Sophistication, Grace and Hefty Bags? Indoor Decorative Touches for Outdoor Decorating, Living and Entertaining
For the homeowner with a patio, deck or other outside social area, decorating can be both a challenge and an exciting opportunity. You might be wondering how to turn your plain porch into a paradise and enhance your outdoor living.
1. Fine Living – Imagine this: You’re throwing a tea party outside on your lovely patio and just as your guests sit down in your comfortable porch chairs, you serve them their first course on… paper plates. The paper plates kind of ruin it, huh? When decorating for outdoor living you’ll want to make it as comfortable and inviting outdoors as you would indoors. Bring out the china, the candles, placemats, napkins, crystal and fresh flowers. It’s the ultimate in luxury and entertaining. When your guests are used to eating from paper plates, you serve them on fine china. What a treat! It’s easy to experience sophistication and grace when entertaining outdoors, but it’s hard to do on paper plates.
2. Be a Softy – Just as you would when decorating indoors, remember to balance your hard and soft elements in your outdoor decorating. If your outdoor environment is a concrete slab with hard metal furniture, bring in soft goods like seat cushions, chair pads, pillows, place mats, and even simple drapery panels. Look to soften your outdoor ‘room’ to make it more comfortable and inviting.
3. Select the Right Fabric – Outdoor living that withstands the elements is easy to achieve when selecting the right fabrics. There’s a big difference between indoor and outdoor fabrics. Whereas cotton is a durable, natural fabric, it can fade and mildew. Outdoor fabrics (Sunbrella is a brand you might recognize) on the other hand have been reinvented! They don’t fade, are easy to clean, soft to the touch, repel mold and they hold up beautifully to the elements. Great for seat cushions, table covers, runners, placemats, napkins, drapes, pillows and even overhead canopies. Many of my clients like to even use them indoors – especially with kids or in high traffic or high sun areas!
4. Accessories – Finding attractive accessories that can withstand the elements can be a challenge. But don’t think you have to restrict your shopping to your local ‘garden center’. Scour salvage yards, antique shops, consignment stores and garage sales for fun, unique pieces to use outdoors. Look for opportunities to use common elements in unusual ways. Just remember that by leaving them outside more than likely they’ll deteriorate faster. Just keep that in mind when considering how much to pay for the pieces.
Great outdoor decorating gives you another room to decorate and enjoy once the weather warms up. It provides an opportunity to tap into your creativity and expand on your home’s presence beyond your typical 4 walls. Outdoor decorating is not hard to do when you remember to embrace the elements of the outdoors, not run from them. And don’t forget to break out the fine china! You and your guests will be glad you did!
