Need to make the most of the summer? Suffering from cabin fever? Don’t have a massive pile of money to extend your home with? You could create an inviting outdoor room on your own premises without blowing the budget.
Check out these simple ideas for extending your living space. Give your family a little bit more room to breathe with these accessible options...
Expand & Enhance Your Patio
Are you looking out at a backyard full of overgrown shrubbery or unused lawn? Why not expand your home-living footprint with a patio upgrade?
Pull Out The Pavers
Step 1 - You could extend your patio with pavers or natural stone to give yourself a larger footprint. Pavers are the paving stones that you can use to extend an existing concrete patio. Plan out and measure the extended area carefully to ensure you buy enough of them. Use architectural salvage or found flagstones if you’re on a budget and need inspiration from alternative materials.
Perk Up Your Patio
You may have a generous patio footprint already but it’s still a desolate, unloved part of the house.
Step 2 - Give it a powerwash clean and treat it with a fungicidal wash that kills all mould & mildew on walls before you paint it or dress it with any more furniture or outdoor accessories. Use a product that’s suitable for use on concrete, stone, paving, walls & wood.
Step 3- You can make a big impact in any outdoor space with clever colour combinations. Touch up bleached wooden furniture, rails or decking with bright energetic and welcoming shades like orange, green or turquoise.
Park Yourself Under A Parasol
Step 4 - Give it some shelter. Don’t let the summer drizzle and the noonday sun get in the way either. A water-resistant parasol or awning is a perfect excuse for staying out longer and creating an appropriate shelter for your garden furniture. There’s one for every sized patio. There are also sheltering triangular sails you can source for stretching across the corners of your patio space - just be sure you have high corbels for mounting the sail hooks.
How To Choose The Right Parasol For Your Garden
- A lightweight 1.6m garden parasol could also double up as a beach parasol They tend to come with a carry bag for easy transportation. Perfect for an urban ‘yarden’ or balcony garden.
- A 2.7m Parasol with a crank for easy winding up and down will be the next step up. They tend to come in several bright colours to match your outdoor upholstery or backyard design. These should have a steel tube which gives you a stronger, sturdier covering that you can leave outside during adverse weather conditions. Perfect for a 2-seater garden furniture set.
- A 3m Taupe Parasol With Crank would give you enough room to shelter 4 seats. These tend to come in Steel & Aluminium in a stylish taupe colour to give you a gorgeous neutral look reminiscent of that continental holiday feeling on the Med or Riviera dining strip.
- Choose a cantilevered style Hanging 3M Parasol With Crank for added flexibility and placement options. It’s the best choice for a larger patio or garden. The base may take up more space, but it will provide shade or shelter for a larger area. You can place it in the corner as opposed to the centre of a generous garden table but you and your dinner party will still be covered directly from above.
Put Up A Pergola
If you have the DIY chops, time and space, a pergola is a perfect outdoor sanctuary option for those on a budget and handy with nails and a hammer.
Why Are Pergolas Truly Flexible Outdoor Rooms?
- You’ll be able to extend one outward from the back wall or create a standalone version.
- You will be able to modulate its size, location and shape to your specific family needs and garden size/location. ○ Perfect for transforming a shady nook into your garden into an outdoor room or play area with some rugs and matting.
- Or make it a natural extension of your home by running it lengthwise alongside your back door and patio.
- Ready-made wrought iron pergolas in a simple arch configuration are also a great way to start marking off a garden entrance.
- Be sure to use the right timber for the climate you are in and treat the wood for all-weather proofing.
- You can modulate the thickness of the slats and the width of the gaps to suit the character or climate of your garden. Or arrange slats diagonally in different geometric configurations for a more design-led approach
With patience and some loving green fingers, you could watch this project literally grow into a really beautiful, sensuous and sweet-smelling garden installation.
This will ultimately deliver the real shade and even rain cover you need over time, whilst also keeping your garden outdoor room a truly natural green space.
- Get advice from your local garden centre for the best creeper plants for your location. Creepers such as Wisteria, Jasmine and the old fashioned but sensational climbing Roses.
- Don’t forget to use the timber slat features of your pergola to add hanging plants and baskets for a truly romantic look.
- Make it a sustainable installation by searching for architectural salvage or sleepers to repurpose
Top It Up With A Trellis
A trellis or lattice is a perfect way for dressing a plain brick wall or creating a natural partition and enclosure for your garden too.
You can screen off the chilly winds and lend privacy to your deck or pergola with simple treated-wood lattice walls. Add planting over time to create a solid living breathing wall of green.
Go For A Gazebo
Like parasols, gazebos are an easy way to convert open space into a more functional outdoor room in all weather scenarios bar a tropical hurricane of course.
A good transitional and portable solution when hosting outdoor gatherings in your backyard or even front garden.
- You can start with a simple BBQ Bistro Gazebo - these have a sturdy steel construction with a 180g polyester canopy in a size big enough to protect your BBq or small trestle table housing your family buffet
- Shelter a dressed-up family dining table outdoors with a bigger 3m Steel Round Gazebo. Choose a stylish round-shaped version with sturdy tubular steel construction, a weatherproof 160g polyester cover and 140g side panels to keep chills and breezes away on cooler evenings. This gazebo is perfect for family gatherings, BBQs or simply for relaxing in the garden over the summer months when dining alfresco
- Alternatively, go for the Square-version in the same Steel Framed Gazebo in 3m X 3m.
- For even more coverage, go for the 3m X 4m Steel Rectangle Gazebo. This will provide better shelter for a formal rectangle-shaped outdoor dinner table .
Ways To Dress Any Outdoor Space
The Power Of Potted Plants
You can eat into your lawn with your patio extension without compromising on the feel-good presence of nature and greenery in your garden.
Place large-leafed evergreen plants on the newly paved perimeter or steps of your newly expanded patio stone. Use complementing pots just outside and inside your doors and windows. It will create the illusion of a seamless connection between indoors and out.
Potted plants are also a great technique for marking out or demarcating one space from another. Hanging plants using a softer macrame hanging pot holder will soften things further creating a natural green enclosure of your space,
Treat It And Paint It
You can paint trellises, pergolas, decking or lattice walls in any colour or keep it in a natural wood finish for a more rustic look.
Dress It Up with Lights And Soften It Down With Fabric
You can dress it in bunting, lanterns and fairy lights when hosting a garden party, barbecue or tea party event.
Create or source outdoor curtains, drape muslin and sails for added a more sheltered enclosed and cosy feel.
Drop down water-resistant garden mats or rugs on, or an old rug that’s been lying unused in the attic to create a softer look during those garden parties
Make it Lounge-Able
Be brave and invest in a hammock for that extra holiday feeling.
The kids will also love it when you finally throw in the waterproof bean bag too. These are the simple hard-to resist lounge-ready accessories that will get them off the Xbox, Netflix and out into the open outdoor room.
Ready to give your family an outdoor space to scratch out in?
Shopping list
- Paving stone or concrete flags
- Paving and decking cleaner and fungicidal wash
- GARDEN COLLECTION 1.6 M Beach Parasol
- 7 M Steel Parasol With Crank
- 3m Taupe Parasol With Crank
- Hanging 3M Parasol With Crank
- Evergreen or perennial plants for potting
- Various plant pots in matching colours
- Saw & Timber for building a pergola, trellis or lattice wall
- Ready-made garden Trellis or Lattice walls panels
- Decking & Decking care for the floor of your Pergola
- Hammer and Nails for building a pergola
- Paint for touching up wooden features
- BBQ Bistro Gazebo
- Steel Round Gazebo
- Square Steel Framed Gazebo
- Steel Rectangle Gazebo
Stop by our Outdoor Living to source more furniture for your outdoor spaces and peruse our Lawn & Garden Section to catch an overview of the DIY products and brands available
How Did You Create Your Outdoor Room?
Share your outdoor living must-haves and money-saving ideas with us, below!
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