Enjoy Spending More Time on Your Patio with These Upgrades

Glass is such a beautiful, versatile building material, especially when it is applied to your outdoor spaces. Adding glass elements to your patio can enhance its style, comfort, and functionality. Some add-ons and customizations can even transform your patio and outdoor living space into a place you can use year-round. There are endless ways custom glass can enhance your outdoor space.

Here are our top 14 ways you can enhance your patio with custom glass features. Adding any of these custom glass features to your outdoor space might just make your patio your new favourite place to spend time around the house.

1. Privacy Walls

Adding a frosted or sandblasted privacy wall to your outdoor space can make things feel cozier while adding some shelter from wind, noise, and nosy neighbours. You can also experiment with adding LEDs at the base of your new glass walls if you intend to use the space once the sun goes down.

2. Doors

Sometimes an enhancement to your patio is made by changing the way you access the space. Replace your regular back door with a sliding glass door, French doors, or a pivoting glass door that swings open by way of a spindle down the middle of the door frame.

Folding glass doors can also have a huge impact on your patio. These types of doors offer vast views of the outdoors when closed. When folded back (open), they extend your indoor level space to your outdoor space.

3. Patio Covers

Patio covers are essential for outdoor living spaces to provide everyone shelter from the elements. They  essentially act as an extended awning that is affixed to your home’s exterior. Glass patio covers do not have walls, but still provide shelter from the rain and shade from the sun, without obstructing the view from above. They come in many different style options, including aluminum or wood framed, and clear, opaque, or tinted glass. 

4. Pergolas

A glass pergola is a lot like a patio cover, only it’s a freestanding structure that is not attached to your home. This can come in handy if your BBQ centre is a few steps away from the home and a patio cover can’t quite make the distance. Pergolas are also a good alternative if you’re not comfortable attaching something to the home’s exterior.

5. Gazebo

Forget the walls and the patio cover and go for a full-on gazebo! If you have the space and the budget, a glass gazebo in your yard will be the ultimate enhancement, providing you shelter on a rainy or windy day. It will also become the focal point of your outdoor living space and look nice and elegant.

6. All-Season Room

An all-season room, often referred to as a three season or four season sunroom, takes your enhancement of your patio even further by fully enclosing it and turning it into an extension of your home via glass walls and in many cases a glass roof. Sunrooms can be customized to fit the architecture of your exterior. Use the space as a yoga or fitness studio, a greenhouse, or just an extra seating room.

7. Pool Fencing

Adding a fence made of glass around your backyard pool is an elegant and stylish way to add a safety feature to the pool area. It’s a great alternative to chain link or plastic picket fencing that not only looks attractive, but gives you an unobstructed view of the pool and its occupants while preventing young children and pets from overstepping.

8. Deck Railings

More and more homeowners are turning to glass deck railings to enhance the look and feel of their outdoor seating area. Glass deck railings are modern, safe, easy to maintain, and provide an unobstructed view into the backyard or waterfront view. Customize your look by choosing the railing’s framing material and colour. You can also choose to forego the top rail altogether.

9. Tabletops

Glass tabletops are a quick and easy way add glass elements to your outdoor living space. You can pick one up easy enough from any home improvement store, or make one yourself by ordering a custom-cut piece of glass sized, shaped, and styled to your liking. Place the tabletop on an object of your choosing, or add it to an existing table to increase its sturdiness and durability. 

10. Artwork

Glass can be added to your backyard purely as an art piece, whether it be an etched glass windowpane in a doorway, a decorative panel in a deck railing, or a custom piece of artwork in a stand-alone frame. When done this way, the glass stands out and may just become the focal point of your outdoor space.

11. Water Walls

When glass, light, and moving water come together, the effects are beautiful and tranquil. A custom glass water wall can add a touch of glimmer to the outdoor space. It works like a water fountain, only the water falls from the top down against a panel of glass, which can be smooth or textured, back-lit or not, and incorporated into your vegetation (or not). 

12. Light Fixtures  

To tie your patio’s lighting solution in with the rest of your custom glass ensemble, consider glass lanterns or other types of light fixtures made of clear glass. Some can even be solar-powered. Glass lanterns look amazing hanging from trees or when used to illuminate the stairs. Don’t forget to add one or two as your table’s centrepiece.

13. Glass Firepit Surround

If you opt to have a firepit in your backyard, pair it with a glass wind guard to shelter the flames from gusts of wind. The glass will also reflect the fire nicely and create a nice visual effect. The glass can be cut to the dimensions of your existing fire pit, even if it’s circular. 

14. Mirrors

Mirrors don’t have to be reserved to bathrooms and bedrooms! They can easily be added to any patio design. Consider custom sizes and shapes to add a decorative touch to your yard while at the same time making small spaces feel larger and amplifying some of the gorgeous colours and patterns you have added to the patio.

Your backyard will be looking like a stunning oasis in no time with some or all of these elegant custom glass features!

The glass and window specialists at Modern can help you bring your regular and custom-cut glass projects to life! Request a free quote or call us today at 1-866-934-2599 with your questions or feedback on any or all of the suggestions above.