Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Adding Architecture to Your Outdoor Room

All of us here at GMG are well-acquainted with the idea of outdoor living, which headlines our 2007 Trends Report. However, in the Texas newspaper The Star-Telegram, Neil Sperry addresses a new part of outdoor living: he suggests that homeowners create structure in their “outdoor rooms” by creating natural walls and ceilings.

Walls
The most obvious walls of an outdoor living space, says Sperry, are the fences that surround the typical American backyard. He suggests that you plant beds and vines around fences in order to “soften those walls to the eye.” We at GMG suggest also adding outdoor furniture, like the pieces you can find at Alfresco Home. Shrubs or one or two larger trees can also be placed strategically around your outdoor room to further separate spaces.

Ceilings
If you want to fully enclose your outdoor room, a ceiling is a necessity! You could install a patio cover as a way to add coziness, but consulting with a landscape architect first is encouraged: they are better at incorporating these faux-ceilings into the overall atmosphere of the garden. Taller trees with spreading branches also add to the feeling of shelter: for large spaces, Sperry recommends Pecans, Chinese pistachios, and oaks. For smaller gardens, he recommends Mexican plums, golden raintrees, yaupon hollies, and redbuds.

Read his article here...

3 comments:

Étienne said...

Developing an outdoor room increases the potential of your space and adds visual interest year-round. If you think of your garden as a multi-functional living space and the 'rooms' you create as the architecture of your garden, you'll be thinking like a true garden designer and broadening the versatility of your outdoor space.
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deck design said...

Nice post. This post is really informative. Good landscape design will create a series of outdoor rooms that serve different purposes within your yard.

howardproducts said...

Really very nice post. Developing an outdoor room increases the possibility of our space. Thanks for sharing very well explain post. Something new to learn from this helpful post.
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