OUT /aʊt/ adv.
Garden Design Ideas and Outdoor Inspiration
The best outdoor spaces work just as hard as the rooms inside. OUT decodes the ideas and design decisions behind great gardens, from layout, planting and patios to garden rooms, outdoor furniture and lighting. Whether it's a small courtyard or a sprawling garden, see what works, understand why, then make it your own.
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Members' Club Poolside Styling Hacks
The secret of achieving the Mediterranean look in a summer evening lies in the effortless layering of natural materials, weathered textures, soft linens with the glow of candlelight and embers in the firepit as the sun goes down.
We've decoded the look and found the key pieces that keep everything relaxed and slightly imperfect. Mixing natural materials, introducing muted tones and letting the lighting and reflections do the work. The result should feel effortless. Read the full article
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The Edit
Everything you need to take good design outside.
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Everything you need to take good design outside.
Questions
Straight answers to the questions that make an outdoor space work.
How do you make a small garden look bigger?
Break the sightline so the whole space isn't visible at once. A path that bends, planting that overlaps the edges and one focal point at the far end all make a garden read as longer than it is.
Where should a patio sit in a garden?
Wherever the sun lands when you'll actually use it. That's often not against the house. Track the light across an afternoon before laying anything.
How big should a patio be?
Big enough for the table plus a metre on every side, so chairs pull out without dropping off the edge. For six people that's around 4 x 4m.
How do you zone a garden?
Change the surface or the level. A shift from paving to gravel, or a single step, tells the eye a new area has begun without needing a fence.
What's the best lighting for a patio?
Low, warm and scattered. Lanterns, candles and festoon lighting at 2700K. Avoid anything bright and overhead, which flattens the garden and undoes the atmosphere.
How do you make a garden feel more private?
Plant tall and narrow rather than building higher. Trees with clear stems screen at eye level while letting light through, which a raised fence won't.
Good design. Decoded.
A garden that works isn't the one with the most in it. It's proportion, layout, planting, light and the way a space is divided so it has somewhere to sit, somewhere to walk and something to look at. OUT pulls those decisions apart so you can see what's working, why it works and how to use the thinking outside your own back door.
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