Sometimes your outdoor space is a piece of clear ground with a couple of chairs, an old table, and a citronella candle gallantly doing what it can. Totally fair.
But there’s another way. Here in the early days of summer, we’ve learned designers are celebrating outdoor spaces as comfortable as indoors. Let’s zoom in on part of what they’re excited about: cabanas.
For sure, an actual cabana brings a vibe. But really, the cabana-vibe — with or without an actual cabana — is just about setting the scene, offering an oasis from the hustle and bustle.
Best of all, you don’t have to turn your backyard into a resort.
In 2026, outdoor design’s shift towards a softer, layered, more personal feel has opened the door to using fabrics, colors, and patterns to transform any ordinary patio, porch, or deck to a cabana destination fit for making memories in the months ahead. Let’s talk about how.
First Up, Your New Outdoor Cabana Look Is Made In The Shade
If there’s one thing that comes to mind when you think of a cabana, it’s a shady spot to get a break from the sun. Shade is job #1. Job #2 is that shady spot needs to be somewhere you’d like to stay.
Enter fabric. (Our favorite here at the largest online furniture upholstery fabric store.) Because the secret to a cabana-vibe isn’t the architecture, it’s the feeling, the softness, the sense of arrival.
Imagine an outdoor sofa and chairs in soft woven rust orange jacquard, add pillows in muted sage green stripes, iceberg lavender foliage pattern jacquard, or a playful high contrast deep teal Sunbrella fabric. Or a pergolaed nook (poolside or not) that feels like a private lounge with indigo blue curtains and a beach blue and white stripes lounge chair.
Intentionally using fabrics takes even a small bit of shade and turns it into something that feels more like a retreat.
Oh, and — Pro Tip — you can DIY those lounge chair cushions.
Use Soft, Textured Fabrics To Bring Indoor Comfort Outside
A cabana-vibe feels deeply inviting and soothing. Combine that with the trend to bring indoor design outdoors and the answer as to what fabrics to go with becomes simple and clear. Soft. And the more textured, the better.
Supercharged with the performance and power of today’s technology, look for outdoor fabrics that have a softer and, ideally, visible texture. Think woven textiles like basketweaves, jacquards, linen, and other similar performance fabrics.
A sectional in parchment white or a camel beige basketweave feels calm and grounded. Adding pillows in subtly patterned natural tone woven fabric with blue, green, and yellow hues or a textured fog grey and silver abstract floral deepens the look without disturbing the calm.
Outdoor fabrics with textures do more than just carry their weight in your cabana look. They soften the overall design vibe, creating a space that feels more like another wing of your home than simply a spot in your yard.
There’s A Pattern To Outdoor Fabrics With Cabana Energy
Any good cabana or cabana-vibe should spend some time on the Riviera. That is to say, Riviera stripes.
SImply put, Riviera stripes are the playful cousin of more traditional, nautical stripes. Less blocky and uniform, more doing-our-own-thing-because-I’m-on-vacation.
But the key is less about strictly using Riviera and more about offering something with a little bit of a resort-y vibe, something playful that says sundrenched seaside luxury.
Try a harbor black and white stripe for some old-school glamour. Or an oasis blue and white stripe, offering a breezy, vacation-by-the-sea mood. Try calming aloe green and cream or terracotta and sand-like tones. Or dusty pink and grey stripes, soothing, grounding, and unexpected.
Stripes have a unique ability to feel like a deliberate choice, plus a long established association with luxury resorts. So they don’t need to dominate your whole design scheme. Even just a splash in a cushion or curtain panel can set the tone.
How A Cabana Design Story Makes Choosing Color Easier
We’ve talked about cabanas, but also really just needing to create a cabana-vibe. We’ve talked about textures, but also a bunch of textures to choose from. And we’ve talked about Riviera stripes, but said you don’t need to stick with one stripe or even one pattern.
How do you narrow it down?
Color. You know what kind of colors you like. You can back into a particular palette and pattern vibe from there. Start with a theme that uses your favorite colors and tell that story.
Like a Mediterranean cabana vibe might lean on warm whites, terracotta, olive and faded blues. A garden cabana vibe on an earthy warm neutral base, Cabana Glacier striped accent pieces, and Savannah aqua and teal stylized botanical details. Or stick with the classics, like the contrast of Palm Springs design or a more coastal inspired feel.
(Psst… sounds like a perfect time for custom pillows.)
A theme points to the color and pattern palette. Then add things in as you want, trusting your new pillows, cushions, or curtains will get along fine. Kind of like adding guests to a summer party.
How Fabrics And Fun Accents Finish Your Cabana Look
More good news for the not overwhelming category. You don’t need to get every detail right in your new cabana-vibe.
Just look around to see where there are gaps in the design story you’re telling visually. Where things feel incomplete. Like a sentence that’s unfini. (See what we did there? You do know what we’re talking about. *wink*)
Where something feels unfinished to you, add a detail or flourish that fits the cabana story you’re writing. Again, something a bit resort-y, getaway-y. Something that shows your flair, your design style using its outdoor voice.
Like a minimalist approach with furniture in birch white textured jacquard with throw pillows in coral, peach, and pink tropical paradise pattern and an ottoman in grey and white abstract geometric pattern tweed. Or an ordinary bench cushion taking on a more striking presence with a lavender twist border. Or burgundy red outdoor curtains feel even more polished and welcoming with elegant melon taupe ties.
It’s about giving you and your guest that satisfying sigh that comes with enjoying the whole story.
To Bring Cabana Style Home, Don’t Build A Resort — Suggest One
Bringing some indoors outdoors and adding some cabana-vibes, doesn’t require building an actual cabana. It’s about building a cabana mood.
As is so often the case, it’s not about being design-perfect. It’s about creating a space outside that happens to feel like an extension of the homey feel you already offer inside.
Fabrics get you there with layers of softness, texture, stripes, and whatever other patterns strike your fancy. And fabric design flourishes and details let you finish off the scene with flair. Freeing you to offer a shady spot to revel in the joy of kicking back with friends and loved ones.
We think that sounds like a pretty good summer. And we’d love to help you get there with all the fabrics you need to do so. Give us a call today.
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