular roof, so why not kill two birds with one stone by making the ‘roof’ both do its job well AND look beautiful along the way? Looks pretty, doesn’t cost much – what’s not to love?

One of the main things to take into consideration when it comes to building a shade-providing structure in your backyard is what your needs are and what sort of budget you’re working with. We hope this article helped you figure out your sun and rain protection of choice, and wish you plenty of success installing it!

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