A patio or a porch, a backyard or a garden, even a tricked-out fire escape—an outdoor space can be as important a part of your home as the living room. Yes, it might be a personal escape to meditate and chill or a place for amusement-park-level family activity, but the sun really shines when you’re hosting friends, neighbors, and strangers in an open-air social space.

The homes in this issue all present possibilities for what a great outdoor environment for entertaining can be. In Puerto Escondido, a Venezuelan creative and her architect friend enjoy hanging out in a palapa-draped A-frame. The hefty concrete stairs at the heart of the home do a great job anchoring the invitingly open house. The porous screens at the Los Angeles home of one of my favorite artists make it feel a bit inscrutable from the street, but they frame space for music and a garden full of native plants that’s worth inviting people over to see. It’s the first phase of an ambitious building project that will eventually include a guest apartment for friends and family. We also dispatched our managing editor to a wooded cluster of prefab vacation outposts a couple hours from Mexico City that defy every precious cabin cliché.

While I’ve had some of my favorite backyard experiences over red Solo cups, our Modern World section has all kinds of accoutrements to set the scene for several seasons’ worth of memorable outdoor parties. Whether you’re full-on renovating (I’ve never seen someone go completely Copacabana on their patio with curvy pavers like the ones we feature here, but someone should) or just adding a few key pieces (the bar cart with a built-in streetlight looks brilliant), our recommendations will make an impression.

When you’re staying at a cabin in the woods, how much does the design of that cabin matter? You’re there for the trees, the birds, the glory of nature—not the architecture. At least, that was my thinking as I drove through the narrow cobblestone streets of Mineral del Chico, a small mountain town just over two hours from Mexico City, to test out a new offering from Wander Cabins, a company that rents design-forward short-term stays in various locations across the Mexican countryside. The setting would put on the show, I figured, and the structure, though handsome, would be a supporting player.

When I get to the site, nature does take center stage; it is a forested hillside that overlooks the surrounding lowlands, like a mountain by the sea. It’s quiet, save for the patter of birdsong, and the sunlight dappled by treetops swaying in the breeze is almost hypnotic. The cabins nestle into the slope, and mine is a green, flat-top box that blends into the earth. From afar, it’s pretty unremarkable, but closer up, its unusual curves become clearer. The two short sides of the 269-square-foot cabin bow out, and Santiago Garcia Rey, Wander Cabins’ founder, shows me how one rounded wall slides away, opening the interior up to the idyllic setting.

Instead of walking through the cabin’s front door, we climb through the massive new portal to get inside. The dark, wood-clad interior is modest—a kitchenette is on the open end, a built-in bed and some seating are in the middle, and the bathroom is on the other end—but high ceilings give the place a grandeur. With the rounded wall opened, it feels less like I’m inside and more like I’m tucked under the canopy of a century-old tree. It’s not a feeling I’ve had in any other forest hut I’ve visited.

Throwing an epic party outside requires more than just some space and a cooler. If you really want to stage events to remember, then you’ll have to think beyond the menu. Furniture, lighting, and even hardscaping can take backyard entertaining from just okay to amazing. If the idea of updating your patio feels overwhelming, don’t give up! We asked five (over)qualified hospitality experts for tips on executing their ideal outdoor event—from a chic block party to a laid-back dinner—and we also recommend a few new products to set the scene, whether you’re game for a major renovation or just sprucing things up for the season.

A Backyard Chill

For Natasha Pickowicz, a New York pastry chef turned writer and recipe developer, the season for outdoor entertaining starts early. “A lot of people in the Northeast think that eating outside is a summer thing,” she says. “I love a March-April moment.… If it’s above fifty-two degrees, I’m having people over for brunch.” Thanks to her small Brooklyn home, Pickowicz has no choice but to move the party outdoors. “I treat my backyard as a sort of dining room, living room, and everything room—an extension of my apartment,” she says. “All the entertaining that I do happens outside.” 

Channeling the coziness of a café keeps things comfortable even when it’s chilly. “Even if I’m doing just a barbecue in my backyard, I kind of approach the setup as if I were building out a little pop-up restaurant,” she adds. Pickowicz tends toward the colorful and the mismatched for tableware and linens, in lively shades of red and pink, but her one essential is unexpected and practical: “I bought a Slim Jim—they’re tall, skinny trash cans you usually see at a bar,” she says. “It’s always good to have a place for trash outside.”

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