7 great ideas for using decorative outdoor screens

With the rise of the outdoor room in Australian homes continuing to dominate our summer entertaining areas, designers and homeowners alike are thinking more carefully about how to make them beautiful.

We solve 7 outdoor decorating dilemmas with the clever and versatile use of decorative outdoor screens.

Problem 1: Outdoor entertaining spaces open to neighbouring properties

Solution:

A decorative outdoor screen is the perfect solution to providing privacy for your outdoor spaces. Whether a freestanding structure or an addition to the architecture of your home, it can work to demarcate areas for entertaining from other areas of the garden and create a visual barrier between yours and adjacent homes.

Problem 2: Outdoor room feels too separate from indoors

Solution:

Extend the visual and architectural line of the internal walls effectively by using a finish such as plantation shutters on your outdoor screen to reflect your choices of indoor decorating to tie the two zones together.

Problem 3: Outdoor kitchen zone

Solution:

Use a custom-built decorative outdoor screen to demarcate a food preparation zone from the rest of the entertaining area. This slatted screen works three ways:

1. Adds architectural interest to the framework of the pergola and
2. Serves as a splashback to bbq cooking area
3. Allows air flow throughout the entire alfresco zone

Problem 4: Limited space for fencing structures

Solution:

Rather than a stand-alone structure, think about how a decorative outdoor screen can do double duty by placing it in relation to other hard landscaping in your back yard – around garden beds, dividing walls or perhaps a pool area. “Blade walls or feature screens can be incorporated into your design to double as a pool fence,” says Creative Director of Secret Gardens Asher Cole, suggesting choosing colours to “…work with the existing palette of colours in the surrounding landscape or architecture”.

Problem 5: Dated front facade

Solution:

Use a decorative outdoor screen as an affordable way to soften the look of the front of a home without the need for major construction. This timber screen creates privacy for the front door and connects the front of the home to the verandah by using the same timber. A pathway directs visitors through the lawn to the entrance.

Problem 6: Featureless finishes

Solution:

Just as wallpaper creates a ‘wow’ factor indoors, the use of decorative outdoor screens to soften outdoor zones creates an eye-catching focal point against the blank canvas of rendered and painted home exteriors. Custom metal laser cut screens will age with time and provide a welcome patina to the space.

Problem 7: Lack of visual interest

Solution:

Add some pizazz in your outdoor pool cabana area with a prefabricated decorative outdoor screen in a trending pattern or finish. Tie in other elements in your pool area with planting and soft furnishings.

Whether freestanding, wall-mounted or structurally integrated, using screens allows for air-flow and creates a subtle ambience in your own signature style.

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