When designing an outdoor space meant for your family’s enjoyment and entertainment, it’s like an extra addition to your home that offers a multi-purpose, self-sustaining, functional space without walls.
Although spending time indoors has some perks like fewer mosquitoes, it is impossible to spend all your summer indoors. Below are useful SOD Home Group tips for your outdoor space.
1. Focus on beauty
Find out what are your primary focal points. Is it a beautiful tree? A good looking outdoor kitchen? An impressive fountain?
Know that the elements that you decide to dominate your outdoor space visually and physically influence the overall mood/food.
2. Add some shade
3. Maintain a functional outdoor space
When modeling your outdoor space, ensure it stays functional. In addition to beautifying the space, maximize its function.
4. Have consistency in the entire home
The basic idea for outdoor space remodeling is to make space a continuation of the indoor space. Whether you live in a small city or a big city, your yard should be an extension of a home.
5. Choose function and fashion.
Go for furniture that is durable and beautiful. Depending on the weather in your area, foldable or stackable furniture can be good for easy storage during seasons with harsh weather.
6. Compost
Composting is an effective way of reducing landfills issues and makes your soil rich too. Whether you decide to use a compost bin or pile, it is economical, easy, and doesn’t welcome annoying smell or insects, and is a good place for useful worms. Compost is also great for feeding the plants in your backyard.
7. Use environment-friendly decking material.
Choose the patio and decking material wisely. You can recycle plastic decking materials that come in a wide variety of finishes and colors. It also helps the environment to recycle these materials. They also last longer and need no maintenance.
You can learn more about garden design here.
If you’re remodeling your outdoor space alone, there are several common mistakes that you should avoid. They are:
1. Failure to have proper measurements
When you’re remodeling your outdoor space, wrong measurements (even with a few inches) can lead to significant problems that might force you to change the whole design midway. Because of this, it’s important to ensure all the measurements are correct.
2. Problems determining scale
Outdoor spaces don’t have useful doors and walls to give you a sense of scale. Because of this, homeowners might often misjudge the outdoor space area they need. Unfortunately, they only realize they’ve underestimated the ground area after installing pavers or constructing the deck. They now have a problem with fitting all the features and furnishings they thought of, including outdoor space.
It leads to low traffic, overcrowding, or an unpleasant area that you’ll rarely use.
You can use fewer pieces, buy small patio furniture or forego one or more features, but the best option is planning for the perfect size.
If you’ve bought the furniture you’re planning to use, you can arrange them in the space and stand between each piece to feel how space looks.
3. Failure to consider lighting
If you do things in a hurry or without proper guidance, it is easy to forget small things like mood lighting and accent.
A well-placed chandelier or tiny accent lights in your space can make your outdoor area entertaining and a perfect environment for socializing and relaxing.
4. Conflicting design
Note that your outdoor space should be an extension of your home, and you need to treat it as such. From the color of your furniture to the pergola’s arch, every aspect of the exterior design needs to complement or reflect the home’s architecture.
It includes the selection of ground covers, pavers, architectural, and furnishings features.
Final thoughts
Whether you desire to include a fire pit, pergolas, a fountain, a wet bar, an outdoor kitchen, or sitting walls in your outdoor space, the crucial tip to having a great outdoor space is proper planning.
With proper measuring, knowing your challenges, and maybe, the help of an expert designer, you can create a beautiful outdoor space and enjoy it throughout the year.
If you need any help in designing your outdoor space, visit SOD Home Group today!