Dear friends, here is a hypothetical question for you. If you could design an outdoor lounge area from scratch, what would it be? And, since this is a hypothetical question, there is no catch: you have no budget or space limitations…
This was the kind of question AllModern posed to me a few weeks ago. And I got giddy! Are you kidding? I get to play imagination creation?? YES, please! I guess this is the online version of window-shopping these days? I am not sure if I am alone on this (if I am, please do not tell me), but one of my ABSOLUTE favorite things to do is window-shopping, because I am rather shy about purchasing anything… it takes me forever to commit. What’s brilliant about digital window-shopping though is that I can actually safely try things out!
So… here comes the imagination part. Back in Texas, we lived in a house with a lovely patio that brought a lot of joy to this amateur gardener. Some evidence here ->.
We now live in Washington, DC, where outdoor space is mostly seasonal, and certainly not readily available. We live in a condo building with 7 units. And even though we have a lovely outdoor area, it’s hard to get everyone to agree on what to do with it, other than the very basic chairs and table for the grill. So now, I get to play-pretend of what it COULD be! Perhaps I’ll be brave enough to mention it to our condo association?
I ended up creating two mood boards for the possibilities:
I even put the mood boards to vote on Instagram to see which one was more liked. And…. drumroll… Option 2 was an overwhelming winner with 64%! Design is a funny thing. I actually did create the mood boards in the same order as I am showing them to you. So, in some way, option 2 was an improvement to option 1 then? Design is an iterative process, I guess! But option 2 is my favorite as well!
My goal with both of these imagined spaces was to create a comfortable, cohesive space that layered textures and patterns in unexpected but complementary ways. I love mixing patterns and this was no exception. As you can tell, the majority of the elements remained the same between the two concepts. But the small changes in textiles (rug and pillows) made a huge difference! Huge enough to give option 2 a sizable win!
But this exercise also got me thinking. I kind of really like this “if I could, I would” world. So I am thinking about going way beyond my imaginary patio. I hope you follow along. Now it’s your turn!
What do you think? Do YOU have a favorite??
PS: If you like any of the items, I have conveniently linked them all below :D
A few months back, a co-worker of mine convinced me to join my company's Spartan Race team. He didn't talk it up much: he mentioned it's a long-ish run with a few fun obstacles. You know, no big deal. Something someone who runs as much as me should complete more than easily (read, you don't really need to train for it). Ha ha ha.