Blurred Lines: Mix Up Indoors and Outdoors for Your Home


If you love watching property development programmes, you'll notice a design element that architects often love. When there's a beautiful outdoor space, they often make an effort to ensure that it flows with the indoor spaces. Sometimes it's almost difficult to know whether you're inside or outside. You might not be designing a house from scratch with a million pound budget, but you could still achieve a similar feeling for your home. A few small changes can improve the flow between indoors and outdoors to create a delightful effect. If that's something you want to do, try some of these ideas.

Bring the Green In
Blurring the lines between your house and garden can involve swapping around the roles of each space. You're used to seeing lots of greenery outside, but what about bringing it inside? If you don't already have lots of plants in your house, think about where you can put them and how to display them. You don't have to limit yourself to using plant pots on window sills. There are several things you could do, including using hanging baskets or even creating a planting area on the floor to make a mini indoor garden. Use natural colours too, from green to brown and blue.

Take the Living Space Out
Once you've brought the outside in, you can do the opposite. You don't have to do all your living inside and only use your garden for gardening or letting the kids run around. You can use your outdoor space to relax, eat and drink, and socialise. Think about how you can create a practical outdoor living space that can survive all weathers. You might want to set up a seating space or somewhere to prepare food and eat. Make it somewhere you can use even in colder weather, with a heater or fire pit and something to shelter you from the wind.

Remove Solid Barriers
If you want to avoid having a hard line between the inside and outside of your home, you should take away solid barriers between them. If you currently have a standard exterior door, you should think about replacing it. Using a sliding or bi fold glass door will allow you to see out into your garden from inside and vice verse. Glass helps to open up space and create a better flow, whether you use a French door or build a conservatory.

Continue Indoor Flooring Outdoors
Another interesting idea to help improve the flow of your interior and exterior design is to look at your flooring. By using the same or similar flooring inside and out, there will be a less of a barrier between the two spaces. It might seem strange, but you can pick flooring that works both indoors and outdoors. A tile is probably best, although there might be some wood choices that work too. You can do a similar thing by extending the roof of your home into your outdoor space.