Outdoor Living Spaces with Walls

Creating a comfortable space for your family is easy within the existing walls of your home or garage.  Usually you can find a place using one of these barriers as jumping off point for an outdoor room, and it is easier to attach shade sails to existing roof lines of your home.

Walls create focal points for outdoor spaces, especially if you are willing to get a little bold and add some color.  If you have a detached garage that is near the area you wish to make an outdoor living space, you can incorporate it by the use of color.  One side of a house, garage or added on room that faces only the area you want to make an outdoor room gives you so much to work with.

If there is a door or window, you can make it part of your living space.  If it is just a blank wall, think of it as a blank canvas and add wall hangings, free standing fireplaces, water features and plantings.  A blank wall can be used as a outdoor film screen for watching home movies; just add popcorn.  Create your room around the wall, just as you would indoors.

If you are fortunate enough to have three sides of your home that create a U-shaped room, add a shade cloth and paint the walls a color different from the rest of the house, since it won't be seen unless you are in the space.  This can be a great space completely independent of the rest of your landscape and a place to make your own secret garden or outdoor dining space.

By painting a great color on one wall of a garage or one side of your home, you can add interest that would be hard to accomplish with just plants.  Take a cool, but bold cobalt blue wall and imagine it with bright yellow blooms or striking bird of paradise plants.  If you have a door and/or a window on the wall, you can add another color, like terra cotta or aqua to compliment the color scheme. Glazed pots with cactus plants make an architectural statement, especially with some outdoor lighting.

Any theme will do in your space, if it brings you a sense of joy and well being.  A quiet, uncomplicated zen garden with stones and neatly raked sand or gravel with a bench for meditation can be a refuge in today's hectic lifestyle.  Keep color and comfort in mind when you are planning your outdoor space