Blending Your Indoor and Outdoor Areas

How To / January 23,2013

One of the hottest trends in design is mixing indoor and outdoor areas, as it allows you to get far better use of your available spaces. The following is a brief look at how to blend the indoor and outdoor areas at your home to create the best possible effect.

 

Pave yourself a patio

The easier it is for you to set up chairs, tables and even sofas in your outdoor areas, the more practical it will be to use those spaces, so if you don't have a stable surface to set up on in your yard, pave yourself a patio. Being able to shift your dinner party outdoors to take advantage of a warm summer evening will be a huge treat, and even just having somewhere outdoors to sit, enjoy a drink or read before bed will have you feeling like royalty.

 

Upgrade the furniture

Rather than have good furniture inside your home and low-quality items in your outdoor areas, invest in furniture that will work well both inside and out, as this way you can create a high-quality look while blending your indoor and outdoor areas a little better as well. Wrought iron furniture can be great indoor/outdoor options, as can treated wood, and if you want to really connect those indoor and outdoor areas, matching indoor and outdoor cushions will certainly do the trick.

 

Get weather protection

If you want to blend the indoor and outdoor areas a bit better at your place, you will need to provide some protection from the weather for those outdoor spaces. Whether you invest in a retractable awning, a gazebo or some large beach-style umbrellas, to successfully blend your indoor and outdoor areas your outdoor weather protection needs to be a top priority.

 

Bring the outside in

A wonderful way to create more of an indoor/outdoor mix at your place is to let more of the outside in, so start by letting in as much natural sunlight as you possibly can. Bringing in more plants will also make a huge difference to the look and feel of your place, and as a bonus will play a marvellous role in cleaning the air as well.

 

Invest in security

Having your indoor and outdoor areas a little more connected can mean you have more of your valuable items exposed, so make sure you aren't leaving yourself vulnerable by investing in security. Security screens for your doors and windows can be a great way to keep your place open to the breeze but not to intruders, and investing in tools such as CCTV, motion sensor lighting and monitored alarm systems can also be extremely effective. These days modern security makes it easy to secure your place without having to make it look like a jail, so you can an embrace an indoor/outdoor concept that is stylish as well as secure. Finding ways to blend the indoor and outdoor areas of your home can make a huge difference, so if your place has been feeling a little stale of late, why not have a go at creating an indoor/outdoor mix?