Garden Style Decorating will help you enjoy that outdoor feeling year round

Hints to help you achieve that garden ambiance can be found below

Garden room decorating expresses a love of gardens and nature. From the color schemes, to the furniture, and topping it all off with accessories, garden style decorating celebrates plants, sunshine and a love of the outdoors.

Characteristics of Garden Style

Garden Style decorating is fresh and light. Sweeping views of the outdoors are highlighted and made part of the decorating scheme. If you live on a second floor walk-up, it is still possible to take advantage of this style by your choice of furniture and accessories. Garden rooms are with you day after day, no matter what the season. By the blending of both indoor and outdoor furniture, and borrowing from the colors and textures of nature and the garden, you can create rooms that make you feel you are living in fresh air and out on your patio year round.

Use lots of green plants in garden style decorating

Garden Style Decorating is Truly Fun and Innovative

Garden rooms are informal, inviting and truly comfortable. When I visualize a garden room, I think of the deep, cool, front porches of past eras. Pristine white background, wicker and rattan furniture, an abundance of blooming plants and maybe even a hammock or swinging chair for total relaxation.

This is the feeling you are aiming for with Garden Style decorating. However. since you are decorating inside rooms, you get to have the best of both worlds. You can use your favorite upholstered pieces along with garden style furniture in any room.

Wicker, rattan, metal garden chairs, wooden benches all fit into garden style decorating. These items don't have to be left in their original colors. I know one woman who has spray painted her wicker in the most gorgeous plum purple you have ever seen.

If you are doing a garden bedroom, consider using an antique wrought iron gate for a headboard. A picket fence could also be used here. For a different look, picket fences could also be used for wainscoting in an entry way or hallway. Another option for a headboard or a decorative screen is to use sections of garden trellis. It's hard to look at a trellis and not think of gardens and climbing plants.

Colors For Garden Style Decorating

Choosing a palette for garden style decorating is fun as choosing a color scheme for your garden. Think of the seasons and all the different palettes available.

Do you prefer the cheery bright colors of spring?

• The deep purples of crocus
• The bright yellow and pure whites of daffodils
• The glowing red and yellows of tulips
• The brilliant spring green of new growth

Do you enjoy the pastels of early summer?

• The off-white colors of the snowball bush
• The romantic tints of pastel roses
• The pinks and whites of fragrant honeysuckle
• The various shades of the abundant peony bush

How about the bright and sultry colors of mid summer?

• The brilliant reds and yellows of the mexican zinnias
• The pure blues of delphiniums
• The gorgeous shades of deep red roses
• The outstanding yellows of goldenrod and marigolds

As you can see, color schemes are unlimited in garden style decorating. Look to nature and your garden for inspiration and decide what you like and don't like as you are driving to work or walking around the block. Take plenty of pictures of what you enjoy looking at and try to decide what you like about the scene. Once you have some ideas about what you like, then you can begin to create that mood within your home.

Whatever colors you decide on, be sure to make use of the neutral colors of the earth and nature. The browns and beiges of trees and the grays of stone all have a place in garden style decorating. However, the color most prevalent in garden style decorating is green. From the brightest spring greens to the grayest green sage, this is the color most associated with gardens. You can't go wrong by using this color.

Accessories Used in Garden Room Decorating

There is almost an embarrassment of riches when it comes to using accessories in this style of decorating. You are limited only by your imagination. Listed below are just a few ideas for you to build on:

• Surround yourself with garden motifs. Fabric and wallpaper stores abound with garden motif prints. Art stores are full of prints from Georgia O'Keefe to anything botanical. Don't limit yourself to only florals. Fruits, birds, landscapes and all subjects you might consider.

  
  

  

  
  

  Bird and Fruit Motifs Fit Into Garden Room Decorating
  
  

• Consider using various garden accessories as planters or containters. Watering cans and decorated terra cotta pots of various sizes can be used as accessories.

• A collection of bird houses, bird cages, or antique gardening tools can take center stage in a room.

• Paint flea market benches, bureaus or tables in a neutral color. If you have artistic leanings, hand paint them with garden motifs. If this is not where your talent lies, the crafts of stenciling or decoupage may be more your speed. There are some beautiful wallpaper borders and many seed catalogs and calendars that are perfect for one of a kind decoupaged pieces.

• A collection of garden baskets or garden hats makes an interesting wall display.

• If you appreciate the look of previously owned and dearly loved, flea market finds of weathered wood posts or antique weathervanes enhance the garden theme. Worn shutters and old bottles used to hold cut flowers also fit in with garden style decorating. Dried herbs also fit well with this type of atmosphere.

• Whatever you use for accessories, use plenty of green plants. If you have a brown thumb, beautiful silk plants abound in floral shops and home decorating stores. Don't let the lack of a green thumb prevent you from enjoying the serenity of greenery in your home year round.

I could go on for several more pages and never hit the end of ideas for this decorating style. Whether you prefer the warm country look, or the traditional look, there is a place for garden style decorating if this is what you love.

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