Outdoor Rooms

With Summer right around the corner it is time to start preparing for outdoor entertaining and living. I am not sure if it is a Southern California thing, or an Australian heritage thing, but come summer, I barely see the inside of my house. I read outside, cook outside, eat outside, and generally live in the outdoors. A lot of that is because of great outdoor rooms, that cater to that kind of lifestyle. That is what I wanted to talk about today; how to go about transforming an ordinary outdoor space into a real room that you will use and cherish, here are some ideas:

• First of all identify how you live, do you spend time at a table, playing cards or games, or are you more of a lounger, it is crucial that you honestly look at what your needs are before you tackle any seating plan.




• Now that you know what your needs are, zone out the space that you have, create areas so that each member of the family has there particular needs met, for me this means a shady spot and a big floor cushion for my two dogs.




• Now, how to furnish this? If this was a regular room would you ever buy a whole suite where the chairs, sofa, and tables were all from the same series? Probably not. So don't do the same thing with outdoor furniture, mix it up a little, you will be amazed how much warmer and cozier it feels when you use different styles and patterns, just like a regular room




• Now don't forget the floor, there are a lot of exterior rugs on the market from vinyl to teak, that can really warm up a space, all of the major furniture companies sell them from Crate and Barrel to Ikea.




• Another idea is outdoor drapery, it will transform your porch into a full fledged room, in a matter of minutes. There are a lot of company's now that sell well priced exterior fabrics that you can easily have made into drapes.




• Also you may want to try some color. In the South often times you will see blue used on the ceilings of porches, apparently to keep away wasps, but it also adds a nice warmth to the space, colored ceilings are a personal favorite, and it will help this outdoor room feel more special and inviting.

Anyway, Good Luck with your adventures