If You Only Follow One Outdoor Decor Trend This Season, Make It This One
If you’re lucky enough to have some kind of outdoor space, now’s the time to really start assessing your yard or patio for arguably its busiest season. That could mean a multitude of things, depending on where you live and what your goals are for outdoor living. One thing’s for sure though, according to landscape designer extraordinaire Fernando Wong, who’s also a judge alongside Martha Stewart on the new Discovery+ show “Clipped”: repetition simply isn’t utilized enough in outdoor plantings or settings.
What does that mean in practice? Symmetry with furniture and plant placement, and getting multiple of the same item, like side tables or chairs. Both Wong and his business partner Tim Johnson say repetition is the easiest way to make any sliver of space instantly look higher end, and they know from experience: they’ve designed projects for the Four Seasons hotels and recently led the landscape renovation for Soho Beach House in Miami. “Buy a lot of one kind of plant,” says Johnson. He and Wong recommend looking for versatile species that can be used for ground coverage but also features like topiaries, which you might use to flank a doorway.
But this kind of symmetry isn’t all about planted beds or big trees, though you can see repetition at work in one of Wong’s residential projects with grand trees above and below. You can also try this trick with container gardens. You’ll always make a greater decorative impact when you have multiples of something versus a bunch of disparate plantings. This idea also works for features like side tables, chairs, and textiles. Repetition, no matter how you use it, will pretty much always introduce harmony and balance to a design, and who doesn’t want those feelings in an outdoor setting?
However big your outdoor space, Wong and Johnson recommend finding something hearty and native to your eco-region for best results. In the southeastern United States, where their firm is based, they often use Bermuda grass as a base for this reason, but you can get some inspiration for your own zone from the National Wildlife Federation to see what plants might work best in your yard.
Other tricks this landscape design duo swears by? Mixing synthetic sod in with the real stuff, albeit sparingly. If you can’t get grass to grow in a shady spot or you want greenery to pop in between pavers, for example, faux is the way to go.
The duo also suggests considering tabby stucco for applications on driveways, outdoor fireplaces, or even as pavers. Tabby is a type of concrete that’s super durable and customizable because you can choose the amount of shell and mix-ins you wanted get your desired level of speckled appearance. It’s also light in color so it can be tinted to variety of shades and stays pretty cool to the touch, which is a plus for any areas you’re likely to go barefoot in.