interior design: OUTDOOR SPACE DESIGN WITH INDOOR FLAIR

“One aspect of living a sustainable lifestyle involves becoming more connected to the natural environment than has frequently been the case over the last decades. As we have come to depend on conditioned air more and more, we have become separated from the outdoors with its natural sounds, smells, light shifts, breezes and other sensory stimuli.”

By Lawrence W. Speck, FAIA, PageSoutherlandPage

Outdoor rooms offer the opportunity to merge indoors and outdoors and to bridge the well-planned activities of a home’s interior with the generally looser functional performance of exterior spaces. They may be covered or open or somewhere in-between. They might have a wide variety of edge conditions from solid walls to glass walls to partial walls to rails to complete openness. They might be called terraces, patios, porches, decks or balconies, but to really fulfill their most complete role, they need to be fully useful and habitable.

The most important thing to remember when designing your outdoor living space is to blend the look and feel of your home’s interior into the exterior.

Whether you are buying a home, renovating, have a small city garden or a balcony; you should consider enhancing your outside living area. Again, it will allow you to appreciate the outdoors; the beautiful flowers, greenery or views in a comfortable setting.

Special thanks to Berry.com for this fabulous outdoor retreat.

Whether your home is traditional or contemporary, the outdoors will enhance your space.

Incorporating a view into your outdoor living space is as relaxing as a garden.

A city roof garden will increase your living/entertaining space.

Terraces, patios and decks have always been a great opportunity to enjoy indoor/outdoor living. You may be entertaining or just relaxing, but consider that your deck or terrace can always become a special place where you connect with nature without really parting with comfort.