One of the most popular points on the wish list of an extension, renovation, or self-build is to increase natural light in the home while making the most of the garden. Maximizing a connection to your surroundings is a great way to make your home healthy and have plenty of wow factor.
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Introducing large windows to emphasize a particular view might sound like the obvious idea, but this is just one of many different ways to embrace the outdoors in your home. Whether you’re designing an addition to a dark terraced house, renovating a period cottage, or decorating a new, light-filled home, incorporate these ideas at the beginning of your project. Discover how to embrace the outdoors in your home and find top-notch outdoor living solutions at RTA Outdoor Living.
Install New Patio Doors
An easy way to open up your kitchen, or whichever room leads onto the garden, is to install patio sliding glass doors to create a fresh feeling. You can literally connect the two spaces, give yourself a view of the garden, and create an easy way to get fresh air into your home when the doors are open. Any time glass sliding patio doors are in a home, the interior floor plan seems much larger.
Add A Balcony To The Master Suite
If you’re self-building a home, consider adding a balcony leading off the master suite to connect the bedroom to the outside.
Balconies are common in Europe, and for good reason. Add some furniture so you can take your morning coffee outside for a relaxing start to the day. Add some blankets, and you can enjoy your balcony even on cooler evenings. If you can add one, a balcony can be a real luxury.
Consider Biophilic Design
Biophilic design has been steadily growing in popularity over the last couple of years and has become a bit of a buzzword in interior design. The idea relates to the human instinct to interact with nature and the associated health benefits.
You can embrace this design by improving air circulation and quality, and a connection to nature by incorporating plants, green rooves, and living walls as part of domestic design.
You can use natural materials like raw plywood, or reclaimed wood for flooring, and use patio doors or large windows to lead the eye out toward the garden. You can add more plants by adding hanging units in your kitchen, which will help to purify the air indoors.
Use a Through-View to Bring the Outside Into the Floorplan
A new courtyard garden between an original terrace house and a new extension will draw the outdoors deeper into the floorplan of your property. Through-views connect the more private, cozy part of the home to the rest of the house with a doorway that mirrors the materials of the new extension.
Mirror Materials Inside and Out for a Cohesive Space
Mirroring or continuing materials, such as flooring or cladding, both inside and outside of your home can create a seamless transition between the spaces.
For example, choose flagstones and lay them both inside and out, so when your patio doors are open, the garden and the inside of your home will feel like one large space.
Bring in Light from Above
We tend to think laterally when we’re trying to connect the inside with the outdoors, but embracing light and views from above can be just as effective and important.
For example, a large roof light can capture a view of the clouds and lets in a lot of light.
Bring Light and Nature into a Dark Home
Older properties can often be dark, and it can be hard to get more light in while remaining true to the original features of your home. A glass box extension can be a stylish solution, that mirrors the original structure of your home while creating a bright, light space to relax in.
If you use this extension as your route to the garden too, you can heighten this effect even more.
Add an Invisible Extension
If you’re renovating your home or building a large extension, take advantage of the opportunity to rearrange the layout of your home, so everything flows towards the garden.
This can create an extension that feels like it was always part of the house, but with a lot more glazing. This can transform your house, especially if you build with an eye on the details. Use warm, natural materials and subtle, fresh colors to create the illusion of outdoor living inside.
Create a Connection to the Outdoors in a Loft Conversion
If you’re working without any direct connection to the garden in a loft conversion, it can be harder to link your home to the outside. If you can, try to design this space to make the most of any natural views that the extra height gives you.
Picture windows and skylights can be used at specific angles to make the most of the views you have and can be used to bring light to lower floors through the stairwell. Use pops of bright color throughout the space to make this even more fresh feeling.
Turn Your View into Artwork
Positioning windows in the right way is an art form, as capturing the best views from the inside will have a big impact on how the house will look from the outside. Marrying up the two demands is where talented architects and designers come into their own.
Framing a view works really in contemporary, minimalist interiors, where the beautiful view can act as a burst of color and texture to some simple decor. When the outside is framed from the inside, the gorgeous views are the only artwork that you will need on the walls.
A long window could be the perfect frame for a landmark or tree, and if your home sits in rolling hills, a narrow horizontal window at head height will draw the eye.
Bring the Outside In with a Courtyard Layout
If you have limited garden views, including a courtyard in the layout of a home can provide natural light to rooms that would otherwise be dark. If you can, add in some internal courtyards.
Bring the Outside In with an Outdoor Room
Not everyone is lucky enough to have a large garden, but there are ways to connect to the outside, even if you have a tiny plot to work with. A small extension that makes the most of the space you do have and uses matching materials, like exposed brick, can create the illusion of an extended inside/outside room.
Choose a similar palette of materials in the garden to those that you have on show in the house to make the immediate landscaping feel like part of the indoors and not an afterthought.
Blur the Boundaries Between Indoor and Outdoor Spaces
Carefully linking between internal and external spaces in a home can create a series of seamless transitions. Try things like covered integral seating, wrapped in light cladding, which can be cut from the main living spaces, playing with the boundaries of your home.
Choose an Earthy Color Scheme
An effective way to transform an older house is to add an extension filled with light to your kitchen and dining room. Connect this extension to the sky with a roof lantern and carry the garden indoors by using an earthy color scheme in your kitchen.
Use a Wall of Glazing
The latest must-have in stylish modern properties is a wall of glazing that can be completely pulled back to open up a room completely in the summer. Large format bifold doors are perfect for blurring the boundaries between the interiors and the great outdoors.
Try to avoid the physical barrier of steps between the house and the garden, and instead create a level threshold as a beautiful way to blur the boundaries between the inside and outside. Using the same flooring inside and out helps to blur the lines even further, especially when the doors are open.
Bring the Outside In on the First Floor
Designing a bedroom with a balcony is a wonderful way to build in a feeling of tranquility. An understated glass balcony can appear almost invisible, giving you uninterrupted views of the trees and landscape around your home.
Make a Natural Impact in Bedrooms and Bathrooms
If you are looking to transform your existing home, there can be a temptation to gravitate towards the back of the house when you are trying to create a better connection with the outdoors.
Don’t forget to include other parts of the house. Beautiful picture windows with slim sightlines in the bedrooms and bathrooms mean the influence of natural light and any views is felt throughout the house, rather than only on the ground floor at the back of the house.
Bring the Outside In All Year Round
An orangery can maximize the views while still giving you the comfort of an indoor space. Summer only lasts so long after all and having somewhere that you can use all year round should be a priority. Exposed brick can give the illusion of an outside area, while the room is still very much a part of the main house.
