http://www.outerspacesinc.com/landscapes_swimming_pools_outdoor_living_spaces_main_017.htm OuterSpaces Inc is the Philadelphia Mainline Areas Premier Designer and Builder of Exceptional Landscapes, Swimming Pools, and Outdoor Living Spaces Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:05:07 GMT Web Easy by Avanquest Software Website Designed and Created by The Office of Robert Nonemaker http://www.outerspacesinc.com/landscapes_swimming_pools_outdoor_living_spaces_main_017.htm Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:05:07 GMT Robert Nonemaker http://www.outerspacesinc.com/landscapes_swimming_pools_outdoor_living_spaces_main_017.htm#1 Whatever part of the country you live in, warm weather entices people out of their homes. There are more ways for our clients to take advantage of the outdoors than a deck off the back of the house. Although deck and patio design can be flexible and free-form — almost independent from the house — an open design is at the mercy of the weather. Put a roof over it and the design becomes more complicated, but the living space can be enhanced with lighting, fireplaces, and flooring choices. we can design something like a room without walls outdoors. An outdoor living space with partial or no walls and/or landscape privacy that’s not screened in makes you feel you’re part of the landscape . There are several considerations when adding these kinds of spaces. In some respects an open deck is a 2-D concept. When you put a roof on, it has an impact on design flexibility. Does the roofline fit with the home’s existing rooflines and with the style of the house? What about the windows on the home? What will be the new view from the inside of the house? Most people conceive of an outdoor room as a porch, screened or not, attached to the house. If just one side is open to the elements, it hardly feels like outdoors at all. Three open sides and we really start to feel the connection with our surroundings. We are projected out into the landscape, but there’s still a strong connection to the house. Just as with interior rooms, if you can’t see an outdoor space or if it’s too much out of the way, it won’t be used very often. But make the space easily seen and accessible, and it will be frequently used. For a true outdoor room, the components are the same as for one that’s indoors: some walls, a floor, and a ceiling. In a landscape, walls can be high or low, of hard materials or soft. Outdoor flooring can be made of wood, stone, tile, or even grass. The out-of-doors equivalent to a ceiling could be a trellis, a pergola, a garden house, an arbor, a tree canopy, or the sky itself. Why stay cooped up inside when you can extend the livable portion of your property by creating outdoor living spaces? It certainly isn't difficult to build outdoor living spaces. But it does take an appreciation for the "divide and conquer" approach. We take it for granted that our houses are divided into rooms, but the concept of having similar "outdoor living spaces" may sound odd, at first. Indeed, the biggest obstacle standing in most people's way is that it just doesn't occur to them to divide up a yard so as to maximize their enjoyment of it. Not consciously, at least. Yet the more conscious we become of outdoor living spaces, the more we can tailor them to suit our needs. Outdoor Living Spaces: Design Considerations Part of the beauty behind the concept of separate "rooms" in a house is that each unit is unique unto itself. Consequently, you can install a component in the kitchen that looks great there, without worrying that it would look out of place if viewed from the bedroom. The same is true for outdoor living spaces. Having separate outdoor living spaces allows you to create mini-landscape designs (each somewhat different from the rest) for each of them. Not that you shouldn't still strive for unity across your landscape design, as a whole. But the more successful you are in physically separating one outdoor living space from another, the more flexibility you have to diversify without creating a hodgepodge. For instance, you may wish to include a storage bin for towels in the pool area. Such an element would be functional and would look fine there. But the problem is, you might not wish to view it from another part of the yard dedicated, say, to meditating in naturalistic surroundings. The answer: screen off the pool area with a tall hedge or fence, effectively creating a "room" separate from the rest of the yard. Outdoor Living Spaces: Setting the Mood With Color Just as you can paint or wallpaper an indoor room using a color scheme unique to that room, so you can use color to make individualized statements for each of your outdoor living spaces. But here, instead of paint or wallpaper, you determine your color scheme when you select the plants you'll be using for the area. Proper application of color theory in landscape design can even influence mood and perception. For instance, the flower colors to employ for a relaxing nook intended for meditation would be different from the colors used for play areas. You can also make small spaces seem larger (and vice versa) depending on the colors you use. I discuss these ideas further in my article on applying color theory to landscape design. Outdoor Living Spaces: The "Building Blocks" Think of the structural components of outdoor living spaces in terms of their counterparts in indoor rooms: floor, walls and ceiling. Only for outdoor living spaces, the term, "structural" is used metaphorically. Furthermore, think of the materials you need to assemble the floor, wall or ceiling of an outdoor living space as the "building blocks." http://www.outerspacesinc.com/landscapes_swimming_pools_outdoor_living_spaces_main_017.htm Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:05:07 GMT Robert Nonemaker http://www.outerspacesinc.com/landscapes_swimming_pools_outdoor_living_spaces_main_017.htm#2