Garden Inspiration – How to bring the Indoors outdoors

As we are heading into summer – although the weather may need a little nudge – we start to do those little jobs at weekend to make sure we are ready. Painting the fence, cutting the grass, cleaning down the barbeque – these are just a few of the first things we might have on our to-do list. 

Statistics suggest that only one in seven of us have a useable area outside. People nowadays consider the garden area like another room in your house. Gone are the days where we would have fold up deck chairs and plastic tables with a cheap parasol -these days, people design their garden as though it’s another room of their house. The gardens are designed for entertaining, kitted out with large comfortable sofas, cuddle chairs, modern outdoor coffee tables, dining tables and bars – the only limit is your imagination!

When thinking about our outdoor area, we focus on making it outdoorsy and relaxing. But, how about bringing your indoors, outside? What if you could have your favourite blanket to go with your bespoke furniture and comfortable cushions?

With this in mind, here are some ways we can make our outdoors areas homely. 

Going with the flow

What would be better than having décor outside that complements your furniture and interior designs allowing the décor to flow inside and out. Rattan and woven furniture is a big hit this year, and there are so many comfortable sofas and chairs that are better than the sofas in many of our living rooms. Finding little touches that you would usually find indoors – large cushions or all-weather garden rugs – help make it feel like an extra room. 

Choose a theme and stick to it

There’s nothing worse than mis-matched themes throughout a home and now that people are looking at gardens as another room it’s important to stick with the theme you already have. There are lots of bespoke pieces you can add to your décor including all weather rugs that are in geometric patterns – these also add a pop of colour. 

Bring a Zing to your garden

Wave goodbye to muted beige rattan sofas and green chairs. Garden furniture is now available in an array of colours, so why not welcome a splash of neon wicker in bright green, electric blue or zesty orange making it feel like a feature space more than just a garden?

Blankets

As mentioned before, you can complement your area with a lovely bespoke blanket. You could even have a box of them to hand so your guests can help themselves on those chillier evenings.

Lighting

Finally, try and avoid solely relying on large floodlights to light up your area. Instead, head for sparkling backlighting foliage in the background and naturally light your garden by reflecting light from surfaces around you. Less is more when it comes to lighting. What you don’t light can be as important as what you don’t light, it’s getting the balance and contrast right.