The boundary between the indoors and the outside world is one many of us like to blur from time to time, whether to feel closer to nature, or just to freshen up our homes during the winter months.
Here are ten of the best – and easiest – ways to give your interiors that outdoor feeling.
1. Natural Light
The more natural your lighting scheme, the more it should feel like a spring dawn or an autumn sunset, so choose lower-powered bulbs, tinted shades or simply use candles to cast a flickering flame across your walls.
2. Rustic Fabrics
Fabrics play a huge part in deciding how warm and welcoming your home feels, so if you’re buying a new sofa, consider natural materials and leather; or keep a stack of linen throws and woollen blankets by the settee to snuggle up under on a winter’s night.
3. Foliage
One of the most literal ways to bring the outdoors in is to put a bouquet of flowers somewhere in the room, providing a focal point and a delicate aroma too.
4. Greenery
As an extension to the floral bouquet idea, don’t shy away from woody and leafy elements, either within a display of flowers, or even as a lower-maintenance feature in their own right.
5. Living Things
You can take this one as far as you choose, and an ever-increasing number of households are opting to have a free-roaming pet such as a house rabbit; for a more mess-free alternative, an aquarium is a good option to bring the outside indoors in an aquatic sense.
6. Aromas
It’s easy to get hung up on the idea of flowers and scented candles as the only ways to add an aroma to your room, but they don’t have to be. Potpourri is perhaps a bit outdated now, but can be hidden away in empty vases while they are not holding flowers, and still packs an aromatic punch – add a few drops of your favourite essential oil if it needs ‘recharging’ with scent.
7. Timber
We’re not talking about felling trees and building indoor benches out of their trunks – although that’s an idea if you’re adventurous – but rather focusing on wood as a design element, whether that means branch-slice coasters and tree-trunk placemats, or artwork built out of reclaimed driftwood.
8. Palette Picks
Aside from literally bringing in outdoor materials, you can create a more consistent interior by taking inspiration from outside on things like your colour palette – greens, oranges and browns for an autumnal theme, or reds and yellows to represent the sunset.
9. Material Mergers
Continuing the concept of using outdoor materials indoors, an increasingly popular option is to literally run through from the interior to the exterior with the same materials – perhaps a slate floor or wooden floorboards that turn into decking once you’re outside – for a sense of continuity between the two.
10. Outdoor Imagery
Finally, and perhaps easiest of all, you can opt to simply hang a photograph, painting or print of an outdoor scene – a simple but effective way to remind yourself of the outside world, even in the depths of winter when the curtains are firmly drawn.
For more information on The English Sofa Company and the products we offer, call us on 0161 736 5733 or visit our Showroom.
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