Whether you want to create a homely gathering place outdoors, like to organize parties and events in your home, or take advantage of the space outdoors for practical reasons, creating and designing living spaces outdoors is more popular than ever.
However, designing an outdoor space can be challenging. The approach needs to be completely different from designing the interior, not only because of the distinctions between the two but also because it will diminish what makes an outdoor living area special!
In this blog post, we’ll go over several ideas and tips that will help you design your outdoor space. Whether it is an outdoor living room, an outdoor kitchen, or an outdoor gathering space, you’ll be able to create an attractive, appealing, and comfortable space if you follow these tips!
#1 Nature Is Your Friend
One of the biggest attractions of having an outdoor space is that it is closer to nature. You’re no longer surrounded by concrete. This creates a homely, rustic, and sometimes nostalgic atmosphere that’s hard to recreate indoors.
So, instead of trying to design the space like indoors, you should lean into the strengths of the outdoors and leverage the appeal of nature. This can come in a variety of ways. Integrating flowers and plants into the space will make it both more attractive and welcoming. Leveraging direct sunlight can make the space warm and relaxing. These are just some basic examples – there are very creative ways you can integrate nature into your outdoor spaces.
#2 Meet the Challenges of an Outdoor Space
The outdoors has unique challenges that are entirely different from indoors. If you want a livable and comfortable space, you need to recognize and meet these challenges both during the designing and construction phases.
Though it is difficult to list all of them, here are some of the most prominent challenges:
- Weather: From wind to rain and snow, weather is the most difficult challenge you’ll face when designing an outdoor living room. Wind will make your gatherings unpleasant, rain and snow can ruin your furniture and household items, and even direct sunlight can be unbearable during the height of the summer months. You need to put a lot of thought into how you can make the space viable year-round. Thankfully, there are solutions, affordable ones. Retractable garden awnings, for example, can protect the space from direct sunlight, rain, and snow.
- Lighting: Thanks to bounced lighting from the walls, designing lighting for interiors is relatively simple. This isn’t the case for an outdoor living area. Making sure the space is properly lit with no dark corners and uneven lighting is a challenge. Usually, the solution is to rely on weaker but a larger number of light sources — though, it depends on the layout and size of the outdoor space.
- Sound: How much sound is a problem is highly dependent on the location of the space. If the space is close to a busy road, for example, the constant sound of cars can be quite an inconvenience. Meanwhile, if it is in the countryside, cicadas can be an issue. Ultimately, it is harder to insulate an outdoor space from sound than an indoor space. It is important to keep this in mind.
Listing these challenges isn’t to say that building an outdoor living area is impossible or difficult. On the contrary, having a space outdoors you can use to organize events, relax, or just gather is great. But you need to realize there are challenges that you need to meet, and each of the challenges we listed above, can be easily overcome with small changes during planning, designing, and construction.
#3 Outdoor Furniture
Though many great pieces of indoor furniture can be seamlessly relocated to the outdoors, this isn’t the case for all of them. There is furniture designed for the outdoors specifically that is not only more practical and useful but also preserves the distinct identity of the outdoor space and differentiates it from the indoors.
There is garden furniture that integrates seamlessly into any green area and complements the colour scheme and atmosphere. There are excellent outdoor rugs that are comfortable and stylish while withstanding the outdoor weather. There are coffee tables that are specifically designed for the outdoors – they are spacious and rustic while making outdoor dining feel excellent.
Relying on outdoor furniture is a recipe for creating a good outdoor living space that has distinct decor and leans into the strengths of your outside space. You definitely need to check them out, and if they fit and complement your ideas, you won’t regret buying them!
#4 Outdoor Activities
One of the greatest appeals of an outdoor living area is that there are many things you can do outside that you can’t do inside. These can all become great outdoor living space ideas that you should consider.
Here are just some examples you can use for inspiration:
- Outdoor dining area: outdoors, you can install a fire pit. You can install large charcoal-powered grills. These will not only help you cook dishes you can’t cook indoors, but they will also make for an excellent dining space you can invite your family, friends, and coworkers to. There are very few things more pleasurable than grilling outdoors, relaxing, and having a good time with people you love.
- An outdoor space for events: Want to create an outdoor lounge area? Like to throw parties? Want to organize events? In most cases, our indoor living room is too small and too restrictive to organize certain events, and it is a great idea to leverage all the outside space you have for this. You can freely design a creative seating area, you can have a side table or a dining table, and you can install an outdoor rug: You’re limitless in how you design the space, and this makes it an excellent location to host events if you put the effort in.
- Playground for children: in recent years, it has been increasingly harder to get your kids to be sufficiently active thanks to the rise of smartphones, gaming consoles, etc. One of the better outdoor living room ideas is to create a children’s playground. You’ll be able to install slides, swings, and seesaws. If your kids are older, you can create a basketball or football field for them. This will not only make them happy and encourage them to spend more time outdoors, but it can also help you bond with your kids!
Indoor and outdoor spaces are quite different, and hopefully, the above illustrated some ideas that are only possible outdoors. It isn’t an exhaustive list, and there are many more unique ways to leverage an outdoor room.
#5 Leverage Your Garden Space
If properly taken care of, gardens are attractive, welcoming, and homely. Just by existing, they help us relax and improve our mood. They increase a home’s curb appeal and property value. There are very few downsides to having a garden.
And if gardens are so great, homeowners will be remiss to not leverage them when they are designing an outdoor living room. The extent and manner by which you can integrate your garden space and outdoor living room will depend on your preferences, the layout of your house, the size of the spaces, and more, but there are many ideas you can explore.
Installing a coffee table and an awning in your garden could pass for a living space, for example. This is simple, affordable, and creates a great atmosphere. Another idea is to use garden furniture as part of your outdoor decor. Make the space feel rustic and welcoming while providing seating options, an outdoor kitchen and more. The possibilities are limitless with garden furniture.
You can also rely on the layout of the space and novel garden ideas to improve the design. One idea is to install an outdoor mirror to give you a better view of your garden. Another is to make flowers a focal point in the design. These are all ideas worth exploring if you have a great-looking garden that you want to integrate into a living space.
#6 You Can Be Unorthodox
One constant theme across all points was that when you design an outdoor space, you have virtually unlimited options regarding furniture, layout, design, colour scheme, lighting, and everything else. So, it is only fitting we end on this point: you should embrace the uniqueness of designing an outdoor area and not worry about being orthodox.
Lifting a set from an interior designer or creative director and applying it one-on-one to your space is against the spirit and purpose of designing an outdoor living area. You should embrace how different an outdoor living space can be and lean into it instead of recoiling from it.
Whether it is designing a unique seating area with an unorthodox layout, relying on garden furniture you won’t typically see in the interior, or using a period dining set: there are limitless ways you can ensure you have an outdoor living room that’s truly unique to you and your home.
Outdoor Living Space FAQ
Many people are under the assumption that you need a large budget to create an outdoor living room, but that can’t be further from the truth. There are many outdoor living room ideas that are incredibly affordable to implement.
Some seating options and a fire pit are often enough to create a cosy gathering space. Installing an awning and a dining set will be enough to create an outdoor kitchen. Making the garden the focal point and just adding some furniture is very affordable.
There are many outdoor living space ideas you can employ to both incrementally and drastically improve your outdoor living. Though, there are no concrete plans and steps you can follow. It will depend on the individual weaknesses and strengths of the current location.
For example, does your current living space not deal with the weather well? You can install an awning or a canopy. Are there not enough things to do? How about installing a grill? Does the space feel too crammed? Consider integrating greenery into the space. There are many ways you can improve your outdoor living in ways that answer your needs and preferences.
Creating a cosy location is one of the biggest appeals of designing an outdoor living room. Thankfully, there are many ways to get there as well. You can install a fire pit which will make the space feel both rustic and cosy. You can rely on specific flower arrangements to give the space a distinct style. You can consider cosy floor cushions, which act as excellent seating options.
