When you bought your home, you were careful to select an open-concept kitchen, a luxurious owner’s suite and top-level curb appeal — but you might have missed one critical element of the perfect modern home: indoor-outdoor living. Especially if you own property in a place that has beautiful weather for much of the year, you should want the opportunity to bring the indoors out — and the outdoors in — with that indoor-outdoor feel. But, short of a massive home remodel, how can you achieve indoor-outdoor living in your home?
The good news is you can probably give yourself a beautiful and enticing indoor-outdoor space without making major changes. Here are some tips to create the indoor-outdoor area of your dreams:
Cover the Outside Space
A hallmark of the indoors is shelter from the sweltering sun or the drenching rain, so to bring the inside out, you need to cover the area of your yard that you want to transform into your indoor-outdoor space. The type of covering you choose isn’t as important as how it fits the aesthetic of your home and landscaping. Here are a few options to consider:
Roof cover. Extending the roof of your home to cover your patio is a permanent upgrade that requires less maintenance than other covering options.
Pergola. Pergolas are easier to DIY than other options, but they tend to offer less protection from the elements, so you might not be able to use your indoor-outdoor space as much.
Canopy. Fabric coverings, especially shade sails, can be stylish and provide a more outdoorsy feeling than other, more solid coverings. Plus, they tend to be affordable.
As you select the right covering for your indoor-outdoor space, you should keep in mind other elements of the space’s design. For example, if you plan to hang outdoor ceiling fans, you need to select a covering that is strong enough to support these relatively heavy and wobbly fixtures. You also need to consider how you are going to light the space, which could impact your covering decision.
Use the Same Flooring
Flooring helps to connect or separate spaces. When two rooms have different flooring, you can be reasonably certain that they have different purposes, which gives users of those rooms varying emotional responses. You want to invite people to flow from your inside to your outside spaces, so you should consider using the same flooring outside as you do in your adjacent indoor areas. If this is impossible — perhaps you have hardwood inside that you don’t want to change — you can at least find complementary flooring — like using wood-look tiles.
Decorate Coherently
The flooring is an important cohesive design element, it isn’t the only one. The furniture and decorations you place in your outdoor space should also match the style of the furniture and decorations you use inside your home. For example, if your home’s design theme is largely midcentury modern, you should find mid-mod outdoor décor, and if your home is more modern farmhouse, your outdoor area should be, too. Just because your outdoor living area is exposed to the elements doesn’t mean you should ignore wall hangings, rugs and other decorative details. However, you should be careful to choose décor that won’t immediately degrade in the outside environment.
Update Your Doorway
You should be able to see and easily access your indoor space from your outdoor space, and vice versa. If the only doorway leading to your yard is dark and solid, you should consider updating it with a windowed door. An even better option is to install a sliding glass door or a folding patio door, which provide almost floor-to-ceiling views of your outdoor living area and provide a wide walking space to join the two.
Include an Outdoor Kitchen
The kitchen is the heart of the home, and it is where people tend to congregate — even when you have a beautiful and enticing outdoor living space. To keep people flowing through your indoor-outdoor space, you need to bring the cooking outside. An outdoor kitchen can be as simple as a grill and a prep table, but if you have the budget, you might consider building outdoor countertops, installing an outside sink and putting up shelving to house your outdoor cooking and dining utensils.
Indoor-outdoor living is within your grasp — even if you don’t have the budget for a full home remodel. By making conscious decisions about updating your outdoor area, you can build a stylish new space for your home.