I share the full story of how our backyard evolved over nine summers in this post, but one of the biggest challenges we faced over time was shade. Read all about it here: “We Have Lived a Lifetime in This Yard.”
10 years ago this Fourth of July, my mom saw an Open House sign in the town we wanted to live and convinced us to walk through “just to see.”
We did walk through… and we did see that it needed buckets of elbow grease, a bag of money, and years of work.
As I looked out of the second floor bedroom window, I saw a wall of blue hydrangeas blooming across the backyard. My dream. It was a sign that sealed the deal.
The backyard, quiet location, and potential sold us. While the footprint of the suburban house is small by most standards, the backyard could be optimized for outdoor living space. We have made the most of the lot we have, but only through strategy and trial and error.
When we first moved in, two of our neighbors up the block had tremendous cottonwood and pine trees that shaded our patio from the blazing afternoon sun.
One by one, they were cut down.
The shade we once enjoyed was gone, and we found ourselves unable to host BBQs and outside dinners without watching guests sweat into puddles.
Our quest for shade started with dreams of a Sunsetter that spanned the back of the house. The placement of the chimney made it impossible for this to be a whole-patio shade solution. Not ideal.
Then we tried a large umbrella with a base that worked for a few seasons… and then an inexpensive canopy that has become the best feature in our yard.
This evolution spanned years — each stage working for the moment, but ultimately needing an upgrade for our space and family needs.
Our Backyard Shade Solutions That Actually Worked
This post contains Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. We only share products that have genuinely worked for our family and backyard over the years.
If you’re trying to make a small backyard more comfortable during hot summer months, these are the outdoor pieces that genuinely changed how we use our patio space:
• Retractable Backyard Canopy — the biggest game changer for shade, hosting, and making our patio usable all summer long without sacrificing space.
• Large Outdoor Umbrella + Base — our original shade solution before we upgraded to the canopy. Affordable, flexible, and surprisingly effective.
• Affordable Outdoor Sectional — a more budget-friendly option with the same cozy, family-friendly feel that made our patio become the gathering spot of the yard.
• Teak Outdoor Sectional — a higher-end wood option that gives the same warm, layered look we naturally gravitate toward in our backyard spaces.
• Industrial Outdoor String Lights — the easiest way to make a backyard feel cozy and usable after the sun goes down.
• Teak Patio Dining Set — similar to the heavy teak table and chairs we restored and still use for family dinners, birthdays, and summer BBQs.
What Actually Worked for Us
Solution 1: The Giant Umbrella Phase
In March of 2020, when I realized we would be home for the duration, I bought an outdoor sectional on Wayfair that I thought would be perfect for our patio. It has served us for six summers, from backyard BBQs to being lugged out to the street for block parties. It has been worth every penny.
((Outdoor Sectional Options We’d Actually Buy Again
• Affordable Outdoor Sectional — a more budget-friendly option with the same cozy, family-friendly feel that made our patio become the gathering spot of the yard.
• Teak Outdoor Sectional — a higher-end wood option that gives the same warm, layered look we naturally gravitate toward in our backyard spaces.))
In order to relax on the sectional, we needed some respite from the south-facing patio. The afternoon sun is relentless and beats off of the brick house and radiates onto the patio.
We were still in the thick of other construction projects, so buying a Sunsetter or other permanent structure that required permits and money we didn’t have was simply not an option.
Instead, we opted for a giant umbrella with a base that we got tons of use out of for several years. It was large enough to give the sectional coverage.
I used to move the baby pool under the umbrella so the babies weren’t in the afternoon sun.
It could be maneuvered for optimal shade coverage and the twinkle lights we installed made all the difference at night.
Adding shade essentially created additional outdoor living space we desperately needed. It was a worthwhile investment that we continued to seek solutions for as our family grew and our patio felt increasingly smaller.
The umbrella base became too cumbersome with a large extended family and toddlers underfoot.
Adding shade essentially created additional outdoor living space we desperately needed. As our family grew, though, the patio started to feel increasingly smaller.
Solution 2: Planting Trees for Long-Term Shade
In the meantime, my husband brought home a stick from one of his tree-cutting jobs. By stick, I mean the smallest dogwood tree I have ever seen.
As a tree guy, he had full faith that he could plant it next to the garage and it would give us shade coverage in a few years.
This tree has become one of my favorite parts of our yard. Not only does it give us delicious shade–increasingly more so each year– but also gives us privacy from our second floor bedroom. Where we were once looking into the back of our neighbors’ houses, we now wake up to greenery. It feels like a totally private retreat.
It took years to become what it is now, but it ended up being one of the best long-term investments we made in the yard.
Solution 3: The Retractable Pergola Canopy
For a year, my husband kept showing me pergolas that were in our very low budget. He would casually ask, “What about this? Do you think you’d like XYZ?”
As a full-time working mom of 2 children 2 and under, I really had no brain space for being visionary. That’s the truth.
His vision took the lead and he found a canopy on Amazon that resembles a pergola. He figured out a way to anchor the posts into the patio without damaging the pavers, while extending the structure into the grass to optimize our patio space and eliminate the tripping hazard of the umbrella base.
My husband may curse his way through assembling furniture and outdoor canopies, but he secretly loves the challenge.
With two kids underfoot, he built the pergola and it has been life changing.
Whether it’s morning coffee, escaping the afternoon sun, enjoying the string light ambiance at night, or even sheltering from light summer rain, we have gotten every penny’s worth out of this pergola.
We have taken care to retract the canopy through heavy storms and through the winter, which has preserved it for the past 2 summers.
The canopy itself could use a scrub to get dirt off of it, but that’s on the to-do list for another day.
While we sit on the sectional, the girls use their kids’ size picnic table for crafts, meals, and gardening projects. Sometimes I’ll bring the water table under the canopy to give them shade when the sun is just too strong in the yard.
The best part?
We have a separate outdoor living space when hosting gatherings.
6+ people comfortably at the picnic table with a standard umbrella
5+ people on the sectional
lawn chairs and even a pop-up tent =
the makings of a party even on ordinary weekends.
We might not have the biggest yard, but we have optimized the 40×100 suburban lot that we have.
While home renovations often show mansions with thousands of square feet to work with, it’s much more challenging to create a functional living space with less. It requires more brain power, inventiveness, and strategy–and focusing on what is absolutely the most important.
For us? It’s family time. A place for our girls to play and think and learn. Peace when we get home from working several jobs.
Rejuvenation in our little oasis has been built piece by piece.
Solution 4: Lighting
I should definitely send the link to this post to my husband because he is getting all of the kudos here.
While I wanted to find a lighting solution for evening patio use, he found bright industrial bulb string lights that give off enough light for late-night dinners and sunset reading sessions.
They’re the perfect string lights for both the umbrella and canopy. We can essentially light the entire patio with two strings of these lights.
I noticed on Amazon there are solar options, but we went with the traditional plug-in string lights so that we could use them rain or shine.
Our backyard shade solutions evolved over time just like the rest of our home. We didn’t figure it all out at once — we adapted season by season until the space finally worked for the way we actually live.
If you’re creating a backyard that functions for real family life — not just pretty photos — these posts continue the story:
• We Have Lived a Lifetime in This Yard — the full story of how our small suburban backyard evolved over 9 summers into the heart of our home.
• Teacher Mom’s Pool-to-Bedtime Routine — the summer evening systems that help our home function during the busiest season of the year.
• Teacher Mom’s Summer Survival Guide: Pool & Beach Systems That Actually Work — the routines, systems, and small shifts that make summer with kids feel calmer and more manageable.
Piece by piece, season by season, we created a backyard that finally worked for the way we actually live.
Spruceprints 