If there’s one thing that we’ve found out in recent years, it’s that bringing the outside indoors can have enormous benefits for your well-being. Not only that, but it also represents an excellent way to experiment with your décor, indoor planting and interior design.
Here, we’re taking a closer loom at some design ideas for indoor outdoor spaces so you can get the inspiration you need to bring the outside into your home.
Why Create An Outdoor/Indoor Home Design?
Outdoor/indoor designs can really bring the wow factor into your property and create an eye-catching impression for your visitors and guests. Biophilic design represents the concept of enabling those who occupy a space to effectively connect with their natural environment in order to improve their well-being and overall health. When you design a space that brings the outside inside you can experience a raft of benefits from greater happiness to increased productivity.
Adding A Balcony
If you live in a home that has a stunning view, you can use an outdoors/indoors design to really maximise the benefits. Adding your own balcony will really make the most of the view and give you great pleasure. You can build balconies in many sizes and shapes from a small Juliet balcony right up to stacked balconies with a lower floor extension or pillar supports.
Usually, a Juliet balcony will be the simplest kind to install since it will be small, have no floor, and be non-weight-bearing. For this reason, they’re often known as false balconies. This kind of balcony is the perfect way of bringing the outdoors indoors as they’re usually made as a form of barrier for first floor patio doors and are typically constructed from toughened glass.
As a result, you can lie in your bed, leave your patio doors wide open, and enjoy a beautifully unobstructed view over your outdoor space.
Larger balconies are more complex to build, but they also bring more advantages. In fine weather, you can use your large balcony to dine outdoors, and soak up the sunshine in a lounger or chair. For the largest balconies, you’ll even have enough room to do a workout outdoors.
Clever Glazing
Another great way of bringing the outdoors indoors is by using glazing cleverly. You can add skylights, Velux windows, bifolding doors, or floor to ceiling windows that will make an enormous difference to the feel and look of your property.
A floor to ceiling window is the perfect way of framing your view over your garden, allowing you to enjoy your outdoor areas while relaxing indoors in complete comfort. A bi-folding door will allow you to make best use of your garden since it will give you access without any obstructions. If you add one to a living room or kitchen, you can enjoy the indoor/outdoor lifestyle effortlessly.
Space Ideas
There are many different options to select from when it comes to creating the ideal inside/outside design for living spaces. Some of the possibilities include:
- Adding a dormer loft extension onto your home
- Creating an internal courtyard
- Extending your home with an orangery, conservatory or sunroom
- Adding on an extension that has floor to ceiling doors or windows.
Courtyards
Internal courtyards represent an ideal way of either interlinking rooms or creating a transitional inside/outside space while giving the nod to the great outdoors. Courtyards are exciting design features that blur the line in between the outdoors and indoors – imagine glass walls that allow the light to flood in while creating a cosy room where you can listen to and watch the outdoor elements.
Glass Extensions
Glass dormer extensions are another excellent option to bear in mind if you lack sufficient garden or floor space for a more traditional extension. This twist on a standard dormer extension is a highly creative idea to maximise the amount of light that enters the space thanks to the floor to ceiling glass that lies on all three of its sides.
Conservatories And Sunrooms
If you have more available space for an extension, adding a conservatory, orangery, or sunroom is another option to bear in mind. While this will obviously be more expensive to build, they’ll also add more value to the property.
All three of these include lots of windows, however they also bring some welcome shade during the summer months as well as a cosier environment in which to sit and enjoy your outdoor spaces during the cold of the winter. You could even consider creating a full extension that has at least one wall made out of glass.
This glass extension can serve many purposes, from dining spaces to a home gym boasting an incredible view. While this is a more costly choice, it will certainly bring some wow factor to your home.
Ideas For Outdoor Rooms
If you’d like to take your inside/outside living concept to a whole new level, why not think about adding a garden room onto your property. These days, garden rooms are becoming increasingly popular, especially after the Covid pandemic when more people than ever before starting working from their homes.
Garden rooms can serve multiple purposes from a home office to save room in your house, a quiet hobby space for reading, crafts, arts, or yoga, or even a playroom for the children.
Depending on what you’re looking for and, of course, your available budget, there are numerous options to consider when you’re looking for the perfect garden room for you. You could begin with something relatively simple such as a log cabin, or perhaps make the investment in a completely insulated space with heating and lighting.
No matter which you choose, you’ll be able to get maximum enjoyment from your space while reaping all the health and wellness benefits that come from outdoor/indoor designs. There’s no better way to improve your mental well-being than by bringing the outside inside so that you can enjoy it every day, no matter the weather, so get started on your design now!