Ideas
How do You Design Outdoor Rooms?
Just like indoor rooms
Garden design
Decide what
you want
Decide what rooms you would like and what can fit in the space
you have. Tapping an experienced landscape designer or
architect may generate more good ideas.
Determine
project budget
Create a budget based on plants, hardscape materials and any
professional help needed. If necessary, revise your plans to
reduce costs.
Select the
best locations
Each type of outdoor room has unique requirements: Kitchen
gardens need full sun, lunch guests need shade and maybe you
need to watch the kids from your home office. You might also
have to decide whether your outdoor dining room should be
close to the kitchen or out in the garden.
Determine
the right size
Size rooms based on who will be in them and the furniture you
want. Are you designing rooms for just the two of you or for
guests? How many guests do you usually invite?
Create the
best layout
Orient views in each room away from the house to enhance the
feeling of being outside. Use grasses, shrubs or perennials that
grow up to three feet high as the partitions between rooms. Use
tall plants around the edges of the garden to screen out the rest
of the world, and plant shade trees to frame the scene.
Select a
floor covering
Select pea gravel, pavers, flagstone, turf or some other material
that allows rain and irrigation water to soak into the ground. See
Manage Your Stormwater
Select colors
and textures
In a garden, flowers and leaves are your paints and fabrics, and
like paint colors, there are a lot to choose from. Take a look at
the design tips in Create a Sense of Place and consider hiring a
certified landscape designer or architect.
Select
furniture
Rustic and eclectic furniture in the garden is as trendy as the
newest furniture on a custom deck. One is like a farmhouse in
Provence and the other like a resort on the French Riviera, but
both are Mediterranean.
Secure
building
permit
28
Interior design
Building permit requirements vary from place to place. Building
a deck higher than 30 inches, or a shed or shade structure larger
than 120 square feet, or installing a gas line to a grill may require a
permit. Call your community's planning department.
