Pandemic prompts bridging of indoor, outdoor spaces
The outdoors, even in such close-to-home incarnations as backyards and patios, has long been a focus of relaxation and entertainment. But our connection with our private outdoor spaces became even stronger over the past year as the COVID-19 pandemic eliminated visits to public places and kept us at home,
The result was that “we started caring more about outdoor spaces,” said Shelley Gorman, principal of SKG Design in Las Vegas.
When isolation began to grate, meeting with small groups of friends and family in our yards “let us feel safer at least about being outside and gathering that way,” she said.
Now, our outdoor spaces have become a functional extension of our living rooms as our perception of them has, perhaps, changed. For example, we probably “looked at more rugs than we did before, because it gives us more of that indoor-outdoor feel,” Gorman said.
“And, obviously, plants have been huge,” she said, even if our green thumbs extend no further than buying potted plants or just planting herbs in our yards.
“I think everyone looked for a connection in nature,” Gorman said, in a way that’s “more tactile, more emotional.”
We looked for ways to connect with others. “Everyone was putting in a pool,” Gorman said, of a trend that is continuing among many of her clients this spring, as well as investing in “hangout spots,” such as fire pits and outdoor dining tables.
Outdoor furniture is cushier and more comfortable and bridging the gap between indoors and out, while pots, metal fixtures and stone are “accents that make (yards) feel more livable, she said.
But, now, the world is slowly reopening, travel is resuming and entertainment activities that don’t keep us at home are coming back. Will the greater emphasis on our private outdoor spaces seen last year continue this spring and summer?
A good deal of money spent on the home “is going to flip and go back to travel,” Gorman said. “Whether it comes back around is anybody’s guess.”
Contact John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.