Rose Cottage Ltd

There isn’t a better time to plan improvements to your outdoor living spaces than on a chilly (and for me, rainy) morning in January. When I’m having a really dreary winter week, I’ll sometimes pretend that I have a overabundance of funds and have a look at some very high-end design ideas. It costs nothing to dream a bit and sometimes I still find ideas I can downsize for my actual yard and budget.

I thought I’d share my meanderings with you through some very cool outdoor living designs I found online. If the image was provided by vendors that actually supply the good or service shown, you can find their URL in the “alt” tag for further review and research. Will start with simple and move on up to “spectacular.”

I like the peaceful attitude of this simple deck, swing, and table. It makes a inviting place to sit and read or spend some time with a friend or two.

Anyone already lucky enough to have a wide porch can also take advantage of this simple addition. Add some colorful plants and you’re done!

This outdoor area looks like a good place to go to get away for awhile. There is a fairly simple stone base for the table, chairs, and other outdoor furniture. This is truly an outdoor living space!

Although the design is “country” you could carve this space out of any small suburban environment and enclose the area to your preference – or not.

I like the use of the old door to create a backdrop – where no wall or door actually exists. Good idea!

Now on to a couple larger-scale designs – not for the faint-of-heart from a budgetary standpoint but after all – we’re just looking!

Plenty of “WOW” factor going on here!

What I like about this design is that even though there is a lot going on – it doesn’t look cluttered. Too many outdoor spaces end up “noisy” with “stuff” that doesn’t really add to the overall use of the space.

The outdoor fireplace has a throne-area all its own – with the seating planned far enough away to keep guests from getting hammered by the smoke – something some designs do not take into consideration.

And then there are the water features…these need a post all their own but here’s a design as example:

Any time you add water where there was none before expect it to not come cheap. The inexpensive approaches would be to build your own small Koi-type pond or to add a fountain.

The design shown above looks like there may have been a pond on the property – and the designer customized it to make the area more inviting and useful. For those without a current water point on their property, fountains are probably the quickest and often the least expensive way to go. I recommend Garden Fountains.com for a wide choice of fountains – from estate-sized to those more appropriate for a small garden space.

The first day of Spring is March 20, 2012…no time like now to start planning your outdoor living space improvements for this year’s enjoyment!

While planning a paver stone design for my new backyard patio I stumbled upon a great tool from Eldorado Stone and Eldorado Outdoor.

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Click anywhere on their “gallery” links and you will have a pretty handy design tool at the ready. They show “before” and “after” views of some really nice outdoor kitchens – the main focus being upgrading with Eldorado Stone products. But, the design tool itself, with a short learning curve, might come in handy for anyone in design-stage of an outdoor living or kitchen area.

There goes a couple hours of my Saturday morning – but time planning is always time well spent.

Read more about creating your own outdoor living space on the Rose Cottage Ltd website.