Patios are a wonderful extension to your home- your living space. A patio is a beautiful blend between outdoor and indoor elements, entitling it to being considered an extension to your home. A patio is a very versatile area of the home, you are enable to mix the outdoors with the indoors so as to give you the most enjoyable outdoor experience with the comfort, style and elegance of the sophisticated indoors.

If you thought the only way to enjoy the outdoors, meant getting down onto the sand, exposing yourself to the harsh sun and letting that afternoon shower of rain ruin your hair – think again. A patio is a developed outdoor area, generally floored ad sheltered, but not always or entirely. Your patio can be used for pretty much anything, lounging, braais, meals, games, drinks, entertainment – absolutely anything you want, you will just need to acquire the necessary resources to do so.

Typically a living area of your home would lead out onto the patio where you can add a range of furniture, such as armchairs, tables, chairs, televisions, radios, a bar etc. It is advisable to have outdoor furniture for your patio, to ensure protection against damage which could arise under severe weather conditions, however if you have folding doors surrounding your patio which you can close up at night or when away – then you need not acquire strictly outdoor furniture.

It would be advisable when positioning a patio, to situate it in a section which will afford it the best possible view eg. the pool, a nearby lake or dam, garden etc. This will add to the overall effect of your patio. A patio is an ideal means to entertain guests over a braai or pool party. If you have seating, and dining facilities on your patio, you need not bother running between the indoors and outdoors every few minutes, also you will be able to relax and enjoy the outdoors or the view while the meat is on the braai and also keep a close eye on the kids playing  on the lawn or in the pool overlooked by the patio, without making them conscious and uncomfortable by your presence.

A patio, with proper furnishings, can serve as a functional extension to your home. Ideal for those summer family gatherings, those spring breakfasts, autumn braais and winter potjies.

You may want to give special attention to how you furnish and decorate your patio, as it will have a huge impact on the vibe/atmosphere your patio exhudes. You do not want your patio looking like a part of the dull, boring uninviting public garden – rather you want your patio to be something scenuc and luxurious, surrounded by lush greenery, bright, colourful furnishings – just because a patio is an outdoor area does not mean you need to stick to browns and greens(even though this does appear to be the general trend). You need to be creative, practical and functional at the same time when decorating your patio. These days you can get almost any style of furnishing in an outdoor range – if your patio is one which would be beautifully complimented by a corner-suite, you will most definitely be able to find one. Also, just because your core furnishings need to be some what outdoor and weather-proof, does not mean you should not source some additional touches which you can lay out when in use. You can get nice comfortable cushioning for your chairs, which you take out at night or when away for pro-longed periods of time.

Well, if you have a fully covered patio, then you will hardly need to worry about your furniture be damaged by the rain – except for when the rain comes down at an angle enabling it to reach your furniture.

Feel free to let your imagination run wild when decorating your patio – no that gigantic potted plant which a pot half your size is not going overboard. That rustic outdoor chandelier worth R10000 is not too expensive for the outdoors. A water feature is an absolute must have where resources allow. For those cold winter nights, a fire place would be absolutely amazing, but if you prefer things a little simpler, recent innovations have resulted in a wonderful outdoor heater – known as a patio heater. It will work well to heat your outdoor area and keep you warm.

A patio is undoubtedly a wonderful extension to any home, if you already have an existing one, perhaps all you will need to do is just spice up the furniture and decor a little. If you do not have an existing patio at home, it is a fairly simple addition to your home, you will need just a small capital flow. The costs of adding on a patio will not be too much as you do not have to worry about walls etc, just the floor, roof and some furniture.If you have never really been an outdoors person – the ideal patio is all it will take to convert you, more importantly there is nothing which you can do indoors that you will not be able to do on the patio.

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Tags: comfortable, decor, extension, family, furniture, garden, home, indoor, nights, outdoor, outdoors, patio, pool

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 1:55 am and is filed under Decor Tips, Outdoors and Exteriors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.