The integration of indoor and outdoor living has been increasing over the years and has become a popular request in the design phase of a home. In the pursuit of relaxed and luxurious lifestyle, incorporating a seamless integration between your garden and home is a key ingredient to create flow and ease.
Entertaining never became so easy with large bifold and sliding doors being designed into the home. The perfect opportunity to open your space and mingle with ease from the kitchen to the alfresco. Large windows let the sunlight and moonlight in and can provide a feeling of vastness even though you are inside. A strategic planting schedule can provide an overlook of green from every window, there is something very peaceful about being connected to nature from inside your home. Nature providing a harmonious example of a relaxed, yet vibrant quality.
Take your cooking outdoors with your humble BBQ or a full kitchen in your outdoor room. After a long day at the office, cooking and eating dinner outside is a great way to unwind and spend precious time with your loved ones. Outdoor heating options in our current day makes an easy outdoor lifestyle all year round as does fans and motorised awnings for the summer.
Indoor plants are back. From your ever popular Spathiphyllum (Peace Lily), to your Ficus lyrata (Fiddle-leaf Fig), an array of indoor loving plants are at your fingertips at most nurseries. They purify the air, create a splash of green and look great as they bring a feminine softness, or yin, to the harder masculine, or yang, materials such as walls, floors and furniture. Using these fundamental contrasting characteristics, is what will bring a space together in a way that feels whole.
As outdoor décor continues to evolve, the homely feel of indoors has made its way out, just as we’ve seen materials make their way in, such as concrete floors and walls, timber panelling and tiled walls. To soften the hard materials used in a modern landscape and a modern home, create a beautiful juxtaposition by adding vertical garden walls or hanging plants, one plant example is Dichondra argentea (Dichondra Silver Falls), an attractive plant with beautiful silver foliage that cascades in long trailing stems, it loves to creep it’s way down hard surfaces. Vibrant or pascal cushions bring an alertness to an otherwise calm and neutral space, plus outdoor throws, beanbags, fruit bowls, and colourful pots are all great ways to add contrast, weather inside or out.
The key to integrating indoor-outdoor living is uniting polarities within the design and throughout the entire design. Hard surfaces such as concrete walls or seats, paved walls or floors, timber screens or decks, rendered walls or raised planters, have a masculine steadiness, whereas plants, grass, gardens, water and cushions bring a soft feminine quality in contrast. The two qualities together give depth and flow to an area, bringing a space to life. Consider the functionalities that will bring ease to your life, combined with the design characteristics of soft and strong to create the harmony of a balanced space, the effort and ease of a balanced lifestyle.