The New York Times - USA (2020-06-28)

THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2020 MBRE 9

IF YOU AREfortunate enough to have a ter-
race, a porch or some backyard space,
spending a lot of time at home can be a
much nicer experience. But how you design
that space makes all the difference.
“A lot of times, you’ll see a beautiful gar-
den with very organized furniture, which
looks pretty, but when you actually go and
sit, it’s out in the blazing sun,” said Scott
Shrader, a landscape designer in West Hol-
lywood, Calif., and the author of “The Art of
Outdoor Living.”
If you want an outdoor space where you’ll
be comfortable lingering for hours, he said,
you need to address some basic questions:
“Can you be protected from the sun? Can
you put a drink down? Can you put your feet
up?”
In short, you need to think of it as another
room in your home — an outdoor room —
and furnish it accordingly.
We asked landscape and interior design-
ers for practical advice on how to do that.

Choose Your Function
An outdoor room won’t serve any function
particularly well if it tries to do everything,
so start with an honest assessment of how
you plan to use the space.
“You want to ask yourself, first and fore-
most, ‘What are we going do there?’ ” said
Charlotte Moss, a New York-based designer
and a passionate gardener.
If the terrace will be a place for alfresco
dining, you’ll need chairs that will allow
people to sit upright and a table high
enough to eat at — a very different arrange-
ment of furniture than a space for casual

lounging, where sofas and low tables may
be more appropriate.
“Or maybe it’s just a space for hiding from
everyone,” Ms. Moss said, which would re-
quire greater privacy and perhaps just a
single chaise longue.
If your outdoor space is large, planning
several different seating arrangements can
accommodate multiple functions.

Tie It to the Indoors
When you’re trying to decide on the style of
an outdoor room, look to your home’s interi-
or-design scheme, Mr. Shrader said, to re-
inforce the connection between indoors and
out.
“I always start inside the house and work
my way out,” he said, with the goal of
achieving “an effortless flow from inside to
outside.”
In his West Hollywood home, he said, the
indoor floors are antiqued oak, so he in-
stalled chiseled stone pavers on the terrace
outside, for a similar sense of age. “I try to
blend the materials and make them all uni-
form so that you don’t have anything super
jarring, and it’s all very harmonious,” he
said.
Your interior-design scheme can also in-
form material and color choices for outdoor
furniture, accessories and even plantings,
said Keith Williams, a partner at the Palm
Beach, Fla.-based landscape-architecture
firm Nievera Williams and the author of
“The Graphic Garden.”
For instance, he said, “if the house has
soft, pale colors, we’ll tend to pick that up in
the landscaping” through the choice of out-
door fabrics and flowers.

Create a Floor

Demarcate the area of the outdoor room —
and make it feel like a destination that
stands apart from the rest of the terrace or
yard — by changing the flooring material
where the furniture will be placed.
For an outdoor dining table by a pool in
Palm Beach, for instance, Mr. Williams de-
signed an area where the ground looks al-
most like carpet, with crisscrossing lines of
black pebbles and diamond-shaped patches
of synthetic grass.
Wesley Moon, a New York-based interior
designer, rolled out an actual carpet at his
apartment on Fire Island — an indoor-out-
door rug from Dash & Albert. “It gives that
softness that really makes it feel like a
room,” he said, noting that it is surprisingly
easy to keep clean. “You just vacuum it like
a normal rug.”
A section of wood decking could also be
used to underpin a seating area, Mr. Moon
noted, within a large expanse of pavers.
Ms. Moss, inspired by the gardens at Co-
lonial Williamsburg, in Virginia, used
crushed oyster shells for the floor of the out-
door dining area in her garden in East
Hampton, N.Y. Mr. Shrader sometimes uses
an area of pea gravel.

Add a Ceiling and Walls

If there is no roof or overhang above your
outdoor space, you can at least create the
impression of a ceiling, Mr. Shrader said,
both for the intimacy a sense of enclosure
provides and for protection from the sun.

“Everybody feels most comfortable when

they’re tucked under something,” he said.

Putting a seating area beneath the cano-

py of a tree is one of his favorite techniques.

“Often, I talk about trees as my outdoor ceil-

ings,” he said.

In the absence of a tree, Mr. Shrader will

sometimes add a trellis over a seating ar-

rangement, which he might cover with wil-

low or bamboo. An umbrella would also

work, he said, although it won’t be as sturdy

or durable.

It’s also possible to add a sense of privacy

by introducing tall plantings around the pe-

rimeter of an outdoor room. “It’s not a phys-

ical wall, but more of a visual separation

that says, ‘Something is happening here,’ ”

Ms. Moss said. “It could even be a three-foot

hedge that defines the space.”

For her dining space in East Hampton,

Ms. Moss installed a ceiling of hickory

branches above walls of clipped horn-

beams.

On a terrace or balcony, tall planters filled

with leafy or flowering plants could be used

to similar effect.

Furnish as You Would Indoors

Many successful outdoor rooms have

nearly as much furniture, and as many ac-

cessories, as indoor rooms.

“I try really hard to make the outdoors

just as comfortable and chic as the indoors,”

Mr. Moon said, “so people really want to

spend time out there.”

That means plenty of comfortable seat-

ing, often with cushions upholstered in out-

door fabric (typically solution-dyed acrylic

for durability). It also means having enough

tables to hold drinks, snacks, phones and

books. Add outdoor throw pillows in the

same way you would use indoor pillows in

the living room, Mr. Moon said, and keep

throws handy for cool evenings.

In an outdoor room on a Manhattan ter-

race, Mr. Moon used low-slung, armless

chairs from Dedon with throw pillows in

various shapes, sizes and fabrics, as well as

a group of small teak-and-stone tables that

could be pushed together as a coffee table or

pulled apart as side tables. If your outdoor

room will serve as a dining space, Mr.

Shrader said, “You really need to think

about it like you’re in an indoor dining room

and hosting Thanksgiving dinner.”

Consider the maximum number of guests

you’re likely to entertain and make sure you

have an appropriately sized table and

enough chairs, he advised. Then think

about how you will serve meals.

A strategically placed buffet or console

table can hold platters during dinners or

function as a bar for cocktail parties, he

said. After guests leave, that same piece of

furniture can serve as a pedestal for potted

plants and decorative objects.

Finish the space with vases, bowls and

candleholders, which can be changed and

rearranged over time. If the outdoor room is

next to an exterior wall, consider adding

mirrors, pieces of sculpture or wall-

mounted planters.

Illuminate the Space

Lighting is an important functional consid-

eration — without it, you might not be able

to find your drink after dark — but it can

also provide a significant boost to nighttime

ambience.

Some methods of adding light are simpler

than others. “You can hang a candle chan-

delier from a tree branch or have lanterns

with candles,” Ms. Moss said. “It’s very ro-

mantic.”

Plug-in string lights and portable LED-

based candles and lanterns are other easy

options for adding light that don’t require

hiring an electrician.

If you want something more permanent,

decorative pendant lamps can be sus-

pended from pergolas, and sconces can be

installed on nearby walls.

For a more dramatic look, Mr. Shrader

and Mr. Williams frequently use low-volt-

age landscape lighting that is barely visible

during the day, including small lights hid-

den in trees and mixed into plantings, and

pin lights tucked into pergolas.

Whether you choose portable lamps,

hard-wired decorative fixtures or land-

scape lighting — or a mix of all three — Mr.

Shrader said he always prefers outdoor

lights with a warm-white color temperature

of about 2,700 Kelvin.

However you illuminate your outdoor

room, adding light is crucial to extending

the hours you can use the space, Mr.

Williams said. “Otherwise, it all goes away

after the sun sets.”

How to Create an Outdoor Room

If you are lucky enough to

have space in the open air,

don’t let it go to waste.

Top, living easy in a Santa

Monica, Calif., garden;

above, West Village

tranquillity; far right,

gardens at Jean-Louis

Deniot’s Los Angeles

home; near right, Charlotte

Moss designed an intimate

dining area in her garden in

East Hampton, N.Y.;

bottom right, Wesley

Moon’s place on Fire Island.

MARK ADAMS PICTURES

THE FIX

TIM McKEOUGH

WILLIAM WALDRON

CHARLOTTE MOSS LISA ROMEREIN

Spending some quality

time at home or, better

yet, outside it.

PETER MURDOCH