Plan your great outdoors
Before you purchase, measure the space, consider the view. Here are more tips
You wouldn’t rush off to the furniture store to decorate your living room without giving the project some thought and planning, would you?
Outdoor rooms are no different.
An outdoor room that’s comfortable, functional and beautiful doesn’t just happen; it results from applying design principles, just as you would indoors, garden designer P. Allen Smith said. Here are some tips and considerations:
• Know how big the space is. That may seem obvious, but Susan Dovel of B&G Fireplace & Patio said it’s surprising how often customers come in looking for outdoor furniture with no idea how big their patio or deck is. Measure before you shop, and take note of features such as doors, steps and traffic patterns that might affect where the furniture is placed and how it functions.
• Create a sense of enclosure. We’re drawn to the outdoors partly because of its expansiveness, Smith said, yet we can feel uncomfortable sitting out in those wide-open spaces. Creating boundaries for your outdoor room makes it more enveloping and comfortable.
Those “walls'’ don’t have to be solid, he said. For example, they might be a trellis, some shrubs or a bank of tall grasses.
• Consider the view. What do you want to see from your garden room? What don’t you want to see? Well-placed plants and structures can help you frame your view, Allen said, so you see the neighbors’ beautiful weeping cherry tree but not their bass boat.
Test the view from a seated position. You might discover that a deck railing or other obstruction is right at eye level, Brown Jordan Company’s Bob Ryan said. In that case, consider alternative seating such as a counter-height table and chairs.
• Create a focal point. Just like indoors, a garden room seems more cohesive if it’s arranged around a focal point. It doesn’t need to be anything as grand as an outdoor fireplace, however. A piece of sculpture or a large urn would work fine, Allen said, as would a cluster of three to five containers planted in a single color family, such as reds, oranges and yellows.
• Complement your home. Allen believes an outdoor space should honor the architecture style, color and materials of your house. That goes for plants as well as furniture and accessories.
He suggests creating a file that includes a photo of the space, paint chips that include your house’s exterior colors and perhaps fabric swatches. Take the file with you when you shop for everything from outdoor furniture to annuals.
• Work from the inside out. It’s common to go out in the yard, look back toward the house and start thinking about where to place features such as patios and planting beds. But in reality, we spend most of our time indoors, Allen said. Give some consideration to the view from inside the house when you’re planning an outdoor room. He even went so far as to paint the walls of his study the color of the holly leaves in the fountain garden he can see from the room.
• Consider upkeep. Steel furniture needs to be touched up with paint periodically to prevent rust. Teak needs to be oiled if you want to keep its like-new appearance. Fabrics that aren’t weather-resistant must be brought inside when it rains. Be sure you know the maintenance requirements before you buy furniture or garden accessories, and be honest with yourself about your ability and willingness to keep up with those needs.
• Remember that winter will come. Consider whether the furniture and accessories you choose can be kept outside during the cold months. If not, think about where you’ll store them, and make sure they’re not too heavy or cumbersome to move when the time comes.
www.ohio.com
