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Ok, you have always dreamed of owning a house with a garden, or a backyard, because you are one of those who love having outdoor barbeques and spending quiet times simply to lounge in the open air in the privacy of your own property.

But fate dictates that you can only afford a small apartment with an equally small verandah. No chance of hosting friends to that barbeque party, no space to indulge in gardening, planting ferns and bushes here and there for effect.

But all is not lost. More and more urban folks with a penchant for outdoors lifestyles activities, but without the means of owning a property which allows them to have a backyard deck, have come up with ways to still enjoy a myriad of pursuit one usually holds at garden terraces.

One of the ways is by actually decorating your apartment with deck furniture. The trick is not to convert the entire apartment, but only the part of the living area that is connected to the verandah. We are assuming that your verandah is linked to the apartment by sliding doors here. If it is not, maybe you should look into getting this done.

Let us start with the floor. Instead of tiles, install wooden deck-like flooring, a slightly raised (say three inches) type that is either varnished deep wood or warm brown. Do the same for verandah floor.

Next would be to tackle the walls of your living area. Paint these in your favorite shade of green. The best is something light and cheery. You may also give serious consideration to having lots of indoor plants, potted of course, in various sizes. These are to be placed at nooks and corners which may be left empty by your furniture of decoration.

Among the most important step to getting your ideal ‘outdoor’ interior is the next one - choosing the furniture. deck furniture is always best when they are made of wood. Wood gives a touch of elegance, and a sense that the creator of this atmosphere has a high respect for the environment. Teak folding chair is great but you would have to do some serious search for ones with armrests. Think Adirondack chairs and you are on the correct path. If these are hard to find, look for wooden garden chairs that look like Adirondack ones.

To give the arrangement of furniture a more homey appearance, get some patio chair cushions to brighten up the setting. Putting one outdoor rocking chair in one corner will also add warmth to the whole set-up.

This is where it gets fun. The color and material you choose for those cushions can make all the difference in evoking a certain kind of feeling or atmosphere. If you choose brightly-colored canvas for the cushions, you will get a thoroughly ‘rough’ outdoors feeling. This may not apply to many others.

Some people like a little bit of that ‘feminine’ touches, especially with the patio chair cushions. Floral cotton materials complement those indoor plants you have worked hard to bring in.

Dark-colored materials, although they last longer and seem easy to maintain, would give a very somber look to your room. It would be great for those planning to enjoy the place alone or with just one or two friends.

As for lighting, wall lamps are suggested as the best option because you can choose mini umbrellas to cover the bulbs in place of lamp shades. Be creative, turn the umbrellas upside down if you must just as long as you get the desired effect.

Also, if you have extra cash to add more effect, consider calling an artist to paint clouds on the sky on your ceiling. You may laugh reading this, but a well done job can actually transform the entire space.

So the trick is to keep that sliding door open every time you are home. You would then be ‘living’ in the outdoors. Or, you would be having the ‘outdoors’ inside.

Because this garden of yours is really your living space, you may have a book shelf or a coffee table or two to include. Fine, but make sure you choose the ones that suit the environment your have created.

Lastly, there are a gamut of decorative items you can buy to complement the place further. Wrought-iron candle stands or glasses for tea-light candles gives a romantic touch to evenings, bunches of dried wild flowers add a bit of a country look about your room.

The choice is your and its endless. Who says you cannot have a garden terrace while living in an apartment?

Tags: outdoor rocking chair | outdoor rocking chair | patio chair cushions | teak folding chair | teak folding chair | Adirondack chairs | Adirondack chairs | deck furniture

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Buy products. 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.