Homeowners pay a great deal of attention to their interior style choices, but they often think that there is little they can do about the appearance of the outside of their home without a complete overhaul. All too frequently, Australian houses look nothing like they do on the inside when you view them from the exterior. If you have a clear sense of how you like your interior decorations to be but little idea how to coordinate your chosen style with the outside of your home, then read on. Discover the tips many architects and landscape designers use to make the interior and exterior styles of dwellings blend more easily with one another.
Splashes of Colour
One of the key things you can do to bring the interior design of your home into the exterior is to unify their styles with strident colour choices. Emphatically, this does not mean painting all of the render on the outside of your home the same colour of your wallpaper. This would be overkill. A few touches of coordinating colour will do the job.
For example, brightly coloured awnings placed at the front and the rear of your home will set the tone perfectly. So long as these match elements of your interior design, they will connect the inside to the outside perfectly. What's more, an awning provides excellent shade meaning you can enjoy the garden more - making it a part of the living space, too.
Single Level Living Spaces
Connecting the outside to your interior design is often best achieved by creating a no-step zone between your living room and the garden. For example, by fitting a bi-folding door at the rear of your home, you can basically remove an entire wall. If the space you walk out on to is at the same level as the interior, then the two zones merge into one seamlessly. Look out for raised patios or areas of decking in luxury hotels that do this job and see how copying the idea might work in your home.
Create Garden Rooms
By zoning off areas of your back garden, you can create more stylish areas which have planting that reflects your interior, both in terms of shape and colour. Large open gardens, or those with so-called island bed planting, look great but don't connect inside and outside so effectively. When you mark out a room in your garden, use architectural elements like low walls and large planters to shape them in similar proportions to the living quarters you have inside.