Home Works
Outdoor Living Spaces Take the Indoors Outdoors This Summer! By Anne Yankus
With all the arctic weather finally behind us, everyone is finding more and more excuses to spend time outdoors. One perfect excuse to get outside is to enjoy the comfortable and inviting outdoor living space you’ve created in your yard! After the winter we’ve had, we could all use a little more opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. Having a dedicated outdoor seating area does more than give you a great place to take your laptop and work from home in the sunshine. It can increase your home’s value, give you a great place to entertain your friends safely, and even improve your health by lowering stress levels and getting you some much-needed vitamin D! In order to create a truly awesome outdoor seating area, you’ll want to do more than just pick up some discount lawn furnishings and stick them wherever. Take some time to consider what kind of space you want to create and how you want to use it. Open porches, screened-in porches, three-season rooms, gazebos, and pergolas are all great options to take your outdoor space from bland to inviting. Porches are making a comeback, so whether you have an existing structure on your home or are ready to build, there are plenty of new ideas out there on how you can use and decorate
the space. These days, people are converting their porches into true outdoor living rooms, with outdoor/indoor drapes, hanging basket plants, lanterns, rugs, and more! Porch swings are still very much in fashion, from budget-friendly classic swings to easy-install gliders. You’ll also find new twists on the classic idea, like bed swings, swings with built-in tables, and transitional swings. If you don’t have an existing porch structure on your home (or if the one you have needs some repair or refurbishment), you have the option of building (or replacing) with traditional wood decking, composite decking, or even concrete. Traditional wood is going to be your mid-range price option—cheaper than composite but pricier than concrete. Wood is widely available and versatile in design. Composite decking is going to cost you more money up front but will last longer and require less maintenance than traditional wood. Concrete is your cheapest and most durable option, but it doesn’t offer the versatility or design options you’ll get with wood or composite.
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