Blessed with blissful weather nearly year-round, local residents have turned outdoor living into an art form. Our neighborhoods are dotted with lush gardens, peaceful pools and tempting terraces ideal for elegant soirees, family barbecues or just lazy days relaxing in the sun. As we welcome a new decade and the start of spring, now is a great time to transform an ordinary backyard into your own private oasis — or, if you’ve already created an idyllic space, consider enhancing it with a few fresh features this season. Here are some of 2020’s emerging trends in outdoor design to help you step up your patio style.
INSIDE OUT
Topping the list of this year’s developments is an even deeper blending of indoors and outdoors. From an increased interest in natural materials to the millennial mania for houseplants — based on search data, Pinterest predicts “garden rooms” as one of the hottest home trends for 2020 — interiors are looking more outdoorsy. Conversely, exterior spaces are gaining all the comforts of home, treated as outdoor rooms that expand the house’s square footage.
How to put that concept into practice? We asked the experts at Aldik Home in Van Nuys, which has been beautifying houses and yards across Southern California for nearly 70 years. “Aldik Home’s approach to outdoor living is to blur the lines between indoor and outdoor spaces,” owner Larry Gold explains. To help bring the outdoors inside for a touch of natural beauty without muss or fuss, he recommends decorating rooms with Aldik’s stunningly realistic silk plants, which include flower arrangements, cacti and succulents, and custom-made trees, all created in-house by a team of designers.
Meanwhile, “To best make an outdoor space feel like an extension of your home, you absolutely need comfortable, well-built furniture,” Gold says. Patio furniture doesn’t need to look utilitarian anymore; with so many options to choose from, you can find something that reflects your home’s interior style and skip the matched sets in favor of mix-and-match materials to create a more personalized look. And outdoor furniture certainly doesn’t need to feel like you’re roughing it, either. Among Aldik’s top sellers is the Summer Classics Majorca line, which Gold says feels even more luxurious than some indoor furniture. “When our customers sit in a Majorca lounge chair, they sink into the cushions and all the daily stressors of everyday life just melt away,” he says. “These chairs make it onto almost every order.”
WOVEN IN
Whether you find them classic, nostalgic or new all over again, woven materials like cane, wicker and rattan are on trend. Some attribute this to the rise of the “grandmillennial” style that reclaims more traditional and homey looks to replace the monotony of sparse and sterile modernism, while others see it as an eco-conscious embrace of a more natural, organic aesthetic. Either way, it’s a perfect approach to creating a charming, laid-back outdoor vibe. Gold points to the Summer Classics Montecito collection, which has the relaxed look of wicker but is made from weather-resistant resin, as an example: “Not only does this woven resin have a gorgeously natural look to it, the thick weave wrapped around a sturdy steel frame makes it feel rock solid, and the overstuffed pillows look and feel like a bed of clouds.”
OPTIMIZING OPTIONS
When it comes to feathering your outdoor nest, don’t forget that it’s the little things that can make a big difference in expressing your personality and helping your patio feel like an integral part of your home. “Having the right furniture sets the tone for a plush outdoor space, but accessorizing with the right textiles can go a long way toward revitalizing an existing setup,” Gold points out, adding that the Summer Classics collections at Aldik offer more than 140 fabrics and multiple frame color choices for customizing to your taste, from timeless neutrals to today’s more vibrant hues. As for accessories, he says, “Outdoor rugs help blend the transition between indoor and outdoor spaces, while pillows can add pops of color and make the space more inviting to guests. Even something as simple as finding the right umbrella can make a space feel more intimate and comfortable, whether you’re looking for simple collar tilt styles or the sophisticated look of a cantilever.” Style watchers say the current trend of mixing materials, patterns and textures is a great technique for adding dimension, interest and character to your space, so free yourself from strict matchiness and let your imagination run wild to create the outdoor retreat of your dreams.