Decorating Your Outdoor Living Space
By Susan Featherstone-Schemm and Sherry Burton Ways
For many years the trend was to bring the outdoors in with plants and sculptures, atriums, skylights, and fountains. Now, we are planning outdoor living "rooms" for relaxation, entertaining, dining, nature celebration, and even sleeping.
 Where do you begin to design your outdoor space?
First consider what outdoor space you will decorate. Will it be the front or back porch? The patio? The deck? The rooftop? Then determine how you will use your space. Will you use your outdoor space for formal entertaining? Will you include a water feature? Will there be a garden? Finally, develop a master plan and realistic budget for your outdoor space. Answers to these questions will assist you in successful developing.
Bring the Tropics Home
If you want a tranquil, serene, and contemplative place where you can relax, choose cool colors and pastels for your pillows, table settings, and drapery. Create texture, warmth, and enhance the beauty of your space through low level, indirect lighting and accents.
Spruce up your outdoor furniture with Sunbrella all weather upholstery fabrics to create that relaxing space you always wanted. Choose a natural sisal rug for the patio floor, with light gauzy curtains and teak furnishings to add an aura of the tropics.
Entertain Vibrantly
Great spaces for entertaining make you and your guests feel welcome. You can create an inviting environment for your guests by simply adding a water fountain or a lighted waterfall as a focal point. A large Shona sculpture from Zimbabwe in the garden can provide a cultural backdrop to encourage intimate conversation among your guests. Consider painting a colorful geometric pattern on an outside wall to create visual interest.
To minimize the sounds of the outside world, plant waterproof speakers throughout your space and release recorded sounds of birds chirping, rain dropping or soft music. And to ensure that all can enjoy what you have created, add universal design elements that incorporate wide gently graded wheelchair accessible entrances and paths.
Dine Under the Sun or Moon
For the ultimate dining experience, create an outdoor kitchen on your deck surrounded by low stone walls with a shaded dining pavilion. Install a state-of-the art grill and a half fridge for meal preparation. Allow plenty of room for a wicker table and chairs dressed with batik fabric, African-inspired baskets and a Brookstone Outdoor Chandelier for an added romantic touch. Also, do not forget to incorporate enough open space for mingling before dinner.
Experience Nature and Color
Create a tranquil garden to surround your outdoor space. Consider landscaping the surroundings of your outdoor space with flowers and plants that showcase cool blends- blue, purple, and green; pastels like powder blue, lavender, and peach; or whites to create a calming environment. Plants and flowers such as African Violets, Agapanthus and Aloes make great garden accents.
Sleeping With the Stars
Why not add a touch of romance to your outdoor space with a Mombasa bed canopy with protective mosquito nets, over a Del Mar queen-sized daybed from Restoration Hardware? Bed drapes and/or sheer panels will round out your outdoor sleeping decor. Or if you want to simplify your outdoor sleeping space, consider a cross-woven cotton Chenille Hammock, in bright and festive colors.
Your Space, Your Well-Being
No matter what outdoor space you decorate or how you use the space, a mix of attractive materials with diverse textures such as flagstones, pebbles, metal, wicker and stucco will create a visual medley in any design. Finally, treating your well-equipped outdoor space as a seamless continuation of your interior will support your personal well-being, physically and mentally.
Photo: Susan Schemm and Sherry Ways, Principal Designers of Design Scheme Interiors, created this culturally inspired backyard paradise in downtown Baltimore using custom wood fencing, tropical plants, decorative mud cloth from Mali, wrought iron furniture and Shona sculptures from Zimbabwe. |
