Monday, August 3, 2009

Designing the Perfect Patio for summer

By Chuck R Stewart

The best way to enjoy the summer sun is to spend time out on a patio. Having a great patio for cookouts is a great addition to a backyard. If you are planning to put in a patio and you live in Canada, you could look into an Ottawa granite tile company or an Ottawa marble company to put in nice quality materials for your patio.

Once you have the perfect patio, making it a perfect summer hang out spot is the next step. Finding fun comfortable patio furniture is the first step in creating a place to hang out. Plastic patio furniture is typically inexpensive, but it usually is not very cute and will not survive harsh weather. Another inexpensive option for furniture would be wicker. The nice thing about wicker is that it does have some longevity and can be painted over and over again so as your taste in color change so can your patio furniture.A lot of stores offer really nice wooden patio furniture, but it tends to be a little bit more expensive.

Once the patio is furnished, adding little touches to the patio will pull together the space. Adding a grill to the patio is a must have. A simple little charcoal grill can work, but can be a pain to use sometimes. Stores offer such an array of grills with a very large price range. Before purchasing a grill, looking at consumer guides or other buyers aids will help.

The little creative aspects of decorating the patio are a lot of fun. Citronella candles are a must have for a patio. There are a lot of citronella candles that come in a variety of styles. You could look into cute tabletop candles or citronella torches that you could place around the patio. Even with the candles, lighting for the patio is something you will want to look into. With the green craze, a new popular option is solar powered lights. Another idea that will save energy is lights with a motion sensor. With whatever type of lighting you choose, you want to make sure that there is enough light that you and your guests wont have to rush inside because it is too dark to see each other.

A final step to putting together a great party on your newly designed patio is putting together some food and drinks. Grilling hamburgers and hot dogs is a simple options, or veggie burgers if you or your guests are vegetarian. Then you can simply put out some snacks like chips and pretzel, and a few typical picnic salads. Soda and bottled water are an easy drink option that you can just leave out in coolers. In honor of summer, you could make some fruit drinks for your guests. There are lots of options for fun fruit drinks that you can make. You can take drinks like pina coladas and margaritas and make them without alcohol so all your guests can enjoy the summer drinks.

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