Interior Designer Resources Directory :: Interior Design Article

Take It Outside

For years, as designers, we have been concerned with bringing the outside in or, at least, trying to combine the two via large windows, plant-scapes, even waterfalls and water features. In the last couple years all that has changed. Instead, we are taking the inside outside. Clients, whether they are in the sunny South, the arid West or the cold North, want to be able to live outside the same way they live inside. They are relaxing, entertaining, cooking, and even bathing and sleeping out of doors.

Designers are being bombarded with products from all sides as manufacturers rush to get on the bandwagon. You cannot even pick up an advertisement from Target or K-Mart or any other mass media without seeing the overwhelming interest in outdoor products.

There are several reasons for this trend, which has reached mega proportions.

1) People are concerned for their well-being and spending time out of doors is healthy and reduces stress. Simply looking at greenery is instantly soothing, according to studies led by Roger S. Ulrich, Ph.D, director of the Center for Health Systems and Design at Texas A&M University.

Taking in a green scene reduces fear and anger and lowers blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension in just 3 minutes. Best of all, the effects are long-lasting --- with no negative side-effects!!

2) The effects of 9/11 and an uncertain world situation have changed our values. We want more family time, more personal time and we are spending more time at home. This has caused an expansion of master bathrooms, kitchens and great rooms and they have spread to the outdoor living areas. People want more casual homes, but they want them loaded with technological amenities and luxuries, both inside and outside.

3) Rising real estate values and a shaky stock market, make it easier for homeowners to invest in their greatest asset, their home. And that investment is paying off in a big way. When integrated with the interior space so that it is a seamless transition, because of features typically found indoors, such as fire places, plasma-screen TVs, and mini-kitchenettes, the square footage for a residence can as much as double in size.

Return on investment for a deck addition can now be as much as 104% and siding replacement up to 98%. Adding a pool, even in the Northeast, will increase the value of a residence as much as 6%. That figure jumps to 13% in the West and Southwest.

4) Technological advances have made it easier to live out of doors. The Robb Report states that, “A luxurious outdoor setting outfitted with the finest creature comforts, and wired for sound and video, is what the well-heeled are demanding from custom installers these days.”

The U.S. Census Bureau says consumers now spend more than $40 billion a year on outdoor living areas and garden amenities. Builders are reporting: "Outdoor space is hot.” That includes pools, fire pits, barbecues. One Chicago builder states: “Outdoor living is important even though Chicago doesn't have a year-around good climate.”

A recent nationwide survey including interior designers, landscape architects and realtors among those surveyed, (94% of those responding) agreed with the fact that homeowners are seeing a greater return on their investment in outdoor living spaces.

The study also shows that well-designed outdoor living environments are important to existing homeowners as well as those in the market for a new home.

The three most common design possibilities considered or implemented for outdoor living environments are covered patios, water features, and gardens. Quality, design and function were the three most influential toward a client’s purchase of products for outdoor living.

The survey also found that price was not the leading determining factor influencing the clients’ decision-making process.

So, where to start? When we look at outdoor living spaces there are critical design elements that occur in almost every successful design. What are those elements and what do they bring to the whole design concept?

• Incorporating Nature:

Since we are talking about outdoor living being healthy, incorporating nature and natural elements such as water, sunlight, plants, rocks, animals, birds, fire, etc. is critical to that well being. The space should be designed to become part of its surroundings, not look like it was dropped in --- or to quote Frank Lloyd Wright’s vision, it should be “of the land, not on the land”

• Natural Textures, Materials, Patterns and Colors

Diverse textures applied to an outdoor space generate visual interest, touch-ability, warmth, and tactile contrast. Texture creates dramatic shadows, changes in depth as lighting changes, and creates a background for furnishings, artwork, and plant materials.

By selecting a mix of annual and perennial blooming plants, the resulting design offers color, textural variance and bold accents. Use subtle patterns to create a backdrop for plants, or to divide spaces, ex: restful from activity areas. In choosing pattern and color for the outside, follow the same rules as you do on the inside.

• Acoustics / Sound

The key to understanding acoustics in the outdoor space is to separate good sounds from bad. The noise of the outside world should be minimized, ie: street traffic, neighbors nearby, and the sounds that you want to hear should be planned as part of the design.

Consider vegetation covered walls, umbrellas, or overhead tenting to buffer outside noise, and add running water with a fountain, a fire crackling in an outdoor fire place or pit, and natural sounds of birds, wind and even rain will sooth and comfort. The sound of wind chimes or piped in music can set the appropriate mood.

• Lighting

Creating atmosphere in different light levels throughout the day and into the night can have a dramatic effect on the “feeling” of the space.

Task lighting can be turned on and off for work spaces: Grilling, reading, etc.

Low light levels and in-direct lighting accents create texture and warmth and enhance beauty of outdoor living area. Well lit stairs, paths, steps can also add to the safety of the space.

• Comfort/ Conversation

For conversation, a spatial arrangement of furnishings to offer flexibility, creating conversation areas, comfortable seating and activity areas separate activity from conversation or reflective areas is essential. Protection from the elements of sun, wind, rain, cold, and heat should be provided as well as good ventilation or “fresh” air breezes.

• Contemplative Spaces

While comfort and conversation are important factors to consider, we also need space that allows for personal reflection or mental release, promotes creativity and clear thought processes and feeds the spiritual and emotional aspects of wellness. We need to recognize that Nature is our greatest source of beauty, and we need exposure in such a way that our spiritual and emotional needs are met.

• Entertaining Amenities

Good food, good conversation, good design, and being a part of nature --- what better way to entertain with friends

Having several types of outdoor dining areas will allow for putting your feet up while reading the paper with your morning coffee, or gathering around the table for dinner after a day on the water.

Anything you can prepare in the indoor kitchen can now also be prepared outdoors. The “must have” outdoor kitchen items are pizza kitchens/open flame ovens and beverage dispensers for beverages on tap!

• Art Display

Art can be practical as in a copper sprinkler or decorative as in a sculpture or outdoor painting. It can also provide lighting and acoustics in the form of a great lighted water feature or fountain and provide heat in a fabulous sculptured outdoor heater. Almost any way that you can add art to an interior today can be replicated for the outdoors.

Are you taking advantage of the trend? We would like to help. Since it is April, we thought we would devote this issue of the Newsletter to Outdoor Products. We have added over 75 new outdoor sources to the 65 we already had and in May we will add another 100. That will bring our outdoor sources to close to 250. This month, in our featured products, we have concentrated on outdoor sources. We have everything from seating and storage to lighting, outdoor rugs and outdoor art. Next month we will concentrate on the technological products that help us make that transition so effortlessly and some of the more unusual exterior products.

For this month’s article we would like to acknowledge education-works.com. For an in-depth online CEU on this subject as well as information about accessible gardens, look at their website and sign up.

Joan Gaulden, FASID is co-founder of designerEsources. She also develops courses and teaches for education-works in Dallas Texas. The CEU, “Fibers, Fabric and the Whole Cloth” is being offered by education-works in 7 cities over the next 3 months. Click here to see where. If you are interested in holding the seminar in your area, contact Kathy Ford Montgomery at Kathy@education-works.com.