Design Ideas Using Colour in the Garden
When considering Garden Design Ideas for your property, think about the visual impact of colour. Colour is the first thing we notice in a garden, our other senses may be stirred as we become aware of the scent of a Frangipani or hear water trickling in the background but our immediate response is usually to the colours around us.
The shrubs and flowers you plant in your garden should ideally compliment and harmonize with the colours inside your home. So, if you have a red feature wall or rug in your lounge, then a few red flowering shrubs will blend in beautifully when located within site of that room.
When planning rooms inside the home we tend to think about a colour scheme, ensuring wall colours, floor coerings and furnishings all work harmoniously together. These same considerations are equally important outside when considering your garden design ideas.
An overall colour scheme for the garden embraces the hard and soft landscape as well as the incidentals such as furnishings, pots and statuary. It makes sense to extend a colour way from inside to out.
Paving, timber, ornaments and cushions can all take their cue from adjoining areas, linking all your garden design ideas together.
One of the most important influences on colour is the light in which it is seen: the stronger the light, the paler a particular hue will appear.
Pastels and soft colours that look lovely in a temperate climate look faded and insipid in brilliant sunlight. Bright colours such as purples, yellows and scarlets originate in warm sunny climates where the intensity of colour is increased by the strength of the sun’s rays.
Because outside the home is usually more spacious than rooms inside there is greater scope for using different colour ranges particularly if the garden is sub-divided into different areas.
Creative use of Colour
Garden Design Ideas using Colour – As a general rule, hot colours draw the eye: a group of plants with strong primary colours placed at the end of a vista immediately attract attention at the expense of everything else on the way. This is fine if you want to divert the gaze away from a less pleasant view. But if it is used indiscriminately, this approach can produce a series of unrelated focal points that make for an unsettled picture.
Also, if your lawn is not in good shape, or full of dead spots, this can also detract from the beauty of your work. To prevent unforeseen dead spots and keep your lawn green all year, installing artificial grass is a solution that will last for the ages with minimal to no upkeep.
Most home decorators are familiar with the idea that dark colours advance and pale colours recede, the same principle can be applied outside, to alter perceptions of size and to lengthen or shorten views.
A pale coloured planting scheme for a small courtyard is a far better choice than a dark one.
As well as being dramatic, colour is very sensual and can affect us psychologically in different ways. Knowing this, we can use differing garden design ideas with colour, to enhance or change moods in different parts of the garden.
Stimulating, exciting, cheerful, eye-catching are words used to refer to warm colours such as yellows, reds and oranges. Cool colours are the greens, blues, purples, pinks, whites and silvers and have calming qualities, which can produce a tranquil, peaceful atmosphere. Cool colours do not dominate a scene and the eye can easily travel over them to a focal point beyond.
Consider these simple garden design ideas as an integral part of blending your indoor colour scheme harmoniously outside into your garden, you’ll be amazed by the feeling and flow created between the two spaces. Check out our Pinterest page for more inspiring Garden Design Ideas.