Creating a space where you can escape and enjoy the outdoors has become a priority for many homeowners. Landscaping your Somers, NY backyard is a great way to expand your living space to the outdoors and enhance your quality of life. Forming a strong connection between your home and yard will encourage movement between the two spaces. Try some of these techniques to improve flow between your indoor and outdoor living spaces with the help of Manzer’s Landscape Design and Development, Inc.

Install a Patio

Landscaping Ideas for Improving Flow Between Your Indoor and Outdoor Spaces in Somers, NY

A patio connects your backyard to your home. A smooth expanse of pavers can create an inviting patio and a connected walkway that will encourage movement from inside to the outdoors. To further assist traffic flow, incorporate creative designs in your patio flooring. Inlaid borders can create visual pathways that guide visitors along.

Complementary flooring styles make spaces feel connected. Consider using similar materials or colors both inside and out to enhance unity between spaces. To create a truly seamless transition, select flooring that can carry through both spaces uninterrupted.

Add Cover

A covered space next to your home creates a sheltered and welcoming outdoor room. This crossover space welcomes guests by easing the transition from inside to out. To make a covered area feel more like a room than a backyard, add warmth and comfortable seating. For a more open feeling, adding a pergola will create a focal point that guides guests to and from your home.

Create Unity With Furniture

To reinforce the feeling that two rooms are part of the same space, they should utilize the same design style. Selecting similar colors and sizes for your indoor and outdoor furnishings will establish a connection between areas. Matching accents, such as throw pillows and area rugs, from one space to the next will create a visual link and improve flow.

The placement of plants and furnishings can also help enhance flow. Avoid blocking natural traffic patterns and position items to form a natural pathway.

Bridge the Gap

A difference in floor heights from your home to your yard can cut off the flow between them. Crossing a level transition area is more inviting than climbing steep steps. Help ensure your indoor and outdoor spaces function together, by keeping them on the same plane.

Adding a deck can provide a level entertaining area at the entrance of your home. If stairs are required to cover the distance between your home and yard, opt for wide, oversized stairs with a gradual descent that feels more like a deck than a staircase.

Balanced Lighting

Lighting can help improve flow in a number of ways. Strategic placement of outdoor lights will create a path that helps guide users across your landscape to your home. A well-lit entryway is more inviting and encourages visitors to approach.

Lighting also offers the ability to make spaces feel separate or connected. Contrasting light colors and intensities will visually divide two spaces. Ensuring that adjacent indoor and outdoor rooms use the same fixtures and bulbs will provide consistent and balanced lighting that makes the spaces appear visually joined.

Create Open Spaces

An uninterrupted view draws the eye outside and encourages movement to the outdoors. Keeping vertical structures that inhibit flow, such as fireplaces or columns, away from transition areas will create an open connection.

Instead of incorporating walls to separate and define outdoor rooms, opt for different paver patterns or a change in flooring to create zones in your landscape.