Please bear with my enthusiasm for the great outdoors. I know many readers here are seeing many 80 and 90 degree days, but we’re still trying to defrost here in Chicago. It’s been a cold wet spring. Many of my more tender garden plants look unhappy. They’re closing themselves off and recoiling, much like I would do if someone threw a cold glass of water on me. Which is what it feels like outside.
So what to do? Resolve that better days definitely are ahead as these images remind …
Today’s outdoor living examples are all from Houzz — a site bursting with beautiful home photos that you can wander through. Here, I share outdoor “rooms” that have styles that extend the architectural style of the homes that they’re attached to:
traditional patio design by boston landscape architect Woodburn & Company Landscape Architecture, LLC
contemporary landscape design by san francisco landscape architect Shades Of Green Landscape Architecture
So many different styles! But they all seem to flow from the house. Just as if you were to add an inside room to the house, the outdoor spaces should reflect the architecture of the house and the outdoor surroundings. I’m considering this as we think about the outdoor space we want to create behind our house. I have many ideas, but the driving force and deciding factor should be the house itself, which is a traditional/farmhouse style with painted cedar siding. Someday I shall post pictures, but the poor house is not at its best right now. We got a bad exterior paint job only a few years ago, and we’re now awaiting a new paint job next month. For now, the house looks like a young boy with grass stains on his knees and ruffled up hair, and maybe even a few tears in his shirt. And oh yeah … that mortar that’s falling out from between some bricks on the chimney … ah, houses … they’re always throwing something at you to do.
I know! What is it with this weather? The heating came back on last night, can you believe it?(Sorry for the rant, I thought I’d piggyback on yours!)
Love love love that first picture!!
Yeah I just cranked the heat up and am sitting under an ALPACA BLANKET to write. And I wish I had a warm cat on me too but they’re huddled up somewhere warmer. What’s up with this!
great blog and pictures. I used to live in NW chicago suburbs, the summer out there is way warmer than Maine!
Thank you Deepa! That is where we actually live too, in the NW suburbs, although it’s so much shorter and easier to just say Chicago for the rest of the world.