Privacy is what most all of us crave to come home to after a day spent out in the world, so it’s an important thing to create if it is lacking both in and just outside of the home. A cozy, enclosed patio or balcony can become an extra lounge room for romantic moments with your partner, and a private backyard or garden can become an inviting place for meditation or yoga–there are just some activities that you don’t want your neighbors to be able to see! So if you’ve recently had your outdoor privacy decimated by your neighbor’s new second level bedroom with its window view onto your patio, or if you’ve always longed for more cozy privacy outside, here are the 4 main ways to achieve it:

1. Privacy Fencing

The first and most obvious choice to new home owners is to build a tall fence. Fences keep the kids and dogs from escaping, the burglars reconsidering burgling, and the demarcation between ‘not-mine’ and ‘mine’ tight and secure. Fencing can be basic or elaborate, continuous or broken up into standing panels, as in the first top left picture below. It can be something made from scavenged pieces of wood or, as in the bottom right picture, up-cycled shutter doors!

Decorative screens work exceptionally well with fences to break up the monotony of plain wood, or they can be used to create the entire fence. Here’s QAQ’s ‘Cherry Blossom’ in black acrylic, installed over the top of this fence to create a more stylish, Japanese-inspired garden area:

Custom sized and cut screens can also be used to add height onto the top of an existing fence as it was here with QAQ’s ‘Bamboo’ design:

2.  Privacy Hedges & Landscaping

Though it may take a bit more time to create and then to maintain, a long-term plan to grow a tall hedge for increased privacy is the most environmentally sustainable option, and the one that will make your enclosed space feel a lot more like a natural, whilst highly manicured, oasis. There are endless varieties of good hedge species to choose from, with one of the fastest-growing, and tallest being bamboo, as seen in the picture bottom left:

3. Patio Curtains

To enclose a smaller area just around the patio or balcony, a very quick and easy to install option is to hang curtains. Not only will these give the space privacy, they will also shade any area from the sun during the day, and as the afternoon progresses the curtains can be opened or closed along the sides of the patio as the sun moves across the sky. At night, they will make the enclosed space feel like an outdoor room. Curtains that can flow open or be held back by beautiful braided cords and tassels are an especially stylish, romantic decorative feature. Here are some beautiful examples:

4. Decorative Screens

Decorative screens are a newer trend toward creating beauty and privacy, and here at QAQ we are on the forefront of providing the most designs in the largest variety of materials, standard or custom sized, made and sold within Australia. There are so, so many ways screens can be used to create privacy, and all at varying levels of privacy: some provide near total block-out, others are barely there as exotic and intimate, shapely divides.

Here is QAQ’s ‘Fern Leaf’ design installed as a center decorative feature in a patio wall:

For a more DIY, easy installment, screens can simply be hung along a patio ceiling, as with these ‘Cayman’ screens:

With a bit more planning, a larger structure can be made using screens with a high block-out rating for near total privacy and sun shade, as with these ‘Eden’ screens in compressed hardwood, painted beige:

Though we can’t help you with the first three options, we can definitely help you with the fourth if decorative screens appeal to you! Take a look at our many designs available and contact sam@qaq.com.au for a quote or more information.

I hope you enjoyed this post and got some inspiration for improving your home!

~Christine