When decorating their homes, many people tend to leave the outdoors area for last, often forgetting about the importance it has on the whole image of the house. Think of it as your house’s business card, as it is the first thing people see when they come to visit. From the plants to furniture and interesting front door signs like the ones at https://www.signomatic.com.au/, everything needs to be in harmony with the interior of your house, to build a cohesive aesthetic.
Décor experts say that your garden should be well-thought, but should not look like it’s been too groomed, to avoid losing the “home-sweet-home” feeling. Here are some things to keep in mind when planning the outdoors area:
Theme
The first thing to think about when starting to decorate is to pick a theme, to avoid making the space look too busy and to make sure every small piece of décor fits the area. When choosing a theme, pick one that suits your house best. It doesn’t have to be the typical Scandinavian or Bohemian look. Let your ideas come and play, to make your back yard or porch match your or your family’s personality. What you can do to make sure you don’t go into a décor-purchase frenzy is to establish a color scheme that you want to stick with. Some of the color schemes picked by top decorators when working with the outdoors are:
- white + slate blue + cream
- brown + olive + off white
- light gray + copper + beige
- neutrals + a bright color like yellow, orange or red
- bold color combinations, for example pink + yellow + green
- pastels
Furniture
When choosing the outdoor furniture, you have to think of something that will play well with the weather. Don’t choose too many textiles, when living in a rainy area, as you will have to move them in and out of the house when the rain gets heavy. If you are on a budget, try to stick to the essentials, like a coffee table, an outdoor sofa and some chairs and focus on small décor pieces to give a personal touch to the area.
You can find lots of ideas online to DIY your back-yard furniture, like sofas and tables made out of pallets and crates or even repurposed indoor furniture. If you have a bit more to splurge and if the space allows, add a hammock or a swing bench, or even a dining area, for those summer barbecues with your friends. To give a twist to your dining area, choose a simple table and add some colored chairs and a big umbrella with some string lights attached. Add some patterned pillows on the sofa and you are good to move on to the next category.
Plants
What would a back-yard be without plants? If you have a large back-yard, design a whole area for flowers and trees and try to combine plants, to have a year-round bloomed garden. Plants like cornus, that have colorful stems in the winter are a good choice, to begin with, and in spring and summer add seasonal flowers, like daffodils and tulips. When choosing trees, keep in mind the size, as some of them can grow as large as your house and keep the light from going through the windows. If you have a smaller yard, pot plants work very well, as you can play with them and move them around to your desire. Another great idea is to build an herb garden, with plants like rosemary, basil, parsley, chives and cilantro, that you can grow in pots and use to add a fresh touch to your cooking. If you feel a little more daring, look online for fairy-garden tutorials, that you can build from old ceramic pots, succulents or tiny plants and small décor pieces, to add a whimsical touch to your back yard.
Lights
Lights are a nice touch to add warmth to your garden and there is so much you can do with some string lights, an old chandelier or some Chinese lanterns. There are so many ideas that you can choose from, like spray-painting an old chandelier that you can find at a yard sale or that you already have laying around in storage, to create a statement piece that you can hang above your porch, or picking up various light strings and hang them or tie them around trees and even DIY torches from old repurposed bottles. Another thing you can use are solar-charging light, to protect the environment and avoid the stress of buying batteries or tripping over cords. From string lights to torches, you can find a large variety of options at your local depot.
Others
Now that you have your basics covered up, you can focus on the small details that can make your back-yard one of a kind and the possibilities are infinite:
- Barbecue area: Build or buy a barbecue to surprise your friends with some gilled goods on those summer nights when you get together.
- Personalized doormat and house number: Your front door should be receiving the same attention, so add a DIY doormat, that you can make with a stencil and some spray paint or search your local store for an interesting one
- House number: Speaking about your front door, a nice touch would also be a personalized house number, but keep in mind to stick with a relatively simple font, as the fancier ones can be sometimes hard to read and you don’t want your mail to get lost on the way.
- Birdhouse: If you want to attract some fairytale friends, hang a bird house or a bird feeder in your tree or on the side of your porch and get ready to welcome the new neighbors. Keep the feeder filled at all time and leave the birdhouse decorating to their hands.
- Kid’s corner: Don’t forget about the little ones and try to fit in an area where they can play, like a sandbox or a tent made out of repurposed sheets and scarves.