Make your outdoor space feel like an extension of your home

Melissa Gerstle’s landscape design work has been edging closer and closer to houses for years. And the worlds of indoor and out merged beautifully in a recent University Park project. Gerstle’s clients were expanding their house with a covered, screened porch. Marlin Landscape handled the construction, but the clients wanted help with the exterior finishing.

“We bridged the work between what we do and interior design,” says Gerstle, who holds a master’s degree in landscape architecture and is the founder of Dallas-based Melissa Gerstle Design. “It was kind of like an interior design project but for the outside.” The project includes a sitting area, dining space and a “game room” section complete with a foosball table. Demand is high for spaces like these, which allow family living and entertaining to flow seamlessly. “Outdoor living is becoming a much bigger priority in general,” Gerstle says. People want to be closer to nature, “but they still want the comforts of home.”

She calls it the “fifth room” — a space that combines the ease of the indoors with the resilience required for the outdoors. The name nods to the design expression “fifth wall,” which is sometimes used for the ceiling, a plane in a room that can be overlooked in planning. Gerstle sees outdoor space the same way, as a room that people don’t always think about but that can have a meaningful impact on the overall look and flow of their home.

“How do you make that all feel cohesive?” Gerstle says. Interior designers “want everything to feel curated and collected. We wanted our outdoor spaces to feel that same way.”

We asked some areas designers to chime in from the interior side, too: mother-daughter team Dee Frazier and Danielle Frazier from Plano’s Twilly & Fig design studio and Lisa Floyd, director of interior design at Carrollton-based Baker Design Group.

Plan out a patio with personality

An outdoor space that blends well with your interior starts with a thoughtful plan. “You want to organize the space around the tasks that you want to complete,” Gerstle says.

If your budget doesn’t allow for an all-at-once overhaul, that’s not a deal-breaker. But Dee Frazier says it’s crucial to have a plan for the finished space before you start. “What is it that I eventually want it to look like?” she suggests asking yourself. Then break the plan into logical, manageable phases. You might start by expanding the patio one year, buying furniture the next, adding a pergola another year and planting flower beds the next.

When choosing furniture, lean into your personal style. Dee Frazier says vendors have kept pace with burgeoning demand, offering new furnishings that wouldn’t look out of place inside your house but are made of the more durable materials required for outdoor use.

It’s not just about resilience, though. These pieces have a lot more personality, too, Danielle Frazier says. You’ll have your choice of colors and patterns, with bright shades that now hold up better to the intensity of the North Texas sun.

Sticking with a unified design can break down the feeling of separation between the inside and outside of your home. “A cohesive design color palette and style of furnishings can expand the feel from ‘an indoor and an outdoor space’ to one big, flowing entertainment zone,” Floyd says. You could also match the stonework on your indoor fireplace to your outdoor space, or continue tiled flooring outdoors.

But sometimes your exterior space is a place to stretch your style. Floyd points out that a purposeful contrast from the interior can highlight the unique beauty in each. “We also find that clients are excited to put a pop of color in their outdoor living areas that they may be too afraid to use inside,” she says.

Decor beyond outdoor throw pillows

When you’re ready to add details, pillows might be your first thought. But don’t stop there. Look for artwork in mediums that hold up well outside of a climate-controlled environment. “There are so many ways to do outdoor treated wall art and bring some true layers of finesse to make those outdoor spaces sing,” Floyd says.

Lighting also introduces your personality outdoors. Consider hard-wired options such as pendants or a more flexible collection of floor and table lamps.

And don’t be afraid to accessorize. “We accessorize inside, so why not outside?” Floyd says. You’ll need to put some thought into factors such as weight (will the wind send it flying?) and UV tolerance (will the sun destroy it?) It’s worth the effort, though. “We love to use forever plants and florals, boxes for storing things and even on-theme books in the right covered spaces,” Floyd says.

If your space isn’t large enough for several distinct zones, be flexible. Spaces can have multiple functions. Do you ever sit on your indoor sofa, laptop balanced on your knees, and work there? “Why not outside? You could do that, too,” Gerstle points out. “Or use the dining table as your desk.” Another option is low dining, outdoor tables at the height of lounge chairs or sofas, instead of a standard table height. “It’s just being creative, not traditional,” Gerstle says.

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Seamless indoor-outdoor spaces

There are plenty of features that enhance the seamless feel of indoor/outdoor spaces — sliding glass walls or pass-through kitchen windows, for example. You could have a sound system that creates continuity in the atmosphere both indoors and when you step outside. A mobile kitchen island could be moved to the patio as necessary.

But it’s not just about making your outdoor living area feel like an extension of your interiors. It works both ways, something that’s especially worth considering in the room just off your patio. Could you add plants, for example? Is there a color or material you could incorporate that evokes nature and tranquility? Danielle Frazier has placed a water fountain in a bedroom and helped clients choose moss artwork to reflect the beauty of nature inside their homes. “People are looking at it from a holistic perspective,” she says.

Inside or outside, comfort is key. “People gravitate toward the spaces that are most comfortable for them,” Gerstle says. “If that’s the space you create outside, you’re going to be there more.”

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