LIVING IN BEAUTY
inside outdoor rooms
By nurturing your body, mind, and soul while providing a place to entertain, outdoor rooms help you experience New Mexico at its natural best.
Under a cozy and intimate arbor built by Clemens & Associates, guests can relax by a kiva fireplace with adjacent seating and coffee table for enjoying after-dinner drinks and dessert on a cool evening. Handmade tiles adorn the fireplace and wall nicho, while an antique Turkish lantern projects candlelight at dusk.
Connect indoor and outdoor rooms through ample passageways with even floor surfaces that relate visually in color or texture. Here wide-plank white oak floors blend well with concrete pavers of a similar color. The garden seating serves as a focal point that beckons you out.
Lush cushions and pillows on the banco furnish a place to sip coffee and read the morning paper under the shade of an apricot tree or sit with guests to enjoy a glass of wine before an evening meal.
Applewhite transformed her home's original garden into intimate outdoor rooms that function as separate spaces and also combine as a venue for large gatherings. A fountain and colorful plants contribute to the outdoor ambience, and a variety of outdoor furnishings add interest while creating a complementary whole.
The home's original patio had little connection to the outdoors. Applewhite added a kiva fireplace and seating beneath a new arbor for a welcoming outdoor room that enhanced her patio's functionality and charm.
This article first appeared in Summer 2008 Su Casa
Northern New Mexico lends itself so completely to living outdoors, with its beautiful colors, textures, and smells of the high desert—brilliant days, cool nights, lack of insects and humidity, and light, the exquisite light that takes your breath away.
I strive to live outside in comfort and beauty as much as possible when I’m in New Mexico during the summer, and to do so I’ve created several exterior rooms that extend my indoor space and enhance my outdoor space. I have three distinct rooms that I occupy alone or with a few friends at different times of the day, each providing a destination and functionality all its own. These three spaces also combine to create a cohesive whole where I can entertain 100 people or more in an area that feels expansive and intimate at the same time.
When I bought my 1930s adobe on Santa Fe’s eastside, it had very little connection to the outdoors, with only a stark and unwelcoming patio and limited access from the house. When planning the home’s renovation, I looked at the footprint of both the interior floor plan and the bordering garden to determine how I would connect the two, as well as what outdoor rooms I would create to beckon my family and friends to enjoy the dazzling beauty of northern New Mexico’s high desert landscape.
consider the connection
When planning your outdoor rooms, first consider how you will connect the indoors and out. Openings from the kitchen or in close proximity to it are always a good idea, as they provide convenient access to food supplies and preparation. If you can, consider creating multiple expansive openings that provide easy accessibility through the home’s living areas, as well. A wide-open pair of French doors certainly proves more inviting than a small single opening obscured by a screen door. Floor height and floor coverings also work as important factors when joining indoor and outdoor spaces. Flooring of a similar material installed at the same height is ideal for the transition but not always possible. Keep these two factors in mind when selecting materials, and make the progression as seamless as you can by using surfaces with similar colors or textures. Connecting indoor and outdoor rooms serves as a great way to expand your home’s living space and make your property feel larger while providing additional areas that can enhance your lifestyle.
reflect on your garden’s character
When planning your outdoor rooms, first consider your garden’s existing assets or lack thereof. What are its attributes or positive features—a beautiful view, a lovely old retaining wall, an exceptional tree? What direction does it face? When and where does the sun hit most directly, and where does your garden receive shade? Does your garden have privacy? What should be altered? What could be added? Take into account all of these aspects while planning your outdoor rooms to utilize as many of your garden’s positive features as possible while eliminating or improving the less desirable ones. Try to create privacy if you have none; find a place to soak up the sun as well as cool yourself on a hot summer day. Think about how you want to live outdoors and what areas of your garden you can develop to realize that vision.
create outdoor rooms with a purpose
As you create your outdoors rooms, ask yourself what purpose the areas will serve. Will your outdoor room be an elegant space to entertain guests before heading to a favorite restaurant, or will it be a casual place for the family to relax on weekends? Would you like a sunny spot to read the paper and sip your morning coffee, or a shady refuge to relax in a hammock with a good book and inhale the fresh desert air? Perhaps you have an outdoor barbecue, but you’d like to add seating so guests can chat with the chef. Or maybe you prefer to do your cooking in the kitchen and need a convenient dining area complete with a place to serve. What will you do within this area? How will the area extend or enhance your current living space? Think about how you want to live, and then tailor your outdoor rooms specifically to those activities. Once you’ve decided what spaces you need, consider how they will function as a whole when entertaining or hosting large outdoor events, should this be a part of your lifestyle.
design outdoor rooms that beckon
To enhance your outdoor rooms or create pleasing attributes where none exist, I like to appeal to the senses. The prospect of sitting beside an outdoor fireplace on a cool New Mexico night can certainly draw you out on an evening you might otherwise spend indoors. A sparkling fountain with soothing sounds adds moisture to the air and calls out to you on a hot summer day. A vine-covered arbor provides a sheltered and intimate place to gather and remains comfortable in the morning and evening.
For further sensory embellishment, add pots planted with beautiful flowers and trees that rustle their leafy green canopies to provide sights, smells, and sounds that nurture and restore at any time of day. Soft music from hidden stereo speakers adds to the ambience, and well-placed lighting highlights your garden’s features at night.
Just as you wouldn’t furnish every room in your home with the same furniture, don’t fill your new outdoor rooms with rigid, uncomfortable matching patio furniture. The outdoor furniture arena has exploded with luxurious oversized pieces complete with lush cushions and pillows. Upholstered in rich outdoor fabrics that can withstand sun and rain, these pieces bring lounging with nature to a whole new level. Furnishing each outdoor room in its own unique way distinguishes one area from another and creates a much more interesting whole when viewed together than furniture that matches in every detail. Repeating colors, shapes, and textures can harmonize an eclectic group of furnishings into a visually interesting yet complementary whole. When combining different elements, remember that good design repeats itself, just like it does in nature.
Ideally, outdoor rooms should nurture your body, mind, and soul. They should connect directly to your home through multiple passageways, provide a private respite from the world, function in a variety of ways to enhance and extend your living area, and encourage you to enjoy nature’s beauty and restorative essence. Just like a room in your home, an outdoor room should feel good whether you’re sitting alone observing a hummingbird or gathering with friends for a lively celebration. Outdoor rooms indeed serve as a place to live in beauty and renew your spirit while prompting you to pause and appreciate life, and light, at its natural best.
Linda Applewhite is an architectural designer, artist, and writer who divides her time between northern New Mexico and northern California. She recently published her first design book and teaches seminars in Santa Fe and in Sonoma, California, on the topic of living in beauty.