How to marry your kitchen and garden for the perfect indoor/outdoor space
If you're a keen cook who enjoys hosting outdoor dinner parties, or your family likes to have their dinner in the garden when it's warm outside, you might want to consider marrying your kitchen and outdoor space.
There are plenty of benefits to opening your kitchen up: it can make the space seem much larger, as well as increasing its practicality. Additionally, blending the boundaries between your kitchen and garden can help you to feel closer to nature which, according to the University of Minnesota, can help to relieve stress and anxiety. If you would like to experience these benefits, there is a wide range of things you can do to bring the outdoors in and vice versa. Read on to find out more.
Create an outdoor space for cooking and dining
You can help to expand your kitchen out into your garden by creating an outdoor space where you can cook and enjoy meals with family and friends.
To begin with, you should create a comfortable dining area that will accommodate at least as many people as your indoor dining table does. To help to give your indoor/outdoor space a cohesive look, you should also try to pick a table and chairs set that complements the interior décor of your kitchen. Wyevale Garden Centres offer a wide range of stylish rattan, metal, and wooden garden furniture sets. They have everything from bistro sets that are perfect for couples, to large dining sets with lounging chairs that could accommodate your whole family. So, you should have no trouble finding an outdoor dining solution that will suit your needs perfectly.
When you're a cook who loves the great outdoors, making a meal in the confines of your home and then bringing it outside to eat just isn't enough. So, it's well worth considering whether you have the budget and means to create an outdoor kitchen as well. If this is something you're interested in trying, DIY Network has a guide that outlines the options you have for creating an affordable outdoor kitchen.
Bring greenery indoors
When you're trying to blur the lines between your kitchen and garden, it isn't just about bringing the indoors out; you also want to bring some of the outdoors in. And, the easiest way to do this is by incorporating greenery into your kitchen's interior design.
If you don't have a lot of experience of looking after houseplants, it's best to opt for particularly low-maintenance and hardy varieties that don't require too much attention. There are also some plants that will fare in the hot and sometimes humid environment of your kitchen, so you should keep this in mind when choosing the greenery you're going to put on display. Here are some plants that will work particularly well for bringing the outdoors into your kitchen:
English Ivy
Aloe Vera
White Jasmine
Spider plants
Pepper these potted plants around your kitchen, and it'll soon start to feel like an extension of your garden space.
Blur the physical boundaries between your kitchen and garden
By blurring the boundaries of your kitchen and garden, you can help to ensure the space looks larger as well as cohesive. And, there are a variety of ways to do this.
If the layout of your home allows it and you have a particularly generous budget, swapping one or two of your kitchen's exterior walls for glass doors that will open out into your garden is the perfect way to open your space up.
Another effective tactic is to use a similar-coloured or even the same flooring both inside and outside on your patio. This will give a great sense of continuity and help to tie your kitchen a garden up nicely.
Finally, if you don't wish to embark on a large renovation project, or you don't currently have the funds for it, you can achieve a similar effect by decorating your kitchen and garden with similar colours and accessories. For example, if your kitchen's walls are a particularly shade of blue or green, you could replicate this in the colour of your garden cushions, plant pots, and decorative pieces. Again, this will help to tie the two areas together, and show that they're supposed to work as one.
Combining your kitchen and garden to create a practical indoor/outdoor space is becoming increasingly popular. And, if this is something you're interested in doing, these are just some of the ways you can achieve this kind of effect. If you take these tips on board, you'll have no trouble creating a large, open-feeling space that's perfect for hosting garden parties and dining al fresco.