New Design Trends Make Use of Outdoor Space

It's a far cry from the family camping of your youth, but there's a definite trend in home design to bring the outdoors inside and connect the inside to the outdoors. Today designers, remodelers and builders have taken outdoor living to the next level. Indoor rooms are not only being designed to connect to patios, decks and gardens, these outdoor spaces are being planned as extensions of their interior counterparts. Your backyard is now considered another "room" in your house to be tweaked and manipulated to enhance your overall comfort and convenience.

Here are some of the new trends seen at a recent Parade of Homes:

• Huge windows make the outdoor view part of the indoor scenery, letting in fresh air and sunshine.
• Gathering rooms are a new channeling of the great room concept. Window walls with multiple glass or french doors to a large patio make it possible to use the patio and room as a single unit. Intricate tile patterns begin inside, leading onto the outdoor patio where they are repeated and enhanced. Lighting and decorating schemes for the indoor space are also carried into the outdoor area. In one home, a stunning two-sided fireplace was built into the common wall allowing use from both the inside room and the patio.
• Plasma TVs mounted on the walls of covered porches and patios let you cheer for the home team while you're barbecuing. One home featured a specially designed rear window with motorized blinds that allows movies to be projected onto it. Films can be viewed from the indoor family room or, with the flick of a switch, the image inverts for outdoor viewing.
• Ceiling fans mounted into porch ceilings create a breeze when Mother Nature takes a rest and keep bugs away.
• Integrated stereo systems now include outdoor speakers, some even disguised as flower pots and benches that also provide extra seating.
• Large one-way windows in the bathroom allow light and view in but keep peeping toms out.
• Specially designed cupolas and skylights bring natural light deep into the interior of the home.

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