5 Backyard Upgrades That Are Actually Worth the Money
People ask us this all the time, usually standing in their own backyard, trying to figure out where to start. Not every landscaping or hardscaping project earns its keep the same way. Some pay you back in resale value. Some pay you back in a hundred quiet evenings you wouldn’t have had otherwise. The best ones do a little of both. After close to three decades of building outdoor spaces across Fort Collins and the Front Range, here are the five we’d tell our own family to spend on first.
1. A Paver Patio
A poured concrete slab looks fine the day it’s finished. Give it one Colorado winter, maybe two, and you’ll start seeing the cracks, the staining, the gaps where weeds work their way through. A properly installed paver patio just doesn’t have those problems, and it’s one of the few materials that actually looks better a few years in than it did on day one.
The numbers back this up. Remodeling Magazine’s Cost vs. Value Report puts patio resale recovery somewhere between 60 and 80 percent, and the National Association of Realtors and National Association of Landscape Professionals found that Realtors estimate homeowners can recover close to 100 percent of the cost of an overall landscape upgrade when they sell. Pavers also handle our freeze thaw cycles far better than poured concrete. If the ground shifts, you lift and reset a few pavers instead of breaking out an entire slab.
2. A Pergola
Nothing does more design work per square foot than a pergola. It gives a patio a sense of structure and scale, defines the space without walls, and turns a flat, sun baked slab into somewhere you actually want to be in July. Shade is really the difference between a patio that photographs well and one that gets lived in.
There’s also something it says without saying it. A well built pergola tells anyone standing in that yard, buyer or guest, that the space was designed on purpose. That’s the kind of detail that separates a backyard that feels custom from one that feels like an afterthought.
3. An Outdoor Kitchen
Even a small outdoor kitchen changes the rhythm of how a family uses their yard. No more running inside mid grill for napkins or ketchup. Whoever’s cooking gets to stay outside with everyone else, which is kind of the whole point of investing in a backyard in the first place.
The ROI here is genuinely strong. The NAR and NALP Remodeling Impact Report found that Realtors estimate homeowners can recover close to 100 percent of an outdoor kitchen’s cost at resale, one of the highest recovery rates of any outdoor project they measured. It also scores high on what the report calls a Joy Score, meaning people are still happy with it long after it’s built, not just on the day they sell.
4. A Fire Pit
Honestly, this might be the cheapest therapy you’ll ever buy. A fire pit is what turns a patio from something you walk past into something you sit around. String lights on, one more story, one more hour outside before everyone finally heads in. Months after we finish a project, this is the feature clients still bring up, and it’s rarely about resale. It’s about how often they actually use it.
That said, the return holds up too. The NAR and NALP Remodeling Impact Report puts the average recovery on a gas fire feature around 67 percent, with a typical $9,000 project returning roughly $5,000 to $6,000 at sale. Natural gas tends to outperform wood burning and propane here, mostly because future buyers appreciate the convenience.
5. Natural Boulders
Boulders don’t get enough credit in landscape design. Placed well, they ground a space in a way nothing manufactured really can. A yard with the right boulders in the right spots looks like it’s always been there, which is exactly the feeling we’re chasing on every project.
They’re practical too. Boulders anchor retaining situations, define planting beds without the upkeep of a built wall, and shrug off our freeze thaw cycles without shifting or cracking the way some hardscape edging eventually does. It’s a quiet, low maintenance way to make a yard feel elevated, without the price tag of quarried stone veneer.
The Bigger Picture on Outdoor Living ROI
Outdoor living projects consistently rank among the best returning home improvements you can make, and unlike most interior remodels, they’re ones you get to enjoy immediately instead of banking for the day you list your house. Industry data puts overall cost recovery for quality outdoor living work in the 50 to 80 percent range, with things like outdoor kitchens and full landscape upgrades running even higher. But the number that actually sticks with me is this one: the National Association of Realtors found that most homeowners feel a stronger pull to simply be home after finishing an outdoor project. That’s not something a spreadsheet can really capture.
If you’re thinking through a backyard project in Fort Collins or anywhere along the Front Range and want an honest read on which upgrades make sense for your space and your budget, we’d love to talk it through with you. That conversation is genuinely one of our favorite parts of this work.
Summit Outdoor Living is a Belgard Master Craftsman hardscape and outdoor design-build landscaping company based in Fort Collins, Colorado, run by David and Cara Doyle. We specialize in paver patios, pergolas, fire features, outdoor kitchens, and full backyard transformations across the Front Range.