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The best beach canopies for shelter from the sun

HappySprout Contributor
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Sun umbrellas are great, but when you need something more, a canopy is the perfect choice. Canopies offer privacy, better sun protection, and the chance to relax out of the rays. Our top choices for best portable beach canopies will fit in with your beach gear and accessories, and help make your day at the beach more enjoyable.

A beach canopy provides a sunshade shelter for you to eat, rest, or get out of the sun for a few minutes to allow your sunscreen to set. These options are lightweight and set up in minutes, if not seconds, for instant shade. Let’s find your perfect beach accessory and help protect your skin whenever you need.

Sport-Brella Vented SPF 50+ Sun and Rain Canopy

Best Overall Umbrella Canopy

This canopy is an umbrella and shelter all in one. It features adjustable flaps to provide three-sided privacy and shade with an included sand anchor for umbrella-mode. The bright colors are easy to spot and won't fade in the sun, while the canopy blocks over 99% of UV rays to protect your skin. It disassembles and goes into the included carry case for easy transport to and from events. It easily covers several adults.

Related

MARDOO Family Beach Shade

Best for Large Families

For a little more space underneath, this family-style beach shade by MARDOO assembles like a lightweight tent. It uses aluminum poles to hold the canopy, while the convenient sand anchors and weights ensure nothing blows away. It takes just a few minutes to set up and offers nearly complete UV blocking for all-day fun. The Lycra canopy is durable and it fits several adults underneath with good airflow.

Lightspeed Outdoors Quick Canopy Instant Pop-Up Shade Tent

Easiest to Set up

This tent is easy to pop up when you need a bit of shade outdoors. It's lightweight enough to toss in with your gear but offers 8 by 8 by f5 feet of available canopy space, enough for several adults. The umbrella section is water-resistant for wet conditions and the built-in sidewall allows you to turn the tent to protect from sun or wind. A durable PE floor keeps out both sun and moisture and won't tear.

Pacific Breeze Easy Setup Beach Tent

Best Value

Another easy pop-up styled tent, this canopy provides three-sided protection from wind, sun, and rain. It provides a simple way for you to set up shelter and vents in the top to help with airflow. Durable materials withstand tearing and keep out sand while the colors stay bright year after year. It comes with anchors and folds up easily for transport.

Don’t let too much sun ruin your beach trip. Gain some protection and a little privacy for your all-day trips with these canopies on our list. Designed to be easy to use and to transport, you’ll love making them your newest beach essential for everyone in your group. Block the sun when you want, take a nap undisturbed, or just lounge out of the sun and save your skin.

Good, better, best: The best warm, stylish outdoor fire pits for your patio
Mark Wolfe
By Mark Wolfe
November 15, 2021
best outdoor fire pits bowl

When the seasons change, the air becomes crisp, and the mercury starts to fall, certain cravings start to well up. For some it’s football, or cozy clothes, or pumpkin spice. But let’s talk a minute about fire. Nothing else has the ability to bring people together and capture attention quite the way that a cheerful flame does. If you’re not so sure, try this experiment. Set up a fire pit on your driveway and, right around sunset, fire it up. Chances are, you’ll have visitors before long. As long as it’s not the fire department or your HOA authorities, it should make for some good conversation.

Whether you’re a long time believer in the power of a fire pit and need to replace one after years of faithful service, or you’re just looking for a good reason to be outdoors in the pleasant fall evenings, we’ve got a few suggestions. You could go with an easy to use gas burner, and forgo the smoke and ash, but then you would also miss out on the smell. We believe that a little bit of seasoned hickory, oak, or maple aroma is an essential part of the deeper fire pit experience. So, we’ve assembled this list of outstanding wood-burning fire pits based on durability, ease of use, styling, and price point.

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Good, better, best: Outdoor sheds for garden storage
Stacey Nguyen
By Stacey Nguyen
October 17, 2021
Garden storage shed

Once you start to hunker down on the gardening life, you’ll eventually find yourself in need of space to store all of your planting tools. Luckily, plenty of garden storage sheds exist out there. Still, having a host of choices can be overwhelming, in and of itself! If you have limited garage space or don’t want to go back into the house every time you need to grab your supplies, an outdoor garden shed may just be what you need. Ahead, we break down three choices for the top picks out there and give them a good, better, best ranking to help you choose one that suits your home and needs.
Good: Rubbermaid Horizontal Storage Shed
The Rubbermaid Horizontal Storage Shed is a good choice when you’ve accumulated quite a few garden supplies but don’t need a full-blown shed yet. It has a convenient, horizontal size at 34 x 55 x 28 inches, the perfect dimensions for storing your fertilizers, pruning scissors, gloves, watering cans, sprays, and other tools. The construction is also high-quality—it’s made from a water-resistant resin material and features double-walled construction that resists leaking and denting.

Because it’s essentially plastic, this outdoor garden shed resists rot, mold, and insect damage as well. At $230, you get a high-quality product that can compactly store supplies for a small garden, and the assembly shouldn’t take you any longer than half an hour. The drawback is that it is relatively modest in size, so you’ll need extra storage when you expand your gardening toolkit. And while it can accommodate a lock and some shelving, you’ll need to purchase those items separately. Some reviewers have mentioned slight warping when you leave the shed outside for too long, so be careful about extreme temperatures!

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How to choose the best outdoor sink for your entertaining area
Stacey Nguyen
By Stacey Nguyen
October 10, 2021
Outdoor sink

Setting up an outdoor kitchen can be quite an undertaking, but it's well worth your time, energy, and money if you want to prepare food for your guests outside. Naturally, an outdoor kitchen and an outdoor sink go hand-in-hand. The process of selecting and installing an outdoor sink, however, can be a confusing one. Deciding on the material alone can put you down a rabbit hole, so what are the main factors to consider when setting up a sink for your outdoor kitchen? Keep reading to find out!

Benefits of having an outdoor sink
Before we get into the details, let’s consider the general benefits of having an outdoor sink. Though you could always dash indoors to access your bathroom or kitchen sink, keeping one outside can be very convenient. If you prepare meals during a barbecue or cookout, an outdoor sink makes it easy to wash food and dishes outside instead of lugging things in and out of the house. If you have a double-basin sink, you can even chill your drinks on one side. Even when you're not hosting guests, having an outside sink during the warm-weather season can be helpful. You can use it to clean your harvests before bringing them into the house, for example. You can also use an outdoor sink to water your potted plants and wash your hands and other materials while working on outdoor or garage projects.
What to consider when you install an outdoor sink
Components
Some sinks at big-box and hardware stores come with everything—faucets, fittings, the whole shebang! However, you may want to source your own components for easy customization and the best prices possible. There are three essential components for an outdoor sink: the basin, faucet, and plumbing.

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