Outdoor spaces are many things these days but rustic is not one of them. Neither is natural. For many Desert Mountain Members, the backyard has become the ultimate family room, a place to be decorated and tamed, a calm setting for stylish stuff, while nature is held at bay. During the past decade, Scottsdale backyard designs transformed into major design statements. Patios mimic hotel lobbies. Backyards are stage sets, with dramatic light scaping after the sun recedes. Pools are excuses for ever-proliferating furniture and conversation areas.
The backyard became an American staple after World War II with the boom in single-family homes and leisure time. The first Weber grill fired up in 1952. The ubiquitous Grosfillex chair, thought to be the first mass-market plastic outdoor seating, was born seven years later. Americans long made do with lawns, nature’s outdoor rug, or in the case of some Arizonans, a desert landscape. These are no longer enough. Now we have actual outdoor rugs, a design statement to tie the outdoor living room together, the outdoors being a place to be coordinated and tied together, and where feet require protection from dirt, heat, cold.
“People want their outdoor living area to be as sophisticated as their indoor living room,” said David Friedman, Managing Broker for Russ Lyon|Sotheby’s International Realty. “Interior design long exhorted homeowners ‘to bring the outside in’, embellishing rooms with plants, wood, stone, and natural light. Today’s design ethos inverts this, turning the inside out: outdoor family rooms, deluxe kitchens with cooler drawers, a luxury grill that rivals any stove in size and price, elaborate sound systems, and colossal, weather-durable televisions. When you were a kid, your parents would say ‘stop watching television and go outside’. Now you can go outside and watch television.”Refreshed Scottsdale backyard designs and exterior decorating was on the rise before coronavirus shutdowns, possibly because some folks ran out of rooms to revamp. Investment in the outdoors makes sense when you consider how much time, pre-pandemic, many workers spent in offices with sealed windows, fluorescent lighting and view-thwarting cubicles, nature seeming as distant as Mars. During the pandemic, the home transformed into everything — office, school, gym, asylum. The backyard’s status became more exalted, a safe space where we could gather.
Emphatic outdoor living is part of our evolving self-care regimen. At the end of day, green plants and blue skies feed everyone’s soul. People need places to just sort of relax. It’s also connected to wellness. Everyone wants to spend more time relaxing outdoors after spending so much time on our devices.
When you aren’t working out at Sonoran, playing golf or competing in friendly pickleball or bocce matches, it’s nice to know the great outdoors is right in your own backyard.
If you’ve been looking for home with this kind of lifestyle, there are many still on the market here at Desert Mountain. Speak with our Membership team to get started.
