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Hey, when you're designing those outdoor living spaces, there's some things you may wanna
keep in mind that have to do with style and comfort. You know, when I come to a garden
center for a client–helping them with spaces, particularly small spaces, there're a few
things that I always like to bring along. Some of them, well, might be a little bit
of a surprise to you. First, I like to bring along a piece of fabric. It gives me a sense
of a color theme I'm trying to follow. Maybe it's the color theme that's inside of the
house, where you might be looking out onto a patio space, and you wanna carry that color
theme out into the garden. And that's what we're doing here. This particular client has
sort of a mustard green room. Those are the dominant colors, so I thought: Let's pull
that out into this small patio area. Now the other thing I always carry with me is a tape
measurer, particularly if you're dealing with confined spaces. What I'm doing here is I'm
actually trying to figure out how in a 10 by 10 little patio area, how I can make that
feel like an intimate little room. So what I have here is a French cafe table that has
a tabletop diameter of about 3 1/2 feet. Now one of my rules of thumb is you wanna be able
to at least have that much space around the edge of the table to accommodate the chairs,
and anything that I might wanna place around it. So that's a good rule of thumb to follow.
You see, this is all about making this space comfortable, and I'm doing it with the arrangement
of chairs. I love a round table. Also, like these little French chairs, but I think they
could be made more comfortable with just some sort of outdoor fabric. Here's a Sunbrella
fabric, and we could make some cushions for the bottoms of the chairs there that could
stay out. And once we've established the size of the furniture that would go in this space,
we would begin to look at how to create a sense of enclosure. And you can do that very
inexpensively. You know, a lot of us think about enclosing a room with something that's
inert, something that's solid, like, concrete blocks, or bricks, or a wall made of made
of wood. But just trying using something like ferns. Isn't this beautiful? This can define
an outdoor living space. And something for the center of the table: Just use something
that echoes these same colors. I love this little miniature Agave and this piece of ceramic.
Okay, and now we get to the fun part --because I'm a plant geek-- how you decorate this with
plants and containers. For instance, look at this variegated ginger. If you live in
a part of the world where you have tropical-like temperatures or climate, this is a perfect
plant that will be out there all year long. But let's say you live in an area that gets
really cold in the winter. Try something like this broadleaf Hosta. I just love this, with
its variegation. You can see that it has the same color theme that we're using here–
this golden yellow and this beautiful green. This is one called Wide Brim. And also, the
containers: Just look at this mustard-colored container, isn't that gorgeous? That would
brighten up any garden room. Now, for a little contrast, when you're using greens --and I
consider green a neutral or a cool color-- and you've got yellows, which really pop,
I love to use blue as a contrasting color. So just take a look at this Agapanthus in
contrast with this Ginger Lily. Just look at the blue against the yellow and green.
It has such a delicate flower. You see, this is a great color combination if you got just
a tiny, little space. Treat it like you would a room in your home. Now let's take a look
over here at this place, where one might wanna sit down. Or, say, your space is even smaller–
take a look at this set-up. It's almost like a bar. You've got these tall, stool-like chairs.
In the center, just do something like a succulent or this type of Kalanchoe, which I think is
really beautiful. It works with the grays that this nice Teak table has patina'ed to.
Or, it also works with just a simple terra cotta container. And you can see, this with
two chairs, really doesn't take much room at all. Now, what about a place just to sorta
sit back and relax without a table? Doesn't take much space. Take a look at this. So,
let's say, you've got this blank wall, very limited space, no place to plant anything,
and you've got room for a little bench like this, it's only 4 feet wide. What about taking
a pair of containers like this. These can be hanging baskets that would hang up above
it, and frame it like this, on either side. Or you could just place them on the ground,
here and here. And then have something that comes up mid-range. And then across the back,
do a cluster of them as they they stair-step, all the way up, and you finish with a center
point, with something as beautiful as this, which is a lovely Shrimp Plant. You can see
why it's called a Shrimp Plant, because the blooms look like, well, shrimp. So when you're
thinking about those outdoor living spaces, think about comfort. Make sure you have plenty
of room. And remember, you can make a lot of room out of a small space. And keep the
color family kinda working with the colors you like, or the colors that you're tying
to extend from inside the home. Hey, if you've got some ideas on how to create a very beautiful
outdoor living space, I'd love to see a picture of it. And make sure you subscribe to eHow
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