Freshen Up Your Outdoor Space | Calico Blog

Friends:

It’s time to get the great outdoors at your home into great shape, and there’s no better source than Calico for freshening up! Take that tired patio or porch and make it perfection!

For inspiration, we called up a few of our style-setting friends for tips on how they like to refresh their own outdoor spaces…

Charlotte, North Carolina-based interior designer Lisa Mende says, “My favorite trick to freshen up an outdoor seating area is to toss a few throw pillows in a new and exciting color. Throw pillows are like an elixir that can take a space that lacks sizzle and give it instant new life. Have some fun!”

Follow Lisa Mende’s lead with high-impact throw pillows.

Says Chicago interior designer Kenneth Ludwig, “When recovering patio furniture for the upcoming season, I love to use a fun and playful design scheme. Mix wide stripes with abstract florals then throw in some patterned checks. The outdoor patio can really be your living room for the season.”

Mix, mix, and mix patterns on the porch to create al fresco magic.

Designer Katharine Hable suggests having fun with your plantings. “When I lived in Brooklyn, outdoor space was such a treasure so I gardened like mad. Planting perennials really made my life a lot easier. I used hostas to fill shady spaces and created privacy with clematis vines. Every spring, I would fill oversized terracotta planters with flower-packed annuals to bring punches of color to the garden. When recovering your outdoor furniture and adding throw pillows, look to your plantings for color cues.”

On a Hamptons porch, we pulled colors from tropical plantings to use in the décor scheme.

Manhattan-based “Good Morning America” art director Meg Dohmlo recommends, “I love scattering oversized throw pillows around a fire pit or a grouping of candles to create a relaxed environment with friends. It’s the perfect place to catch up on good conversation with a tall glass of wine. And with Calico’s performance fabrics you don’t have to worry about the pillows being on the ground.”

Turn to look-at-me Fortress performance fabrics to create the perfect throw pillows to scatter around a fire pit.

And Washington, D.C. antiques gurus Stephanie Freitas and Denise Eckert add, “We use vintage furniture in our outdoor projects and love tapping Calico to give these pieces new life through cushions and throw pillows. Take a vintage patio set, for example, paint it and use a kicky performance-fabric pattern to bring it back to life. It’s the best form of recycling.”