Create Some Shade

Put up a billowing canopy or a pergola you plant with vines to provide shade. Invest in a fresh new patio umbrella that’s fully adjustable to follow the sun’s angle as it moves throughout the day and evening.

Enhance Your Color Scheme

Paint your Adirondack chairs in shades to match your flower color scheme—bright pinks, reds, yellows, or even purple. Choose an equally shocking shade and repaint your deck flooring. Accessorize with white and light neutrals. After all, there can be too much of a good thing when it comes to color.

Go Minimal

For this approach, particularly appropriate for urban patios and decks, tone down the color scheme and focus on form. Look for angular planters and buy several in different heights. Fill them with plants in the same color family as your upholstered patio furniture and keep it neutral. White-flowering green plants, blonde wood finishes, and weathered taupe and gray decking works well. Invest in a solid but elegant, Scandinavian deck chair that forces people to talk about its design and invite everyone who visits to try it out. Keep the lines boxy and let the lush greenery of the plants add the asymmetrical elements.

Most important of all, get out there and enjoy your patio while you can. Life is short, and summer’s even shorter.