Scandinavian garden design — feature example — Elevated wooden deck attached to a white house featuring a pergola, dark grey sectional with cushion, low metal coffee table, raised herb planters, and small olive trees in pots.

Scandinavian Garden Design

5 scandinavian garden designs in the library

Try Scandinavian Style

Scandinavian gardens take the hygge principle outside: pale wood, simple shapes, hardy plants, and a strong focus on functional outdoor living through every season. Less is more, but warmer than minimalism.

Palette

pale ash, whitewash, soft sage, charcoal, birch

Materials

pale wood, whitewashed timber, wool, ceramic, soft black metal

Scandinavian garden gallery

Elevated wooden deck attached to a white house featuring a pergola, dark grey sectional with cushion, low metal coffee table, raised herb planters, and small olive trees in pots.

Scandinavian Deck with Pergola & Raised Planters

Compact Scandinavian wooden deck featuring a white sectional sofa with cushions, two white wicker chairs, dark wooden coffee table, wooden planter box with topiary, terracotta pot, white privacy fence, and red-roofed white siding houses.

Scandinavian Wooden Deck with Sectional & Planter Topiary

Scandinavian backyard featuring a wooden deck with light grey sectional sofa, dark dining set with chairs, raised lavender borders in dark planters, white siding house, and a golden retriever.

Scandinavian Backyard with Sectional, Deck & Lavender Borders

Compact Scandinavian deck featuring a dark grey wicker sectional with cushions, light wood coffee table, light wood deck floor, festoon string lights, terracotta pots with lavender and ornamental grasses, and a backdrop of white siding cottages with red tile roofs.

Scandinavian Deck with Sectional, Light Wood Floor & White Cottages

Compact Scandinavian backyard featuring a light wood deck floor, white siding cottages, white wood pergola lattice fence, white wicker sofa with cushions, central potted apple tree on a raised wood deck planter, festoon string lights, and terracotta pots with topiaries.

Scandinavian Compact Backyard with Deck, Sofa, Apple Tree & Festoon Lights

How to design a scandinavian garden

Use pale, untreated or whitewashed wood for decking and built-in benches. Keep the planting palette tight, hardy grasses, evergreen ground cover, birch trees, and let the structure show through. Add soft layers: a sheepskin on the bench, a wool blanket in a basket, candle lanterns on the table. A built-in fire bowl extends the season into autumn.

Scandinavian design by space

The scandinavian look applied to every kind of outdoor space.

Scandinavian Deck — Elevated wooden deck attached to a white house featuring a pergola, dark grey sectional with cushion, low metal coffee table, raised herb planters, and small olive trees in pots.

Scandinavian Deck

Scandinavian Deck with Pergola & Raised Planters

Scandinavian Backyard — Scandinavian backyard featuring a wooden deck with light grey sectional sofa, dark dining set with chairs, raised lavender borders in dark planters, white siding house, and a golden retriever.

Scandinavian Backyard

Scandinavian Backyard with Sectional, Deck & Lavender Borders

More deck designs →More backyard designs →

Plants for scandinavian gardens

A reliable starting palette for the scandinavian style — full growing guides on each.

Ornamental Grasses — recommended for scandinavian gardens

Ornamental Grasses

Various genera

Movement, texture, and year-round interest. Ornamental grasses add a naturalistic, modern element to any garden with minimal care required.

Boxwood — recommended for scandinavian gardens

Boxwood

Buxus

The foundation of formal garden design. Boxwood provides year-round evergreen structure, takes shaping beautifully, and defines spaces with elegant precision.

Hosta — recommended for scandinavian gardens

Hosta

Hosta

The king of shade plants. Hostas offer hundreds of varieties with stunning foliage in blues, greens, golds, and variegated patterns for the darkest corners.

Ferns — recommended for scandinavian gardens

Ferns

Various genera

Ancient elegance for shade gardens. Ferns bring lush, delicate texture to dark corners where few other plants thrive, creating a cool woodland atmosphere.

Lavender — recommended for scandinavian gardens

Lavender

Lavandula

The ultimate garden multitasker: fragrant flowers, silvery foliage, drought tolerance, and pollinator appeal. Lavender thrives in poor soil and full sun.

Get a scandinavian redesign of your garden

Upload a photo and the AI returns a photorealistic scandinavian redesign in under two minutes.

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Scandinavian garden design — frequently asked questions

What is a scandinavian garden?

Scandinavian gardens take the hygge principle outside: pale wood, simple shapes, hardy plants, and a strong focus on functional outdoor living through every season. Less is more, but warmer than minimalism.

What plants suit a scandinavian garden?

The reliable starting palette for a scandinavian garden is ornamental grasses, boxwood, hosta, ferns, lavender. Pick three to five and repeat them in mass rather than mixing many varieties — that repetition is what makes a scandinavian garden read as designed.

How much does a scandinavian garden cost?

Scandinavian gardens vary from $5,000–$15,000 for budget builds with quality plants and simple hardscape, $20,000–$50,000 for mid-range builds with proper paving and mature plants, to $100,000+ for full luxury builds with custom water features, integrated lighting, and premium materials. An AI Garden Design redesign costs from $19/mo, far below a real build.

How do I get a scandinavian garden design for my own space?

Upload a photo of your current garden, pick Scandinavian as the target style, and AI Garden Design returns a photorealistic redesign in under two minutes. The AI keeps your structural elements — house, fence, hardscape — and reimagines the planting, materials, and furniture in the scandinavian style.

Other garden design styles

ModernLuxuryJapaneseMediterraneanTropicalCozy

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