Creating an Intimate Space Outdoors

When you create a sense of enclosure for your outdoor space, you make it more intimate, separating yourself from your neighbors and the surrounding world and giving yourself much needed.

Inside your home, your walls and ceilings create vertical and overhead planes that separate rooms, while outside your home these planes do not exists and therefore have to be created. You can create these vertical and overhead planes by adding shrubs, trees, arbors, trellises, and / or pergolas to your patio space. However, be careful that you do not over do this and create a cramped space that you do not enjoy.

To give you some idea as to how to do this, I’m going to use my parent’s patio, which my father created over 25 years ago, as an example. The house I grew up in was located in New Bern, North Carolina in the historic district around Tryon Palace. In the spring and summer, the streets and sidewalks in front and behind our home were busy with tourist, during the Christmas season tourist again crowed the sidewalks admiring the Christmas lights. This made it almost impossible to enjoy a private family moment such as a birthday party, or just a simple cookout in our backyard, and we won’t even discuss sunbathing during the summer. Instead of selling the home, which was originally my grandparents, my father decided to do what he called, “Creative Gardening.”

His first step was to decide where he wanted our, “Private Garden,” as he put it. The next step was to measure the outdoor area he’d selected. He then moved our teak furniture, which consisted of a large picnic table with benches, four Adirondack chairs, and two side tables. Yes, my grandparents and parents had a considerable collection of solid teakwood patio furniture, which by the way, my brother and I sat down a few months ago and estimated the age of the furniture to be between 75 and 100 years old now, and we still using. For your outdoor space, if your patio, or area you have selected is very small, then you may want to only purchase one or two chairs, perhaps a loungers to be used for conversation and relaxing, and maybe a small bistro table with chairs. If the area you have selected is large enough then you may want to consider using sofas, chairs, coffee tables, in one area, and creating a dinning area in another part of you outdoor room. For your sofa and chairs, you can visit a local patio furniture store or shop online for some great deals. You can purchase one piece at a time or purchase a complete set. With patio furniture, you have countless options to choose from so furnishing your outdoor space is simple and easy.

Now that you have your patio furniture in place, what about the walls? For the floor, my father used large brick pavers, to create a tiled look. He’d spaced the pavers far enough apart to let the grass grow up between the pavers. For the walls, he used plants, and a pergola. To block the view from passing tourist in the back of the house, he planted Leyland Cypress tress, which grow quickly and look beautiful. His next step was to construct a pergola, which created two other walls, as well as the ceiling. Today, his simple outdoor room has expanded to include a fire pit, water garden, and outdoor lighting, which make the room completely functional even at night. During the winter, we enjoy the warmth of a toasty fire blazing in the fire pit.

How you create and design your outdoor space will depend on what you like, the space you have to work with, and of course your budget. When my father first started his outdoor room, he kept it simple. Over the years, he has added to it and changed a few things as well. For your outdoor rooms, you can purchase such accessories as patio lamps, fire pits, garden arbors, and trellises. If you don’t have room for a fire pit, then consider purchasing an outdoor heater, which create a great atmosphere outdoors and allow you more time to enjoy yourself outdoors, even into the late fall, and earlier winter. You can go online and find such outdoor fireplaces as chimeneas, fire pits. You can even find beautiful gas outdoor fireplace that you can use to create atmosphere and a beautiful focal point.