The difference between a simple patio and an “outdoor living room” is in the details. Think in terms of visually recreating an interior space outdoors. These five unique outdoor living rooms utilize a variety of interior design concepts while taking advantage of the outdoor venue. By incorporating some of these ideas, you can create an enviable outdoor living room that will have the Joneses wanting to keep up with you.
Cozy Retreat
Mirroring a classic indoor living room design, the outdoor fireplace serves as the focal point of this outdoor living room and includes a nearby bar for serving guests. Privacy fencing provides a backdrop to make it feel more intimate. Tropical plants, textured pavers, water features and an additional fire feature work together to add an exotic quality.
Villa Veranda
This Mediterranean-style home uses a mixed-material design to visually define the living room area of the outdoor space. Vibrant color blocks in the paver design help reinforce this by creating the look of an oversized area rug. The fire pit design incorporates an extra-wide wall cap, allowing it to also function as the coffee table of the furniture grouping.
Entertainment Mecca
A terraced design divides this outdoor living room into separate entertainment zones. The upper level offers an intimate conversation area with furniture facing the fireplace. The lower level features a stunning waterfall fire feature that serves as the base for a weatherproof outdoor TV. The expansive patio area surrounding the fire feature allows for multiple furniture groupings, perfect for movie nights or backyard tailgating.
Light and Airy
Outdoor lighting design plays a major role in this relaxing outdoor living room. An oversized fire pit, uplights, edison-style string lights and lanterns all add to the ambiance. Attractive pendant lights hang over the seating area to add additional illumination and create the aesthetic of an interior room. A faux rug paver design reinforces the living room concept.
Terraced Sitting Rooms
This multi-level terrace design creates the look and functionality of multiple sitting rooms. Utilizing retaining walls to convert a sloped backyard into usable entertainment space, the design incorporates a contemporary paver pattern to mimic the look of interior carpeting. Contrasting paver banding and landscape walls create visual separation between each distinct sitting room. Wall caps mirror the color of the banding to tie the look together.
For more outdoor living room design ideas, visit our Stylish Roomscapes Pinterest board.
Since coming onto the scene just a few short years ago, outdoor porcelain pavers are quickly becoming the hottest new thing in outdoor living design. Homeowners are falling in love with the contemporary style, durability, stain-resistance and ability to mirror indoor design trends to create indoor-outdoor flow. Used on their own or as part of a mixed materials design, porcelain pavers can be used in a variety of ways. Check out the slideshows below for some inspiration on incorporating the new porcelain trend in your outdoor spaces.
Instagramable Patios and Outdoor Living Rooms
Porcelain pavers offer an
excellent medium for creating sleek monochromatic looks. And with endless
interpretations of stone and wood, you can also create a design with the
aesthetic of natural stone or wooden planks without the fading, chipping or
splintering.
Quartziti Pavers and Wall Veneer
NaMe Pavers
Noon Pavers
Quartzi Pavers and Bordeaux™ Fireplace
Rail Pavers
Stones Pavers and Bordeaux™ Fireplace
Stones Pavers
Verona™ Pavers
Not Your Grandma’s Porch
Whether you call it creating curb envy or curb appeal, an elegant porch is a great way to set your home apart from the neighbors. For rear porches, porcelain has also proven to be a game-changer in creating seamless indoor/outdoor transitions. Porcelain pavers mirror indoor flooring design trends and often have coordinating indoor tiles and porcelain wall veneers to create a flawlessly coordinated look.
Transitioning from one outdoor space to the next might involve some steps or walkways. Porcelain pavers are excellent for creating steps that accentuate a cohesive outdoor living design. You can also use them to create unique walkways, either alone or to add contrasting visual interest to a concrete paver design.
Outdoor kitchens give a backyard that extra umph of livability. And this is where porcelain building materials really shine. Due to its composition and finish, porcelain pavers will not stain. Whether it is mud, oil, pizza sauce or even red wine, simply wipe it off and gone! Porcelain pavers also coordinate quite nicely with other building materials.
Verona™ Pavers
Noon Pavers
Ardesie Pavers
Quartziti Pavers
Water and Fire Features that Sizzle
Fire and water make every outdoor design better. There’s just something about adding those natural elements that instantly make the space cozier. And with an extremely high compressive strength and an ultra-low water absorption rate, porcelain has a highly impenetrable surface. This includes mold and mildew, making it an excellent medium for creative water features. It can also take the heat. You couldn’t do an in-ground fire pit with a wooden deck. That would be crazy. But with wood-grain porcelain…you betcha.
Nau Pavers
Quartziti Pavers
Noon Pavers
Sundeck Pavers
Noon Pavers
Quartziti Pavers
Spa-Worthy Poolscapes
Maintenance free and slip resistant, a porcelain poolscape is a modern take on the age-old favorite backyard addition. Porcelain pavers can be used to create sleek ultra-contemporary looks or be mixed with other materials for eye-catching inlaid designs. Porcelain is also an excellent medium for creating a stepping stone pool deck, which is a growing trend in pool deck and patio design.
There was a time when a simple patio or deck was the height of backyard outdoor living. Today, we have transcended to a place where our outdoor spaces rival and often surpass the look and livability of our indoor spaces. The latest trend on this design journey is to merge our outdoor and indoor living spaces in a way that allows the backyard to be a true extension of the home. Here are some ideas on how to accomplish this.
1 – Use Complementary Architecture
When designing an outdoor living space, use materials and architectural touches that mirror the interior space. For example, if the interior includes arches, transoms or large beams, similar touches can be incorporated in the exterior spaces. You can also mirror architectural materials such as light fixtures, countertops and flooring in your exterior spaces. Just remember to buy the outdoor-rated versions for durability in the harsher environment.
Belgard Porcelain Pavers and coordinating Porcelain Wall Veneers are a great tool for connecting outdoor spaces with interior spaces. The veneers can be used for both interior and exterior applications, and Porcelain Pavers mimic the look of interior flooring and often have coordinating indoor tile styles.
2 – Create Seamless Transitions
For climates that allow this as an option, collapsible doors provide the perfect opportunity to create a seamless transition between the indoor and outdoor environment. This is not realistic in some climates due to excessive temperatures, mosquitoes and other factors. For these scenarios, the look can be accomplished with large windows, sliding doors or screened enclosures. It also helps to have the initial zone of the outdoor space at the same floor height so there’s not a step up or down when going in or out.
The HGTV® Dream Home 2019 created the perfect example of indoor/outdoor living with folding doors and windows on first floor room facing the backyard. (photo: HGTV, used with permission)
3 – Incorporate Cohesive Design Schemes
If you’re limited by architecture or climate and want to create a sense of flow to the outdoors, continue the same decorating motif used in the adjoining room. Use similar color schemes, furniture styles, rugs, lamps, vases and other accessories.
The use of wingback outdoor chairs and homey accessories makes this Mega-Bergerac® patio feel more like a continuation of the indoor environment.
4 – Make the Space More Functional
If you really want your outdoor space to be cohesive with your indoor space, it needs to be a place where people want to hang out. That means adding functional elements like a bar, outdoor kitchen or fire feature.
This Tandem® Modular Grid outdoor kitchen is a fully functional cooking and entertainment space, complete with multiple cooking surfaces, full-sized sink, outdoor-rated appliances and built-in television. The half wall also serves to enclose the space to make it feel more connected with the home’s interior.
5 – Link Entertainment Zones
Adding a television is a no-brainer, which is easy enough to link with your home’s system. But you’ll also want to add WiFi extenders to improve internet connectivity. To really enhance the sense of flow from the indoors out, add audio speakers and connect them with your home’s entertainment system. That way, you can hear the same background sounds when walking from one space to the next.
When investing in an outdoor living installation, consider features that offer multi-generational appeal. This will not only help your family enjoy the space more now, but will also add to your home’s resale value down the road. If you’re designing a family-friendly patio space specifically with kids in mind, it’s also important to think long term. Plan features that will entice them to spend more time outside now, but will still be appealing to you later once the nest is empty. Here are some inspirational backyard design ideas with those considerations in mind.
Backyard Interactive Fountains
An interactive fountain is a picturesque water feature that can double as a play area during warmer months. Small children will be enthralled for hours at at time running through the dancing waters. And in the off-season, or in later years, you’ll still enjoy listening to the soothing sounds and watching the playful spouts. These fountains can either be created with a water-recycling permeable paver system, or by adding a drain system to standard pavers.
Eco Dublin® permeable paver
Subterra® permeable pavers
Urbana Stone® and Cambridge Cobble® pavers
Firepits and Outdoor Fireplaces
Nothing offers multi-generational appeal like a fire feature. The fabulous thing about a fire pit or outdoor fireplace is that it will actually entice multiple generations to spend time together. A backyard fire tears down generational barriers and allows everyone to enjoy each other’s company while listening to the crackle, watching the flames, roasting marshmallows and telling stories — all while creating new stories to be told later.
Belair Wall® 2.0
Mega-Arbel® Pavers
Weston Stone® Wall
Garden Walls and Seat Walls
A garden wall offers the multi-functional ability to serve as a retaining wall, seating space or a decorative component to your outdoor spaces. It can be a spot for landing G.I. Joe’s helicopter, lining up Barbies for a modeling show, or just hanging out with a friend to tell secrets (that last one works for any age). You can also use landscape walls to build a raised garden bed that can either house science fair experiments, herbs and veggies for farm-to-table dinners, or elegant gladiolas.
Celtik® Wall
Weston Stone® Wall
Celtik® Wall
Outdoor Kitchens with Multiple Cooking Surfaces
As the kids get older, if you want your house to be the one where all their friends come to hang out, be aware that adolescents and teens feed like a plague of locusts. You’re going to need multiple cooking surfaces to feed the masses. And you’re going to prefer they hang out outside, which is MUCH easier to clean before or after a gathering. Honestly, isn’t that why leaf blowers were invented?
Bristol™ Series Brick Pizza Oven
Tandem® Modular Grid Outdoor Kitchen
Weston Stone® Outdoor Kitchen
Outdoor Bar Top Dining
When designing an outdoor kitchen, a bar top dining area is a must — and you can never have too much seating space. Everyone wants to sit near the cook to visit during food prep. Plus, kids love to eat at a bar and let their little legs dangle. And adults love to sit at the bar to watch the game. That’s why sports bars exist, so why not just have one at home where you can watch what YOU want.
Weston Stone® wall and Bergerac® pavers
Weston Stone® outdoor kitchen
Patio Chalk Art
Kids (and some grownups) can entertain themselves for hours with a box of chalk and a concrete surface. And with a simple spray of water, the canvas is ready for the next artist. Smooth-faced pavers work best for drawing, and modular styles like Lafitt® Grana Slab can offer natural boxes for housing separate creations…or opportunities to color outside the lines. Patio pavers with textured surfaces can also be fun for creating colorful, abstract chalk designs.
Lafitt® Grana Slab
Lafitt® Rustic Slab
Multi-Zoned Outdoor Living Areas
Whether you typically host adult gatherings, family get-togethers, or kid paloozas, having multiple entertainment zones is a must. This allows for the natural creation of different conversation areas, or even separate play areas. The moms can visit together in one zone while the kids play with blocks in another. Or one zone can be for cinephiles to discuss the latest twist in the Marvel universe, while elsewhere a group of oenophiles can discuss the intricate flavors of their latest Pinot Noir discovery.
(Cue Music) Drones…HUH! What are they good for? Giving backyard enthusiasts the optimal ocular experience needed to start planning their dream backyard. Okay, maybe the original song was better. But luckily, we’re not in the music business. We’re in the business of creating beautiful outdoor living spaces. In today’s blog, we’re letting the drones do the talking (singing) with three majestic videos that capture inspirational designs from every angle.
This Backyard is a Hole-In-One
This golf lover’s patio features the natural cut flagstone look of Lafitt® pavers complemented by a semicircular ashlar Tandem® Wall, which features the appearance of natural chiseled stone and borders a rustic fire pit. Sweeping arches throughout the design provide the perfect complement to a private backyard putting green that offers three different holes to help improve your short game. Contrasting paver borders and alternating paver patterns help create the illusion of separate outdoor rooms. Grab your putter and check it out!
This backyard design is anchored on one end by a hot tub pergola and by a fire pit patio on the other. And in the center, a beautifully constructed built-in grill island accommodates two different types of grills. Now that’s hot! The open pergola sits on the stone pillars of a landscape wall and slightly shrouds the multi-person hot tub. A u-shaped stone seat wall surrounds the fire pit, defining the space and providing extra seating. The design is all accentuated by Lafitt® and Mega-Arbel® pavers laid in patterns that define each entertaining area and feature an artistic inlaid triple-diamond mosaic. Take a look!
This trip begins with a peek at a cozy outdoor living room, featuring a Bordeaux™ Series Fireplace that gives the space a nice rustic feel to it. The stacked stone fireplace is accented by two matching wood storage boxes. The outdoor living room is covered by an open-air pavilion that ties in with the look of the home’s roofline. An inlaid paver pattern creates a faux paver area rug to complete the “living room” look. Next stop is a contemporary Lafitt™ Grana Slab patio that features a multi-purpose L-shaped grill island and bar, outfitted with both a stainless gas grill and a charcoal kamado grill. The island includes an expansive stone countertop for all food prep and serving needs. The best part about this trip? It’s only one click away.
Calling all garden enthusiasts! If you’ve never had the opportunity to attend the Philadelphia Flower Show, you’re missing out on incredible displays from the nation’s premier floral and landscape designers. Belgard is once again excited to partner with the largest horticultural event in the nation as the official hardscapes sponsor of the show, to be held March 3 – 11, 2018, in the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
This year’s show, “Wonders of Water,” will celebrate the beauty and life-sustaining interplay of horticulture and water by showcasing stunning displays that emulate tropical jungles, temperate forests, native woodlands and arid landscapes, featuring the astounding plants that thrive in each environment. As the official hardscape sponsor of the show, Belgard patio pavers and retaining walls will be used exclusively throughout the show in exhibitor displays, garden areas, stage construction and anywhere hardscapes are needed.
One lucky booth visitor will win a Bordeaux Elements™ Grill Island!
The expansive Belgard display will include an outdoor kitchen and living room and a patio with multiple fire features and water features. The exhibit will showcase installations of more than a dozen Belgard products including a fireplace and grill island from the Bordeaux™ Series of the Belgard Elements™ Collection of outdoor fireplaces and kitchen units. To tie in with the “Wonders of Water” theme, the Belgard display will also include contemporary fountains and an outdoor shower.
The renderings below offer a sneak peek at the exterior and interior of the Belgard exhibit. Click on any image for a larger view.
Exterior
Fire and water feature patio.
Outdoor kitchen and living room.
Belgard will also sponsor a Virtual Reality experience in The Backyard area of the Grand Hall, where visitors can view 3-D designs from the Belgard Design Studio using the studio’s new VR platform.
Click on the image to view a sample 360-degree VR design. Use your mouse or finger to drag and navigate. When viewing on a mobile device, gyroscope mode will enable you to navigate your phone around the image.
The Philadelphia Flower Show is hosted by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and benefits a variety of year-round programs in the Philadelphia area that have become national models of urban greening. For more information on the show, visit theflowershow.com or read the blog post: Sights from the 2017 Philadelphia Flower Show.
