Your patio is an extension of your indoor living space, and as such it should reflect the design principles you favor inside your home. Since a patio lacks the solidity offered by the walls and ceiling of a room, what exactly does that statement mean? The answer is as simple as ABC - ambience, building materials and color.
Ideally, even if you are renting, your interior decoration reflects an ambience that declares something of who you are. Your furniture, including light fittings and plumbing ware, may be Scandinavian functional, colonial charm or art deco dashing. You may aim for a light and airy approach with minimal clutter, or prefer a warmly cocooned feeling with plenty of memorabilia surrounding you. You can achieve design unity by carrying the same theme through to your garden designs and landscaping ideas and of course, patio. Depending on the patio’s size and exact function - a lunch or dining space, a wonderland of potted plants and water features, a meditative retreat or some other use - you can make it chime in with the style of living you enjoy. If your choice is minimalism, and you want your patio to serve as an entertainment area, you can choose, for example, a steel and glass motif for table and chairs; hide the sound system’s speakers in the eaves of the house; and choose angular, geometrically formed plants for any garden you require (or place a Japanese sand garden abutting the patio). Should your interior decoration reflect a taste for our colonial heritage you could place rocking chairs, wicker loungers and ladder-back dining chairs on the patio; and select a cottage theme for nearby gardens.
You pay careful attention to the carpet or other floor coverings inside the house, and make sure the drywall is in good repair, the wall coverings in order; and, at least if you are building a new house, choose ceiling panels for their acoustic and insulation qualities. So, too, the materials you use for your patio should claim your careful attention. There are very many different surfacing materials available, from concrete pavers through brick to porcelain and ceramic tiles - and that’s just a few. You can incorporate intricate design into the patio surface, or maintain a strict orderliness with crisp, or flowing, lines as may suit. For privacy, or wind protection, you may want your patio ideas to have walls. These may be of brick, concrete block, solid plank, open trellis, or they may be formed from living material - hedges, or massed plantings of taller perennials. You can, of course, mix these materials any way that suits your overall design purpose. Your landscape contractor will be able to give you up-to-date local information. In some areas a ‘ceiling’ of shade cloth will be a very welcome addition to the patio in summer; and awnings or sun sails are now available in a range of colors that should be compatible with the exterior color of your dwelling. Shade sails are relocatable, so even if you are renting a property they make a transferable investment.
Color choice is a large part of the fun of the flower garden. If the room from which you move out onto the patio has a strong color element - perhaps a feature wall, or a carpet or suite of furniture of strong color, you may want to use this as a factor in your patio design. This can be achieved either by echoing that strong color in the plantings you select, or by choosing the complementary color as a focal point. So, if the carpet in the neighboring room is a striking green, then masses of red roses flanking the patio edge of the landscaping plans could be a good idea, especially if you choose a good repeat flowering variety such as the hybrid tea ‘Mister Lincoln’ or the floribunda ‘Europeana.’
Decorative choice does not need to end at the doorways of your house. You can have as much fun in extending your lifestyle choices to the way you live outdoors in your yard, garden, and landscaping as you have in choosing elements of your interior decoration.
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