Extend your living area outdoors
On a recent trip to Portugal, I purchased large garden pots to use in my family room. My sister thinks I’m crazy to put outside pots inside. I like the look - what do you think? We spend so much of our time in our family room looking out over our gardens but I’m not sure how to spruce up our deck. How do we make our outdoor space more appealing? Is it realistic to think we can have a beautiful sitting space outside? Sally in Annapolis
For the last 15 years or so bringing the outside look inside has been very popular with decorators, accomplished by literally bringing in objects from outdoors like weather-worn garden pots, iron work, statuary and even outdoor benches.
Our firm turns that on its head and makes it happen the other way around. Our designs allow the comfortable and luxurious feel of the interior to go outside. We basically give clients two family rooms. We purposely design the two rooms looking onto each other with furniture layouts that flow functionally as well as visually.
One mistake people commonly make designing their decks and terraces is in buying things that need to be brought in and out. Basically they end up having to set up the outdoor room every time they are going to use the space. Most people don’t have as much time to do last minute decorating every time a friend is stopping by.
We design outdoor rooms with decorative objects, furniture and even pillows that do not have to move. Granted, you might choose not to keep the summer pillows outside in the winter but ,for at least nine months, a well designed terrace would not have to be changed.
The white Louis XIV chairs shown in the photo are actually built and designed as outdoor chairs and can be left outside all year, since they are constructed of teak, foam seat cushions and indoor/outdoor fabric. Our library has literally hundreds of indoor/outdoor fabric samples to choose from to create the exact look you want-from luxurious to a more casual feel. We even have indoor/outdoor fringe and tassels for pillows to finish off the look. Making trips to California, Italy and the South of France has allowed us to find materials and furniture that aren’t the same as many national catalogs are offering.
You don’t have to spend a small fortune to have a beautiful room, inside or out. It’s all in mixing different textures and different building materials that make a beautiful room.
One expensive item, whether it’s an antique urn, upgrading to a soft sumptuous fabric, or paying the extra cost to use real stone for your patio, will make any outdoor space feel like a true room.
