3 Design Tips for Enjoying Your Summer Outdoors
Summer is officially here, and let’s face it, it’s HOT outside! So, how do we prepare for and outlast the heat and still enjoy all of those barbecues, days at the pool, 4th of July celebrations, and other summer-time festivities we have planned? How do we make the most of the great outdoors during these hot, steamy summer months?
Here are some of Matthew Murrey Design’s secrets to designing and creating an outdoor space that is refreshing and enjoyable, even in the heatwave summer.
1. Create a Shade Structure: Arbors, Pergolas, Gazebos
Whether you’re lounging by the pool, having a burger on the patio, or enjoying a glass of wine in the garden, you’ve got to have a place to get out of the sun and into the shade. Staying out of direct sunlight will make your time spent outdoors more relaxing and enjoyable. Adding a shade structure will not only help filter the sunlight, minimizing exposure to those harmful UV Rays, but will also help to define the space and bring architectural significance to the landscape.
2. Add Foliage
Did you know that reducing the sun’s radiation from paving, walls, and other structures can keep outdoor spaces 10-15 degrees cooler in the summer? You can accomplish this by growing vines up a wall or atop a shade-structure, adding large-canopy trees to cover an outdoor seating area, or incorporating grass or groundcover into paving. These options are all great ways to enhance outdoor spaces and keep them tolerable in the summer.
3. Introduce Water
Nothing is more soothing in the summer than good old H2O. Whether it is an antique limestone fountain, a koi pond, or a swimming pool. Nothing helps cool off a space quite like water.
What is your favorite way to beat the summer heat?
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