Remember when the outdoors was just your garden space, perhaps occupied with a lawn and flowerbed, and your inside you had your living space in the lounge, a place to eat in the dining room and a place to cook in a separate kitchen? Those were dark times, literally. Houses look lighter and brighter since open plan kitchen, living and dining areas started growing in mass popularity over the last decade and now the garden wants to be part of the action.
Cohesive design from indoor to outdoor spaces create seamless continuity giving your home a feeling of harmony and togetherness. We’re completely in love with bringing nature into your home, and in turn, taking your home into nature, and in this blog post we are going to tell you why, and how, you can do it too.
Go green
Green rooms are great if you don’t have access to an outdoor space; they’re the gardens you never had. A room dedicated to indoor greenery are becoming increasingly more popular, especially in city homes. Filling a room with all things blooming and organic gives you a green oasis to escape to, a sanctuary to de-stress in and a place to retreat to, away from a 21st century fast-paced life.
Plants are the easiest and cheapest way to update an interior, and as well as looking gorgeous, they provide oodles of health benefits such as anxiety relief and purifying the air.
Make your garden your extension
Bi-fold, sliding doors or even just a wall of windows are a brilliant way to connect the interior and exterior. Large glazed walls make your garden an extension of your home, rather than a separate entity. This integration makes your home feel larger, brighter, and also makes entertaining on those summer nights so much easier.
Alfresco living
In our opinion, you can never have enough room to socialise, lounge about or put your feet up for an afternoon siesta. Outdoor cushions, fire pits and structural plants can all make your outdoor space feel cosier and warmer (the fire pits especially help in this area). Garden furniture has come a long way since mesh sun loungers and fold up chairs – you can now, quite literally, enjoy all the furniture you would normally enjoy in your indoors living room.
Cooking alfresco
Remember when we said you can enjoy all the furniture of an indoors living room outside? Well, would you believe us if you said the same for your indoors kitchen too? Outdoor kitchens are all the rage right now, and guess what? We think they’re better – you heard it here first. Imagine your dream kitchen, then incorporate an outdoor bar and add a pizza stone oven? Yes, that’s what we thought… The. Dream.
Outdoor rugs
We’re all for feeling warm sand between our toes or stepping across sun-kissed concrete, but if you don’t have a beach on your doorstep and don’t live in a tropical climate then we suggest you invest in the next best thing. A rug. Okay, we understand that this option doesn’t sound quite as lavish, but an outdoor rug is such an affordable way to update an outdoor living space, zone the area and add that extra bit of comfort! Neutral, textured rugs, monochrome geometric patterns or brightly-coloured prints are the front-runners of the outdoor rug world.
Eating outside
Despite mosquitos and the occasional strong breeze blowing away your napkins, eating outside is definitely one of our favourite things about summer. Continue the decor of your inside kitchen, to your outdoor dining set, for a super consistent look.
Bring your wall to life
One of the biggest indoor greenery trends of 2018 is the living wall. Whether this is just a panel, a living frame or an entire wall, it’s the perfect way to integrate indoor and outdoor spaces. It’s also perfect for those who love nature, but hate that evening summer chill that seems to arrive as soon as the sun goes in in England.
Continue the pattern
The best way to create continuity from the indoors to the outside is through the finishing touches, by keeping to the same colour schemes, patterns and material finishes you create a seamless blend from the interior to the exterior. Stripes on the sofa cushions? Make your outdoor cushions pads stripy too! Job done.
