With Summer having now fully arrived, it’s a fantastic time to get re-acquainted with the country’s green spaces, and to soak up some much-needed good weather.
The easiest way to do this, naturally, is with the help of a garden. Make a few simple modifications, and your garden can effectively function as an additional living space, blending seamlessly with the interior of your home.
Some readers, of course, might not have a garden – in which case the months of lockdown will have been especially galling. In this case, many of the same tricks apply: by bringing a little bit of greenery indoors, we can help to replicate many of the benefits of a full garden, even if there isn’t any soil available.
Bring in Glazing
The more glass there is at the rear of your home, the more you’ll be able to enjoy your garden even when you aren’t standing in it. The easiest way to accomplish this is with the help of a conservatory, though other options – like large bi-fold doors and skylights – can have an equally dramatic impact, and allow plenty of natural light into the home. Equally, the addition of a few choice mirrors in the vicinity of the divide will help to get a bit more of the outdoors into your visual space.
Use House Plants
A few house plants can make all the difference to an interior space. They can also help to soften the hard divide between your home and garden. Build flowerbeds near to the building, and put large potted plants just on the inside of your doors. It’s important to be careful, here, as dense greenery will tend to block the light coming in, potentially creating a bit of a dingy ambience.
During lockdown, the public have taken to house plants in a big way, thanks to the therapeutic effects they offer in times of stress. Caring for one helps to focus the mind, and make the time indoors a little more manageable. Plus, as any plant enthusiast will tell you, caring for plants is inherently mood-boosting and good for the home too, “Common plants that assist indoor pollution are those with toxin-filtering properties” say Cox&Cox, – the spider plant, peace lilies – and current trend favourite, the fiddle leaf fig”, what’s not to love.
Make Flooring Seamless
Where there’s a visible seam between the indoor and outdoor spaces, you’ll never be able to make them feel entirely continuous. Of course, getting things truly seamless requires a little bit of extra investment and forethought. For one thing, you’ll need to decide upon a surface that works equally well indoors and outdoors. The tiles of your kitchen are typical candidates. Bi-fold doors that hang from the ceiling complete the effect, as they won’t require that a track be built into the floor.
Design a single space
If you’re planning an extension to the rear of your home, then the best way to get the interior and exterior to mesh properly is to make it a feature of the space. Furniture might be arranged to form continuous runs from one space to another. Kitchen counters that run adjacent to outdoor barbeque areas can be incredibly effective.
