How to Create a Backyard Retreat | Endure Decks

The decisions, in order, that turn an outdoor space into somewhere you actually switch off.

TL;DR. A backyard retreat isn't a look you buy — it's a feeling you design for. Decide the feeling you're after, design the whole space as one piece, get the overhead cover, the privacy and the light right, then build in the things that make you stay. In that order. Do it that way and the backyard stops being somewhere you walk through and becomes somewhere you go to switch off.

There's a particular feeling you're chasing when you imagine your backyard finished. It's the same one you get from a swim before work, or a beer somewhere as the sun drops — the feeling of being, for a while, completely unreachable. We wrote about that feeling itself, and why it's worth building for, in A Holiday That Lives at Your House. This is the practical companion: how you actually create a backyard retreat. Because a retreat isn't luck and it isn't a budget number — it's a set of decisions, made in the right order. Here's the order.

Most outdoor projects start with objects — a daybed, a fire pit, a heater someone saw online. Start there and you end up with a collection of things on a slab. Start with the feeling instead and the question changes: what do you want this space to do for you? Somewhere to host, loud and full? Somewhere quiet for a coffee before the house wakes up? Somewhere the kids run loose while you watch from the kitchen? A retreat built for hosting looks nothing like a retreat built for switching off. Name the feeling first, and every later decision gets easier.

A retreat reads as calm because it is one thing — not five things that turned up separately. The floor, the cover, the screening, the light: decide them together, on a plan, before anything is ordered. That is what the design phase is for — get the space rendered, see how the materials and colours actually sit together, and catch the awkward bits on paper instead of discovering them once it's built. A space designed as a whole feels resolved. A space assembled piece by piece always feels slightly off, and most people can't say why.

If one decision separates a backyard you use from a backyard you look at, it's overhead cover. A space you can only use on mild, dry afternoons isn't really a retreat — it's somewhere you visit when the weather allows. Cover changes that: it pulls the hot afternoon sun off the space, it stops a shower ending the evening, and it makes the area feel sheltered and held — which is a large part of what "retreat" even means. There are a few ways to do it — a solid insulated roof, an opening louvre roof, an open pergola — and the right one depends on your block and how you'll use the space. Our guide to overhead roof cover walks through all of them. Whatever you choose, decide it early: the roof shapes everything underneath it.

A retreat has to feel a little enclosed. Wide open to the neighbour's upstairs window, exposed to the wind, and the space never quite lets you relax. Screening fixes it — a slatted screen for privacy along a boundary, something to break the wind, a panel that turns an open platform into a space with edges. It doesn't need to wall you in. It needs to make the space feel like yours, with a clear inside to it.

A retreat that only works in daylight is half a retreat. Most of the switch-off hours — the evening beer, the late dinner, the fire — happen after dark. Lighting wants to be designed in from the start: soft, layered, on its own circuits, with the power points planned so nothing runs off a lead through a door. Light added as an afterthought looks like an afterthought. Light designed in disappears, and the space simply works at night.

Now the objects — but built in, not scattered. A bench seat built into the edge. A fire to gather around on a cold, clear night. A spot framed and ready for a spa or an outdoor kitchen if that's the brief. Built-in elements anchor a space and give it a centre of gravity — a reason your body settles in one place. That's the difference between furniture parked on a slab and a space you sink into.

The last decision is the join — where the house meets the outdoor space. Done well, you step out and the inside simply continues; the retreat feels like a room of the home, not a structure tacked on the back. Done badly, there's an awkward step, a puddle at the door, two spaces that never speak to each other. It's a small detail with a big say in the result, and it's worth getting right on the plan. Our guide to indoor-outdoor flow covers it properly.

One honest thing to finish on. A retreat is the sum of those decisions, and the decisions cost what they cost. A retreat built on half the budget it needed isn't a cheaper retreat — it's an outdoor space with the relaxing parts left out. Far better to build it in considered stages, fully, than to do all of it at once and thinly. Our guide to outdoor renovation cost walks through where the money actually goes.

If you take one thing from this: a retreat is decided, not stumbled into. Stand in your backyard, picture the feeling you want from it, and work backwards through these decisions. Get the order right and you don't end up with a backyard — you end up with somewhere to go.

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How do I make my backyard feel like a retreat?

Start with the feeling you want from it — to host, to unwind, for the family — then design the whole space as one piece around that: cover overhead, privacy, layered light, and a built-in or two that give you a reason to stay.

What makes an outdoor space relaxing?

Shelter and a sense of enclosure. A space that's covered, a little private, and softly lit feels held — and "held" is most of what makes somewhere relaxing.

Do I need a roof for a backyard retreat?

Cover is the single biggest factor in how much you actually use the space. Most genuine retreats have some form of overhead cover — a solid roof, louvres, or a pergola.

How much does a backyard retreat cost in Perth?

It depends on size, materials, cover type and your site — there's no single figure. Our outdoor renovation cost guide breaks down where the money goes.