“My extravagance is mine Garden“It’s the first thing I see every morning when I wake up.” Ina Garten told Vanity Fair in 2010. In today's fast-paced, screen-obsessed world, creating your own outdoor living space is more than just a luxury – it's a necessity. Whether it is a small balconya urban roof gardenor a sprawling one country landscapeA personal outdoor retreat allows for moments of reconnection with nature and social gatherings. What does 2025 have in store for our outdoor spaces?
With Summer Just around the corner, outdoor living spaces are becoming more than just an extension of the home – they are a true reflection of our lifestyles and design preferences. This year, we're looking to other cultures for clues to living graciously, which means swapping our hot tubs for cold plunge pools and going all out Outdoor kitchen game. We're also taking the climate into account in our buildings, rethinking the aesthetics of wickerwork, and making rooftop living more sustainable (read: green roofs).
“We value time with family and friends, living in our landscape – eating outside, cooking together, walking through meadows and watching the butterflies collect nectar with our children,” says landscape architect Ed Hollander. “All of this creates the magic that makes life better.”
Whether you're remodeling your yard or just looking for inspiration, here are six outdoor living trends that will define porches and patios everywhere this year. Get ready to take your outdoor space to a whole new level of living comfort.
Wicker 2.0
The wicker furniture trend is booming right now and it's not hard to see why. Wicker and rattan have always had a permanent place in the halls for outdoor patio moments (great-grandmother had a flower-upholstered rattan chair before Serena & Lily launched its first sale). However, this classic design object is reinterpreted in a new way that catches people's attention. “Blonde wicker in outdoor furniture brightens and refreshes spaces that were mostly dark grays or browns, making it more interchangeable with old-fashioned blonde wicker and rattan indoor furniture,” says the A-list designer Celerie Kemble from ELLE DECOR. Additionally, the shapes are softer, in keeping with the curved sofa trend, and often feature gentle waves and scallops.
Kemble says she's excited to see new outdoor furniture pieces that go beyond the standard design pieces. “Pieces that play with the positive and negative elements of trellises, but in shapes that are less linear and more interesting,” she adds. Take her for example LaneVenture Tracery Collectiona wonderfully interesting feast for the eyes.
“My customers now expect their outdoor furniture to have character and be just as comfortable as their indoor furniture,” says Kemble. “No more hard, flat teak or soggy, thin cushions and simple right angles.”
Cold plunge pools
Once upon a time, all you needed to unwind was a relaxing hot bubble bath—or, if you were lucky, a dip in the hot tub or backyard pool. Today, however, backyard enthusiasts are taking a cue from European wellness traditions and building cold plunge pools and saunas. Spurred by social media and celebrities touting these invigorating amenities as a way to improve circulation and relieve inflammation (we're looking at you, Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, and David Beckham), cold plunge tubs will be a fixture in many backyards by 2025.
The percentage of listings on Zillow that feature a home cold plunge pool increased by 130% in 2025 compared to the previous year, according to Zillow Trend report. Zillow data found that these ice-cold tubs are most common in markets like Stamford, Connecticut; Las Vegas; and Los Angeles.
Most often, they are part of homes listed as luxury properties (installing a cold plunge pool with wiring and plumbing fixtures can cost around $30,000), but there are also portable cold tub options that do-it-yourselfers can take advantage of make their own in a smart and budget-friendly way. Who else needs to go to Iceland?
The outdoor kitchen 2.0
In 2025, we will no longer be satisfied with a simple grill setup. Today's homeowners are looking for backyard kitchen amenities that rival their indoor kitchens, complete with luxury appliances like pizza ovens, steam ovens, and sleek stainless steel grills.
Research from Zillow in 2023 found that listings touting chef-friendly amenities like steam ovens, pizza ovens, and professional appliances can sell for up to 5.3% more than comparable homes without them. The trend of having your own pizza oven is high, and pizza ovens are still on the rise, from portable ovens like the Ooni Koda 16 Pizza Oven to restaurant-friendly units like the Dome Oven.
Americans also spend thousands of dollars developing luxury grilling and refrigeration equipment that enables this unique cooking technique, in which meat is slowly cooked over a wood fire, producing a deliciously smoky flavor and tender meat. Argentinian grills are increasingly in demand in residential projects, says Nick Fobes, partner at Chicago LA and Kansas City-based landscape architecture firm Hoerr Schaudt.
“Outdoor cooking and entertaining are the focus, with as much attention given to the backyard as the kitchen,” he explains. “These grills elevate the experience by combining high functionality with a dramatic flair that’s hard to resist.”
Green roofs
City dwellers, think about it. While green roofs are common in Europe, they are becoming increasingly popular in modern home additions in the United States. The stateside green roof market, estimated at $1.9 billion in 2023, is expected to grow from $2.21 billion in 2024 to $7.32 billion in 2032. Ecommerce marketing agency Skyquest found in a report. “Major cities in North America such as Chicago, Portland, Toronto and Washington, DC have added large numbers of green roofs in recent years,” writes Kendall Elfstrum in one meager for the Princeton Student Climate Initiative.
Sustainability experts around the world rejoice because these rooftop additions are known to improve air quality, reduce heating and cooling costs, absorb rainwater, and provide habitat for wildlife, among other benefits. In fact, the overall benefits are so great that some cities offer tax incentives to homeowners with green roofs.
Of course, it is also the aesthetic advantages that speak in favor of implementing these trendy home accessories. A rooftop garden is a luxury for city dwellers who have less access to green space and may lose their minds some days (this editor speaks from experience). “Where we can and it is possible, we believe enlivening our interior spaces through access to nature is always beneficial,” says ELLE DECOR A-list designer Leyden Lewis. Even if that means vertical alignments.
Climate resilient functions
As climate-related disasters become more commonplace — and in the wake of a catastrophic wave of fires in Los Angeles that destroyed more than 12,000 structures — home sellers are highlighting features that offer a degree of protection, and buyers are looking for them. Zillow Research finds that 86% of recent home buyers say it is very important that a home has at least one climate-resilient feature.
The report found that the share of for-sale listings on Zillow mentioning flood barriers increased 22%, the share of seismic retrofits increased 20% and references to watershed systems increased 19% compared to last year. Drought-resistant turf pitches are 14% more common compared to last year. “With all the environmental concerns in today’s world, outdoor spaces are indeed coming into focus in new ways,” says Lewis. “They never really disappeared, they just re-prioritized.”
Wherever you live and whatever natural disasters your home may be exposed to, security seems to be quickly becoming the ultimate luxury.
Rachel Silva is Associate Digital Editor at ELLE DECOR, where she covers all things design, architecture and lifestyle. She also oversees coverage of the publication's editorials and is, at any given time, in the midst of an investigation into everything from the Internet to the current situation. She has over 16 years of editorial experience and worked as a photo editor at Time and serves as President of Women in Media in NYC. She attended Columbia Journalism School and her work has been nominated for awards from ASME, the Society of Publication Designers and World Press Photo.