Building an outdoor room

Building an outdoor room  (Photo by Jane Gates)

Making the garden a pleasant place to spend time in requires more than happy, healthy plants and a patio. To entice you, your friends and your family to spend time outside, the location needs to tempt you with comfort sufficient to lure you away from indoor activities. That means you need to make your outdoor property as inviting as your indoor property. There are lots of ways to do that, depending on what your lifestyle and sense of design may be.

First of all, you need to make being outdoors convenient and comfortable. The inside of your home usually is. So how do you make the outdoors the same? And more: what does the outdoors have to offer that the home interior doesn’t?

Being outdoors is healthy for both body and soul. Where there is greenery, the air is cleanest. When you watch birds or insects, your mind relaxes and clears. When you see a seed grow into a plant and flower or fruit, you get a sense of being a part of something important and your critical, judgmental mind has a chance to re-set. Watching children or pets play renews a tickle at being alive. All this good stuff is great for good health and productivity.

So, it really is worth using the space in your yard that you are paying taxes on anyway. Why not extend your house by making this space another ‘room’? The so-called ‘outdoor room’ which has been popularized with a whole set of furniture and the popular built-in chimney has replaced the simple barbecue area. As a result there is a whole industry offering all sorts of outdoor structures, furniture and accoutrements. Yet your outdoor room doesn’t have to follow the standard rather pricey format shown in all the magazines. You can build your outdoor room anyway you want with whatever budget you choose.  So long as it becomes an additional living space, it will indeed be an extension of your home and your own ‘outdoor room.’

Since so much of our year is spent with bright, hot sunshine, the best way to tempt people outdoors is to offer the refreshing ambience of water. Of course, the most alluring feature would be the invitation of a well-designed swimming pool. For children, a swimming pool can occupy them for hours at a time. It is important to make sure safety is built in when designing your pool. Accidents with children, pets or even adults need to be avoided at all costs. So make sure all codes and safety concerns are carefully addressed. Remember, you can make those safety fences into decorative ‘walls’ for your outdoor swimming room by growing colorful vines over them. This way you can create an outdoor room that leads to the swimming pool and works as a place to relax between dips or to indulge while watching others frolic in the water. But swimming pools are not the only possibility for a water feature. During cool evenings or when the weather cools down in the winter months, there is nothing more relaxing – or romantic – than a soak in an outdoor hot tub. With well placed potted plants, you can create your own paradise. And if that doesn’t fit into your lifestyle, you don’t need to submerse yourself in water to make water work for you. Consider just adding a water feature like a trickling fountain. The sound of water refreshes and calms. Any of these liquid invitations will help entice our indoor weary souls into the outdoor room.

Look at ideas in magazines, on television and on the internet. There are formal rooms in which you can virtually create a living-room space with outdoor furniture. Or you can copy parts. Maybe substitute an expensive outdoor chimney with a decorative portable fire pit. Both create warmth and an opportunity to do a little relaxing, entertaining and even cooking. Barbecues can be built-in or on wheels and positioned off to the side. Outdoor rugs look great and can make even a budget-minded outdoor space look classy.

Think about how you want of your outdoor room to function. Do you want an elegant living room that just happens to be outdoors – as seen in so many magazines currently? Or perhaps you would prefer to skip all the hoopla and merely create a mini retreat; a place to get away from it all. Some folks would like to have an outdoor room that functions as their own local version of the Nature Channel. Or some might want a room that doubles as a greenhouse and affords a sheltered spot to grow plants or vegetables that would appreciate the extra protection. Maybe the outdoor room needs to be a great space for a play room adored by the children yet keeping them safely out from underfoot. There are many uses you can employ in your outdoor room. Most likely you will want to get more than one use.

Always start with a wish-list when designing, whether it is a whole landscape or a detailed part like an outdoor room. Then sketch where you want all the important items to go. This is the time you are most likely to consider the all-important practical issues. Like for instance, cooking areas are best placed close to the kitchen. Hot tubs should be near to the house since they are likely to be used in cooler temperatures when a long wet walk will not be appreciated. Views are important when lounging. And fire supporting elements like chimneys and fire pits need to be placed in safe positions. These logical considerations are all too easily overlooked when you dive straight into building or landscaping. Such mistakes can be seriously regretted later.

When you know how you want to build your outdoor room and you’ve sketched out where all the functional features will go, then you can start shopping for the fun items; the décor. Furniture, pots, curtains or other décor can be as personal as any selections for the interior of your house. The detailed selections can be time consuming or impulsive. You can call in either a good landscape designer or an interior decorator for ideas. Or just wander through catalogs, shops and the internet to find the pieces that resonate to your taste and lifestyle – and budget.