Is it enough to have indoor and outdoor space and not have them integrated?
Nope, it’s not.
This is why most homeowners with quality indoor and outdoor spaces are looking for ways to incorporate indoor-outdoor living into their homes to create a seamless transition between the two.
Every homeowner knows how important this transition is because it reduces stress, allows in more natural light, improves immunity, improves the quality of your sleep, improves memory, enhances your mood, and increases your living space.
With this transition, you can escape the challenges that the UK’s unpredictable weather comes with.
Being open to the risk of heavy rain, extreme heat, flooding, snowstorms, coastal change, etc has made indoor-outdoor living highly preferable as designing one’s home to suit these weathers saves one a lot of trouble.
In this article, we will be enlightening you with the top tips for creating a seamless indoor-outdoor flow in the UK climate. You will be learning about major elements such as layout plan, ambience, colour and lighting.
How to Optimize Indoor & Outdoor Connection
You can optimize an indoor and outdoor connection by maximizing natural light/views and creating seamless transitions.
Maximizing Natural Light and Views
The idea of integrating indoor-outdoor living means that you have to use more natural light, especially during the day. This implies that the position of your windows and doors must be strategic so that where one ends, the other begins.
You can install glass walls or large windows, french doors with large glass panes, bi-fold and stacking doors and sliding glass doors. At night, when the natural light is gone, you can use roof lights and skylights to add natural light inside the house.
You can use landscaping tricks in the interior to give an outdoor overview even while inside the house. Some of the tricks could be placing a plant pot by the window, using hanging plants as vertical decoration, etc.
Creating Seamless Transitions
The perfect indoor-outdoor integration only occurs when there are similarities in the flooring and walls’ greenery.
To explain it better, we will start with flooring – use the same materials or ones that complement each other for both your indoor and outdoor flooring. Due to the similarities, you must ensure you create a level transition so that you or your guests do not have tripping accidents.
For your walls, you need to open up your entire walls and create a more open feel. This is easily accomplished by implementing large glass panels or bi-fold doors.
Your outdoor space may already have some form of greenery such as a garden. However, to incorporate greenery into your interior space, you have to get creative. Start by putting varieties of potted plants near your doorways and beside your window pane.
Tips for Designing for the UK Climate
To achieve this optimization depends on how you design your indoor and outdoor space. For UK residents, you will learn major tips on how to design for the UK climate.
1. Embrace All-weather Functionality
When designing your indoor and outdoor space, you must incorporate furniture and outdoor designs that can withstand all weather conditions while being functional.
For instance, installing stuff like gazebos, pergolas or awnings is an innovative way to create shade and shelter during unpredictable rain.
For cold seasons or cooler evenings, you can install radiant heaters, fire pits or patio heaters. Continuously, you should buy outdoor flooring item that uses weatherproof materials such as a composite decking board, so that you can use it year-round.
2. Embrace Indoor-Outdoor Living Features
Your outdoor space can actually be designed using indoor features. An example is creating an outdoor kitchen or dining area and having a hot bath outside.
Make your outdoor space as relaxing as possible by installing things such as a firepit or a hammock nook.
During summer when the weather conditions are a little mild, you can create a home office outdoors to tap into nature for creativity while working.
How to Create Cohesiveness Through Design
While designing your indoor-outdoor living, ensure there is uniformity in design so that it will look pleasing to the eyes.
Harmonize Colours and Materials
The first step to creating cohesion is making sure that the colours of your furniture, the floor and the wall match or complement each other to create a unified feel.
For instance, if you use wooden furniture indoors, you should use the same outdoors and so on. Also, implement similar textiles and textures in your indoor and outdoor space to ensure uniformity.
Lighting for Ambience
For your final finishings, use the right indoor lighting such as strung or fairy lights to create a magical ambience in the evenings.
For the outdoor lighting, you can use pathway lights, wall sconces and pendant lights to lighten up your outdoor space while still creating a cosy look.
If you want to install multifunctional lighting, then you can go for fire pits or lanterns as they produce ambience, lighten up one’s path and give warmth to those sitting around or close to them.
To End With,
Whether you are out on your patio or indoors in your living area, the idea is to have a seamless indoor-outdoor flow, especially for UK residents.
Trying to achieve that seamless flow may seem tedious and expensive at the initial stage, however, you get to enjoy it all year round.
Recent Comments