A Florida patio is a beautiful addition to your home that can be equal parts fun and relaxing, depending on how you want to use it. Since this isn't quite an indoor space nor an outdoor one, you might be trying to figure out what pieces go well in it. Don't worry; we found some Florida Patio Ideas for fun, beauty, relaxation, and anything else you use your room for!
1) Bright and Sunny
A Florida room should be bright and sunny, of course. Why else would they call it a Florida room? Since the room is sunny, it gives you the opportunity to choose sunny decor and really accent the bright and happy nature of the place. To make a sunny Florida patio, you'll want bright yellows and oranges and imagery like this abstract rug from Amazon. The rug is designed for an indoor/outdoor space like this, and the abstract images make one think of the sun and flowers.
2) Bluetooth Lights
Once you have an enclosed patio, you're protected from bugs, rain, and other weather, and a Florida patio will hold in heat longer than most. This means you can spend hours in the evening or on a rainy day enjoying the warmth and relaxing atmosphere of your Florida patio. If you're spending time there in the evenings or on cloudy days, though, you can't rely on sunlight for lighting, and we liked the idea of Bluetooth lighting. This way, you can turn the lights on from your house and use the patio lights to guide you there.
3) DIY Dartboard Cabinet
If you like to play darts, you've probably found that it's hard to carve out a space to do so comfortably. Most people don't have many places in their house that they can leave open enough to play, and if they do, they end up filling the empty space with odds and ends so that there's nowhere to stand and play. One neat thing you can do with a solid outbuilding like this is by attaching a dartboard to the outside of the walls and building a cabinet to keep the rain off it using these instructions.
4) Natural Fibers
If you want the area to feel like a true Florida patio, you'll probably want to create a coastal look. One element of coastal decorating is natural fibers, including ropes and woven grasses, and since your patio is covered, you can use authentic natural threads that might not have held up well outdoors. We found this storage container made from woven water hyacinth that would make excellent storage for a patio. You can place seasonal decorations, blankets, and other things that you only use some of the time in this.
5) Custom Lighting
Patios, pools, and other outdoor buildings each have lighting requirements that differ from other types of buildings, and you'll want to design the lighting properly for them. Is your Florida patio a pool room? Maybe it's a sunroom or a garden? If your patio is anything other than a standard small covered patio, you may want to talk to professionals like Lanai Lights about how to light the area as effectively as possible. Don't forget to account for outdoor lighting so that you can walk safely to the patio at night.
6) Pool
A Florida patio doesn't have to be a sitting room for outdoor events. It can be a sitting room, but also a covered pool. By covering your pool, you'll create a place where you can go swimming much longer than you usually could and where you'll have protection from weather and debris that could fall into the pool. The neat thing is that you can also have a seating area alongside it. You can use this article to help you design the Florida patio and pool.
7) Swinging Chair
Porch swings are comfortable and relaxing places to sway back and forth as you enjoy nature and maybe watch passersby, but they require a solid beam above you most of the time. While you can use a freestanding porch swing, they take up a lot of room and typically don't look good in an enclosed space. To get the comfort of a swinging seat, we'd suggest something like this swinging chair that hangs from a stand. It's small enough to look good in an enclosed space, and you don't need any solid overhead beams to hang it from.
8) Get a Local Estimate
If you're putting in a new Florida patio, you'll need to plan ahead so that you can budget it and figure out how much space you need for your purpose. Will it be a pool room, garden, or maybe a sitting room? Do you know how thick a concrete pad should be or how much lumber it'll take to build the room? Before you get started, you'll want to get an estimate from a local contractor. You can find one using this online search tool. That way, the rest won't come as a surprise.
9) Pinstripes
Pinstripes are one way to create a coastal look, particularly if you look for coastal colors, like sandy reds and yellows, blues, and grays. These kinds of stripes make the area feel lighter and more tropical, making them excellent for a pool room and patio combination. There aren't too many places to put pinstripes in a patio, but you can get upholstered pinstripe chairs or pinstriped pillows. You can even get pillow covers like these so that you can wash them easily.
10) DIY Resin Dandelion
When you create an outbuilding like a Florida patio, you're designing a space that's protected from the elements so that it's more comfortable, and you can use it for a longer period of time each day and each year. The problem is that a room like that's also cut off from nature, but you can make it feel more like a part of your lawn and the surrounding woods or fields. Try finding decorations that look natural, like pressed flowers, or make plants encased in resin. Watch this video to learn how to make resin dandelion decorations.
11) Rattan
Rattan furniture is ideal for a covered patio of any sort and even more so for a Florida patio. It looks natural so that it fits a coastal theme and brings natural decorations into your outbuilding. This creates a beautiful, natural, and coastal look, and rattan furniture like this piece is typically waterproof so that you don't have to worry about sitting on it with wet or muddy clothes or leaving windows open during a light rain.
12) Paint Outdoor Cushions
Even though the Florida patio is covered to protect against the weather, you'll want most of your cloth seats to be made with outdoor materials so that you can sit on them with dirty or wet clothes after walking out through the rain. Unfortunately, outdoor cushions don't always have as much color selection as indoor furniture, so you might want to modify them. You can use these directions from Rustoleum to customize your outdoor cushions by painting them.
13) Palms
Palms are familiar tropical imagery, and if you're looking for a tropical or coastal Florida room, they're an excellent way to set the atmosphere. You don't even need genuine palms or palm images; instead, you can get things with abstract imagery that resembles palms. This outdoor rug from Amazon has a pattern that looks like palms, and since it's designed for the outdoors, you don't have to worry about tracking dirt in on your way out to the patio.
14) Acrylic Birdhouse
If you have clear glass windows, you'll have a wonderful view of the yard, but if you're an avid birdwatcher, you may not have the view of the exact spot you want. You can set it up so that you have a clear view of a bird's nest not ten or twenty feet away from the window, but right against it. This acrylic birdhouse is strong but transparent so that you can mount it against the windows with suction cups.
15) Sofa Cover
Outdoor furniture is great if you're worried that your kids or dog will get the cushions wet, but you don't really need outdoor furniture for a Florida patio. Instead, you can place an old couch out in the enclosed patio and cover it with a couch cover like this. The cover will look nicer if the couch has damage or stains, and you can take it off to clean every so often if people and animals are tracking dirt in.
16) Furniture Battery
If your patio has electricity, that's amazing! You have so many more things you can do out there than most patios, but you probably still have one or two outlets. If you put your old furniture out in the Florida patio, you might even have a piece with an electric massage or recliner, but with limited electricity or none, you might not have a good place to plug it in. This furniture battery from Amazon is a neat way to expand your options since you can plug electronic chairs or recliners into it instead of an outlet.
17) Burnt Texture Decorations
If you want to create a natural look to make the Florida patio feel like part of your yard, you can get or make decorations from natural materials like wood. If you want natural-looking decorations, you can use this video tutorial to learn how to make burnt wood textures. Then, make plaques and other decorations this way and hang them as decorations on the patio. You can even wood burn some furniture if you like the idea.
18) Outdoor Recliner
Recliners are some of the most comfortable seats for a living room or other sitting space, but most of the time, people don't use them outdoors. There's no reason not to use one in a covered patio, of course, but if you're worried about upholstered furniture getting dirty or wet when kids and pets come in from outside, you can get outdoor recliners like this one from Amazon. This is designed to handle the outdoors so that you don't have to worry about mold or mildew growing on it if it gets wet too often.
19) Screened
A Florida patio doesn't have to be enclosed with wood and glass, though that's probably one of the most common methods. If you're worried about insects, but still want to be able to feel a breeze through the patio, you can get a Florida screen room like the ones on this site. You can make one yourself or have them professionally built so that you won't have to worry as much about screens coming loose due to improper installation.
20) Sea Glass Stepping Stone
Don't just look at the patio; look at the space around it and how well it ties into that space. How will you get out to it? Will you be able to see? Will you track in mud? The landscape of your yard is important, and you can even begin setting the tone for a tropical Florida patio as people walk up to it. Try crafting sea glass stepping stones using these directions and using them to create a path to the patio so that you won't track mud and dirt in when walking from the patio to the house.
21) Woven Rug
Woven furniture and decorations have a natural look that helps your patio blend in with the yard and make it feel like you're outdoors despite the walls protecting you from the elements. These pieces also create a coastal look since natural fibers are a big part of the coastal decorating style, so if you want your room to look like it's in Florida, a handmade woven rug like this is a perfect combination of natural and coastal.
22) DIY Pallet Wood Furniture
Pallet wood is one of the best building materials for an outdoor space, whether it's a patio, porch, or deck. It has a natural multi-toned look without any staining, painting, or manmade weathering, and you can find pallets for free or cheap at almost any store. You can use these directions to make a pallet wood chair or find plans for making a pallet bench or couch. You can even add cushions to it since it'll be protected from rain.
23) Multicolor Lights
Your patio is warmer than most since it's enclosed, and you don't have to worry about evening bugs. This means that you can use it at night or during cloudy weather, but it also means that you'll need lighting since the sun won't be providing light at those times. We loved the idea of string lights and even found these multicolor ones so that you can create a fun space with them! They have a remote so that you can decide if you want regular or colored light at a given time.
24) Greenhouse
A Florida patio can be so many different things, but we wouldn't be giving you a proper set of ideas if we didn't talk about a greenhouse Florida patio. Sunrooms are designed to hold in warmth and sunlight, so you can combine one with a greenhouse, making a warm space for both you and your plants. This article from Greenhouse Emporium has information about planning your plants after building the greenhouse, and you can have a sitting area with it!
25) Blue Glass Mosaic
If you want a beachy, tropical look, blue and sandy colors are ideal, and glass will create a look that resembles water. We liked the idea of blue glass mosaic furniture to create a coastal look that's appropriate for a Florida room. The neat thing about a glass mosaic or sea glass mosaic is that you can make one or buy one. Try getting a furniture piece with a glass mosaic like this one from Amazon.
What're you thinking about doing with your Florida patio? Have you built it yet, or are you browsing for ideas? Please let us know in the comments below.