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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Cooking With Fire

If you can’t get a table at Norma Listman’s Mexico City restaurant, Masala y Maíz, perhaps the chef’s vision for an outdoor dinner party at her home will tide you over. For Listman, a crucial component of any event is fire. “I have a passion for anything corn, anything done with masa,” she says, “so when I entertain, there always has to be that element of either tortillas or sopes or something that I cooked in the fire.”

Her outdoor space mirrors her home’s kitchen and includes a “fire kitchen,” designed by architect Carlos Hernandez and made from volcanic rock—big enough to accommodate a pot of beans, some mole, and whatever her husband decides to grill. And the scene on the patio for Listman’s ideal outdoor event is casual, comfortable, and colorful, with bougainvilleas and estrella de Belén decorating an otherwise unfussy place setting. “I don’t like tablecloths,” she says, “but I love fabric napkins.” All the better to keep the focus on the fire, the true star of the show.

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A Venetian Block Party

For DeVonn Francis, a chef and founder of Yardy World, a culinary events company, a block party is right up his alley. His ideal one has an unexpected reference: Carnevale in Venice. “When it comes to a party, I love a theme,” he says. “I think it allows people to explore another side of themselves.” Francis’s vision is precise, from the food (“coast adjacent, beach adjacent”) to the music (“I want to hear Italian disco. I want to hear Sly and the Family Stone”) to the dress code (“silks and taffetas and volume”) and, of course, the decor, which relies heavily on the architecture of his brownstone Brooklyn neighborhood.

Highlighting the beauty of buildings with draped textiles is a dramatic way to soften things up. “I love the idea of soft spaces to sit and land so you could sit down and have a picnic,” Francis says, citing Fellini’s Satyricon as a reference. And a block party wouldn’t be a block party without a crucial element for the kids: a bouncy castle. “They do ’em all monochrome,” says Francis. “So you’re like, Oh my God, what’s this black, beautiful, onyx castle?”

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Rooftop Club

If the names Telfar or Luar ring a bell, chances are it’s because of the effervescent New York PR maven Gia Kuan, who helped make the brands as well known as they are cool. “We connect people together,” Kuan says of her work, and this ethos permeates her party philosophy, which is all about using her skills to set a scene that everyone will be talking about. “I like the idea of a hidden rooftop with greenery, or a tucked-away courtyard that no one knows about,” she says. “I love a long linen tablecloth…lots of blue and dark-purple flowers as table centerpieces,” Kuan says.

While this initial setup could come off as staid, there’s nothing boring about what she’d serve: “I do love a rolling trolley of food prep,” she says. “Maybe it’s the crème brûlée, or maybe it’s a cheese wheel.” But the menu isn’t the only star. “This is a debaucherous, family-style food tasting followed by dancing.” If a flaming food trolley of any sort is out of the realm of possibility, though, bring in some of Kuan’s flair with her two must-haves for any must-attend event: “A good producer friend and a killer guest list.”

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Domestic Drama

You’d think that living somewhere akin to paradise would make entertaining a breeze; if the scenery is breathtaking and the temperature magic, then the party should come naturally. But James Wyndham, the managing director of Sugar Beach in Saint Lucia, understands that what makes a good party is more than just the atmosphere. “When you’re hosting a party or an event, you’re looking for theater,” he says. “I love a live cooking station, so…you’ve got your ceviche, you’ve maybe got salads, you’ve got a grilled section, you’ve got a wok station. And I think that it brings the theater.”

You might not have the space (or the budget) for multiple cooking stations, but there’s an easy way to translate that vibe for a party at home. “I love grazing stations that are situated around,” Wyndham says. “You have a loungy environment where people can move.” Other essentials for an outdoor fete redolent of the tropics include warm lighting, luscious florals, and music. “You’ve got to have a little bit of reggae in the background,” he says—a nice bit of set dressing that will transform any backyard into a theatrical paradise—if only for a night.

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Products curated by Adrian Madlener

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Top photo courtesy of Big Shiny Balls

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