It may be hard to think about now, in the thick of the summer heat, but some of a homeowner’s prime entertaining space is located outdoors. Invite friends to cool down in your swimming pool—which you can keep cool using a smartphone-controlled chiller—and serve drinks and snacks from your summer kitchen, outfitted with brands as nice as the ones you have inside. The furniture you relax on is beautiful enough to be featured in a magazine, but tough enough to handle the destruction of our heat and humidity.

“Outdoor living spaces are the place where you do what you used to do inside: cooking, dining, living,” says Houston-based interior designer Pamela O’Brien of Pamela Hope Designs. “You can get your favorite shows on an outdoor TV. The summer kitchen is getting more interesting, with people installing multiple cooking surfaces, smokers, pizza ovens, and even special equipment for big gumbo pots.”

Nikole Starr, founder of Nikole Starr Interiors, has also felt that shift in the last few years, seeing manufacturers debut new outdoor furniture lines at the semi-annual furniture market events in High Point, North Carolina.

“During COVID, everyone was staying home. Now, I feel like people aren’t thinking about their backyards as an afterthought. They’re putting them in the plan from the beginning for whole-home design,” she says.

While there are still plenty of cheap, easily replaced lawn chairs on the market, outdoor furniture can look just as good as what’s in your living or dining room. Technology has improved every part of these pieces, including fabric for cushions, pillows, and rugs. Top brands to look for include Universal Furniture, Four Hands, Bernhardt, and even Palecek, whose California cool aesthetic is a natural fit for things we want to use outdoors.

“The fabrics look like they can be used inside, but you can hose them down if you need to. Some have slipcovers you can remove and throw in the washing machine,” Starr says of the ease of care.

Today’s planned patios aren’t just for a couple of chairs and a side table. They’re designed with permanent structures overhead, so ceiling fans can be installed to keep a breeze going. Under the one room, you’ll find fully outfitted summer kitchens, dining areas, and lounging areas. There might be an outdoor fireplace, or at least a fire table or firepit, and don’t be surprised if you find more than one TV, even though there’s no real long-term option for outdoor TVs yet.

Steve Maddox, of Richmond-based Maddox Custom Pools and Landscaping, says that the transitional and contemporary styles in architecture and design have spread to backyard pools, too. Gone are the lagoon-style pools with curvy shapes and rocks mounded to form grottos.

Maddox says most people today want modern pools in a rectangular or rectilinear shape, with cleaner lines and less fuss, both hallmarks of transitional and contemporary styles.

Porcelain tile is replacing travertine pavers for decking, and bigger is better when you’re looking for fewer grout lines and less maintenance. Elsewhere around the pool, you’re likely to find stepping pads or squares of concrete with tile surrounded by strips of turf, Maddox says.

Technology is also at play in better pool use and care, Maddox says, with smart equipment that can be turned on remotely with an iPhone so your hot tub is hot enough or your pool is cool enough when you get home from work.

The Texas heat can make swimming pools feel less refreshing and more like bathwater unless you have a chiller installed to keep everything cool. The cost of everything went up and never came down, Maddox says, noting that a variable speed pump that used to cost $945 now costs $1,900. The same goes for a pool heater, which was once $1,850 and now runs $3,400.

High-end pools used to cost $75,000 to $85,000 in Houston, but today they can easily cost $150,000, Maddox says.

A covered patio or pavilion will help keep furniture looking nice, but if you can’t afford to build a structure, consider a large patio umbrella. Starr installed a 10-foot, marine-grade Shadowspec umbrella at a client’s home in Tomball. The $7,500 price tag may not be for everyone, but there are decent umbrellas on the market for a lot less. They just might not last as long.

“In Houston, no matter what else happens, the sun is harsh. Buying new pillows because your old ones faded won’t break the bank,” Starr says. “But I bought some more affordable furniture, and it crumbled under the elements rather quickly. I had a chair that collapsed when a guest sat in it. Good chairs are an investment if your outdoor escape is important to you.”