Creating an Outdoor Garden

Gardens are so important to the exterior of a house.  They soften the edges and help turn your house into a HOME. Therefore, I felt it was important for me to give you some basic guidelines on planning a garden. When researching, I came across a site called eHow-Home. They had the perfect set of simple steps to take when designing a garden ( by the way this site is great for all kinds of information).

 

 

1.Choose a purpose for your garden. If it's for beauty then pick your preferences of colour, size, and shape; if it's to attract butterflies or humming birds, you will want to choose specific flowering shrubs.

2. Choose a desirable location for your garden where it can grow and be appreciated. Don't plant it near a dog run or too close to the driveway where cars might drive on it.

3  Decide whether you want perennials or annuals remembering that perennials become bigger and thicker each year, and annuals require planting each year.

4 Choose plants that adhere to weather conditions of that placement. If the garden area is windy you want hardy plants that can tolerate wind; if the area is sunny you want plants that require sun and not shade.

5 Choose plants with similar care requirements such as frequency in watering, amount of sun and soil nutrient requirements.

6 Choose colours that compliment each other and give the garden a complete appearance ie: Don't plant white flowers in front of white dogwood. Instead, plant coloured flowers to elicit the colour mixture.

7 Plan your arrangements so that each plant is accentuated ie: Tall plants at the back and graduating down so that low spreading plants are at the front. Or if it's a circle, so that tall plants are in the centre graduating down to short spreaders on the outside.

8 Use the correct mulch, as suggested in your garden catalogue, to keep the soil moist during the hot summer days.

9 Set out appropriate soaker hoses throughout so that the garden can be watered regularly and maintained through the heat spells.

10 Give your plants the proper food nutrients as required and listed in your garden catalogue.

11 Dead head the flowers to allow for more blooms. ( dead head is to snip the dead bloom off the stem)


Here are some before and after landscape pictures from HGTV. Note the impact that landscaping makes on the exterior appearance of these homes.

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After

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Take Care,
Stacy

For help designing a room that makes you smile, contact me and ask about my design services

Outdoor Rooms and Gardens

The design trend over the last several years has been to create spectacular outdoor living areas. When looking online or through landscape magazines and books, one can easily and quickly feel overwhelmed and discouraged. Not only from the task at hand but primarily from the cost involved (even if you are doing it yourself). Therefore, my suggestion to you is to look at these beautiful inspiring pictures basically like modular decor. Each piece is a separate entity that can be placed and replaced a million different ways.

I want to use this post to look at some beautiful outdoor living areas and break them down into pieces so you can actually be inspired to create the look that you dream to have.  Lets start  designing.....

Archtectual Digest

How does this room make you feel? For me the words relaxing, peaceful, soft and soothing come to mind.  While the water is a prominent factor in establishing those feelings, there are other key elements that help create this mood. First, the combinations of the colors play a huge role. The soft green of the wicker furniture paired with the neutral tones of the table, chairs and rugs are very soothing to ones eye. While the white hanging curtains blowing in the breeze instills a sense of relaxation. By using the right color combinations and textures along with utilizing the natural elements in your surroundings you can achieve the same look and feel of this room without the water.

Another outdoor design challenge to recreate is one with a fireplace. They are costly, anywhere for 15-20 thousand dollars, and can be impossible to add to an already existing porch or patio without alot of reconstruction. So what do you do.....

unknown source

Forget about ever having you dream room....OR... Think outside the box and look for solutions. I choose the second alternative and here's how to do it.

Hub Pages

E How

Wood burning fireplaces are a great solution to adding a fireplace element without the cost. There are a wide variety of designs to fit any decor style and they are much more affordable with prices ranging from $800-$2,000 dollars. Furthermore, the ability to fairly easily move these units make this investment even more desirable.

Another alternative would be a faux fireplace look....

Unknown Source

This mantel was bought off of Craigslist, sanded, painted and then placed against the wall. A piece of wood was nailed to the back of the mantel and the whole interior was painted black. Add tiers of candles in place of logs and you have a beautiful look for almost no cost. This project was done for $100 dollars.  Although the "fireplace " in these pictures are for an inside room, creating this look for a covered porch or patio can be done in the same way.  The only extra step is to make sure you seal the painted wood with a clear coat of polyurethane.

 

David Tsay

There is also a wide selection of outdoor fire pits for a variety of costs which can be another solution to adding a fireplace to an outdoor setting.

Decor Pad

Clearing a dense area of vegetation and placing simple outdoor furniture can create a dramatic effect that is simply beautiful and very cost effective.

 

When looking through home magazines and books you will see the trend to use large ornate chandeliers on  patios and porches that typically you only saw indoors. This can add a huge expensive to an outdoor budget. 

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DP Cohen

 

My solution...

Drum Lighting

Southern Living

Chandeliers and sconces which use candles instead of light bulbs are a perfect solution to an outdoor lighting challenge. Not only are they extremely less expensive, no electrical work is needed (which would add to the cost), they can be easily moved or changed, and in alot of cases I like the mood that they create better then traditional lighting.

In starting this topic, I didn't realize how much there was to talk about. I have only touched on what I want to discuss, but my children are on spring break and are eager for my attention. Therefore, I am going to spread this topic out over the next couple of posts. Hopefully, I have given you a few solutions to some of your outdoor challenges already but I have alot more up my sleeve.

I am going to the beach for the Easter Weekend so I will talk to you next week.  Have a wonderful holiday.

Take Care,
Stacy

For help designing a room that makes you smile, contact me and ask about my design services.

Design on a Dime

Spring is always the season that I want to start refreshing rooms in my house. So much is happening on the outside that is new and fresh that I want that reflected on the inside. For most people however, the job of figuring out how to do that without changing the entire room is difficult.  So today, I am going shopping with all of you to find some great inexpensive pieces to spruce up any room and give it a fresh, new, clean look.


Lets Go.......

Clocks are a perfect way to add some fun to a room. These are from Crate and Barrel and prices range from $25-$70.

What a wonderful pop of color. These would be perfect little side tables. I am thinking about one of these for my daughters room. Aren't they fun? You can find them at Pier 1.

 

Pillows can be an inexpensive way to change a rooms look and feel. Below are pillows I found at Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Marshalls and Tuesday Mornings. Prices range from $14.99 - $62.00 dollars.

These colors are GREAT! Would work in a variety of rooms. Marshalls.

Beautiful neutral  colored pillows that would go with any decor. Crate and Barrel

Love the blue velvet pillow. Crate and Barrel.

This red floral pillow looks perfect paired with the solid red one. Crate and Barrel 

Love the soft look of these pillows. Pottery Barn

Pottery Barn

Pottery Barn

Pottery Barn

Pottery Barn

Outdoor pillows I found at Tuesday Mornings. Fabulous colors and incredible prices. Only $14.99!

Another easy, quick and relatively inexpensive way to get a new look in a room is to change your lamp shades. Instantly, a traditional lamp becomes a modern one, just by changing the lamp shade. Go one step further and spray paint the lamp a new color, put a on a new shade, and you have a completely new lamp at a fraction of the cost. These are from Pottery Barn and range in price: $39- $79 dollars.

Candlesticks are also a quick fix to a dull room. Check out the ones I found:

Pottery Barn

Anthropology

Pier 1

Below are two pictures from Anthropology that I took of their knob bins. It is amazing what changing the knobs can do to the look of a piece of furniture. Trust me and give it a try. Prices range from $4.00-$10.00.

Tea Towels from Anthropology. So fun and So cute! Pricey at $18.00 a piece but so much fun.

Changing your bedspread can give your bedroom a whole new look. I love the colors of these from Anthropology. 

Adding a whimsical mirror to a room can be a great focal point.

Anthropology

Doorman's Lighting

How much fun are these Buddha heads and lanterns? Tuesday Mornings

Rugs can serve so many different purposes in a room.  They can be whimsical and fun like the one below from Tuesday Morning or they can add a needed texture to a room. Alot of times they are used to blend and balance the other colors in the room.

Lastly, I would have to say ART , although at times, the hardest item to find for a room (it is so personnel)  can make a room come alive.

Wouldn't these canvas art pieces look great in a boys room? (Tuesday Morning)

I hope you enjoyed our window shopping.

Take Care,

Stacy

For help designing a room that makes you smile, contact me and ask about my design services.