While installing a new opening roof system to your patio is a great investment, staying on trend each year with fresh soft furnishings and styles is simple and affordable. So many local suppliers, garden stores and outlets offer a range of soft furnishings and small furniture items that enable you to update the vibe of your entertaining area regularly.

Here are some ideas on how to weave this year’s outdoor living trends into your space:

Concrete: Industrial and Minimalist

Concrete is so on trend this year with so many DIY renovation shows highlighting this material’s increasing use across the home. Kitchen tops, flooring, bathrooms, internal walls and laundries are getting their concrete hit!

You can easily extend this trend to your outdoor entertaining space with some of the following tips, without having to invest heavily in replacing your current patio/pergola floor or structure.

Simply add:

  • Textured concrete pot plant holders as an easy way to update the look of your potted plants. These come in a range of sizes, styles and colours—some even have pops of colour if you want to tie into a main colour theme as well.
  • Concrete-look ceramics, dinner sets and serving-ware to add texture to your table top.
  • Handmade vases with rough clay textures and natural foliage. These are great as a table centrepiece.
  • Marble! It comes in a range of colour combinations and is a great companion to concrete. This smooth and shiny material adds luxury to the generally rough texture of a concrete style. Marble table placemats and coasters, serving platters or chopping boards, and side tables can really balance a concrete theme.

Live the Luxury of the Kings of Palm Springs

Palm tree prints, white and bold colour combinations (think pink, yellow or blue), rattan chairs and cactus—just some of the on-trend characteristics of the Palm Springs style. So many local outlets and department stores have jumped on this trend making it super easy, and affordable, to create your own sunny luxury under your patio in your Sydney backyard this year.

To update your patio to this look with:

  • A bright white table runner with printed placemats and a mini cactus garden in rattan pot plant holders.
  • Some bright palm tree fabric and some cushion inserts to create your own DIY feature cushions.
  • Large potted cactus in groups of three under your patio, in a couple of locations.
  • Gorgeous succulents in hanging baskets or white macrame pot plant holders.
  • A replica acapulco chair or banana lounge in the garden, to add a pop of colour.

Don’t forget to be sustainable when you update your looks year to year, by either having a garage sale or donating no-longer-loved items to your local charity store for rehoming.