We often spend so much time curating the artwork inside our homes that we treat our gardens and patios as completely separate entities. But to me, the secret to intentional design is treating your outside space as an outdoor room. It shouldn’t just be a patch of grass or a slab of stone; it should be styled with the exact same warmth, comfort, and personality as your living room or hallway.
When you start viewing a protected garden wall as the perimeter of a room, the styling choices become completely natural and faff-free. It’s simply about shifting your indoor rules to the fresh air, mixing high-impact graphic art with unexpected structural curiosities.
On the brick wall of my own outdoor room, the anchor piece is this graphic “Holy Crab” framed print – a brilliant, playful find picked up from the independent stalls at The Courtyard Market in St Ives, Cambridgeshire. It brings an instant splash of coastal energy and wit to the space, proving that treating the outdoors like a room doesn’t mean it has to take itself too seriously.
Styling an Outdoor Room…
- Hang Art with Intent: Don’t leave your garden walls bare. Framing an unconventional, bold art print instantly establishes a focal point for your outdoor room, making it feel like an architectural extension of your home rather than an afterthought.
- Introduce Three-Dimensional Clutter: Just as you would place objects on a mantelpiece or shelf inside, play with dimension outside. Weaving in sculptural elements—like this diving figure hanging planter, adds beautiful depth, cast shadows, and a sense of movement to the room’s “walls.”
- Soften Hard Boundaries: Balance the heavy textures of brick, metal, and glass frames by letting the garden move through your layout. A simple string of pearls or cascading ivy hanging alongside your artwork keeps the display feeling beautifully integrated, organic, and lived-in.
Anna’s Suggestion:
Next time you are wandering through a local independent market, like the lovely Courtyard Market in St Ives, stop looking for “garden decor” and just look for things you’d love to see inside your home. Take those unique prints, vintage signs, or quirky sculptures and hang them proudly in your outdoor room. Pair them with a few simple trailing plants, and you’ll instantly create a space that feels entirely curated, entirely chic, and beautifully ready for living.
Simple, playful, and beautifully ready for real life.
