Outdoors

Curb Appeal: Design Tips For Modern Garage Doors

In the pictures in the mood board above, you can see a lot of similar design traits when it comes to modern garage doors.

Straight Edges and Lines

The design of modern garages are very straight. They are very boxy. You just see rectangles and straight edges from the panels for the doors, to the framing of the garage door and the windows.

Neutral Colors

For a luxurious and modern look, go for a dark neutral color for your garage doors. Such as back or a dark wood.

Bring in Some Natural Light

The garages in pictures 1 – 5 all have window panels embedded in the doors. This brings in some natural light into the garage space. And being frosted, they provide privacy too.

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6

April 19, 2016 in Modern, Outdoors

A Bright Safe Space: Modern Outdoor Lighting Ideas

A modern home is a well lit home. This includes the outdoor space. You’ll want to make sure all of the exterior areas are well lit: from the front door and driveway, to the garden and around any steps. The modern outdoor lighting ideas in this post will help you light up the outside of your home with style

What Kind of Lighting Fixtures?

The first thing to decide with outdoor lighting is whether you’ll want to go with solar powered or wired lights. Solar powered lights are cheaper, and are easier and faster to install. Wired lights are more expensive and do require you to possibly dig up your garden to lay down the wiring, but they add more value to your house than the solar lights.

Outdoor Living: Modern Patio Design Ideas

Uplights: These are lights that point upwards, usually onto a wall or can be placed around trees. They add decorative ambient lighting, and help highlight different features in an outdoor space.

Motion Sensor Lights: These are usually used for security floodlights, hanging above the garage door. But you can also put them around the garden or by the front door.

Outdoor Wall Lighting: Look for ones that have a clean and sleek design, just like the light fixtures in the Amazon window above. And make sure you have enough wall lights to light up the whole space – just like in picture (5).

Path Lighting: These lights will be low down to the ground, and are especially needed around staircases and steps for safety. Picture (5) shows some lights lighting up some steps. And for a cleaner and more modern look, see if you can have these lights built into the wall so that it hides the light fixture.

The Beauty of the Flame

These days you can find good looking and modern tiki torches. They will usually come in a sleek metal casing (get yours in the Amazon window above).

Or how about a modern outdoor fireplace? Create a straight edge fire place to house a gas or ethanol burning pit – just like the ones in pictures (6) and (7)

And for the tables, look to get some modern candle lanterns or stands. Just like the candle stand featured in the Amazon window above.

Here are some other outdoor posts to get ideas from:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6/7

April 19, 2016 in Lighting, Modern, Outdoors

Style Guide: Modern Garden Design Ideas

There are a few design techniques to keep in mind when creating your own modern garden design. You can see some of the similarities in the gardens in the pictures above.

Rectangles

You’ll notice that modern gardens are very boxy in their design. There are no round corners. Everything from the grass areas, to the borders, and seating are very rectangular – creating a minimalist look and feel in the garden space.

Isolated Greenery

All of the grass areas in modern garden designs are very isolated, meaning they are bordered off. You can see from the photos that each garden has a very specific area just for greenery – bordered off from other areas in the garden. While other areas are specifically built for other activities – patio, deck, etc. This helps create a clean, crisp look in the garden.

Outdoor Living: Modern Patio Design Ideas

Color Scheme

And like most modern spaces in a home, a modern garden will make use of natural and neutral tones. You can see a combination of greys, black and white being used for the flooring, the garden walls, and the furniture. To add some warmth to the space, try and infuse wooden pieces.

Modern Lighting

A modern space is a well lit one. In the garden you have specific task lighting – these will be for pathways, steps, dining areas, and on the side of the house. While other lights are more for ambiance: uplights by trees and bushes, or light fixtures used to highlight any water features in the garden.

Have a look at my post for more ideas and tips on creating modern outdoor lighting: A Bright Safe Space: Modern Outdoor Lighting Ideas.

Here are some other outdoor posts to get more ideas from:

image credits 1/2/3/4/5/6

Ideas on how to create a modern garden design

April 16, 2016 in Modern, Outdoors

Design Your Space: Outdoor Kitchen Ideas

Are you looking to build a full on outdoor kitchen, with food prep countertops and a sink? Or are you picturing a simplier, small outdoor kitchen that you could build yourself? In this post you’ll find all of the ideas you’ll need to design and build your own outdoor kitchen, large or small.

How To Design Your Outdoor Kitchen

When thinking about building your own outdoor kitchen, you will need to balance what you want with the space you have to build it on.

For example if you want a sink, will you be able to hook up your outdoor kitchen space to the house utilities?

Cookers can easily use gas tanks. And you can place a grill anywhere.

Will you want electricity out in your outdoor kitchen, for:

A cooler, fridge
Lighting (there are also non electrical lighting ideas, which I list out below)
A fan or mister

How Much Space Do You Need?

Another question to ask is how much space will you need? Do you want to be able to do food prep work outdoors, or will you be doing that indoors. Does that mean you’ll need a sink, and more counterpace then?

Near the House

Keeping the outdoor kitchen near, or even attached to the outside of the house, makes it easier to light the space, hang up a fan, has better access to the utilities, and it is easier to keep the space covered.

Keeping it Covered

Will you want your kitchen to be covered? Most of the outdoor kitchens in the mood board above use a more pergola like roofing structure. This provides enough shade when it is too hot. But you’ll want it covered if it rains a lot where you live.

For more ideas and pictures on how to cover your kitchen, have a look at my post here: Pergola Roofing Design Ideas: From the Natural to the Motorized

Going The DIY Route

There are much simpler and budget friendly outdoor kitchen designs.

Building your own countertop for a simple outdoor grill is a simple 1 or 2 weekend project.

It could be built out of pallets.

Or use bricks/hollow blocks for a base and build a countertop using wood to make a concrete mold. You can find the step by step guide to the DIY build shown below here.

Or how about the simple wooden frame in picture (3)

Or a simple low cost IKEA kitchen cart can be used as a portable outdoor kitchen. This can be used to bring out all of the ingredients from inside the house out to the grill, and can be used as a simple food prep counter, or outdoor kitchen island.

How To Create A Magical Evening: Outdoor Movie Night Ideas

Modern vs. Traditional Styles

If you want to create a more traditional styled outdoor kitchen, then make heavy use of stone for the base, and a tiled or stone curved countertop – just like in picture (4)

For a more modern outdoor kitchen design, look to use concrete and create clean straight lines – like the kitchen in picture (5).

Outdoor Kitchen Lighting Ideas

When it comes to lighting your outdoor kitchen you can either go with permanent light fixtures that will need to be wired up. Such as wall lights attached and wired to the house pointing towards the outdoor kitchen, just like in picture (6)