Internal Design Ideas For Garden Rooms
A garden room is, simply put, a room within a garden. Although current times sometimes refer to an indoor space in a house that can serve as a garden area as a garden room, for purposes of consistency, from hereon we will be using the term garden room in reference to the former definition.

It is best to have a garden room that brings the outdoors, indoors but modern designs allow for a lot of variations and contrasts that actually work too. It all boils down to the character you would want your garden room to have. But, as mentioned, giving it a little green without destroying the core integrity of your garden rooms character is a balance you can play with. One secret to doing this is to make sure that you have an unobstructed view of the garden that you can achieve through plenty of glass windows and wide entrances.

A garden room may have an industrial feel yet still incorporate the living colour of the gardens by first of all making sure that you have enough glass windows to frame the outside scenery. A full-length view of the garden against the gray and white theme created by white tiled floors, aluminium chairs, gray and white paint makes for a beautiful contrast. You can also bring in a miniature plant in a steel container to seal off the deal.

If your garden has more of a pebbled feel, setting up a Zen garden room would make an interesting match too. As simple way to achieve this is to choose dark wood as furniture material and frames for your glass windows. Keep the lines on your furniture clean as well and finish the whole look with roman blinds.

You can also go all out with colour and make it fun and trendy with coloured pillows on soft couches and seal it off with flowing curtains. Curtains, though, might not be able to keep the heat off during summers. This brings us to the topic of insulation, something you should be concerned with when designing a garden room. If you live in a place with that can get really cold in the winter and vice versa in the summer, you should have the proper insulation, air conditioner and heater in place. For lighter days, consider getting ceiling fan kits, preferably with lights for dual functionality.

Other key pieces that can set off your garden room include paintings, lamp shades and lighting. In fact, with just these key pieces, you can achieve a coffee nook. Just add in a coffee table with matching chairs and a magazine rack or a book shelf and you are good to go.

As a general rule, though, you can play around as much as you can with the interior of your garden room but the overall look should not deviate significantly or should still find something to tie up with your original house even if it is just the paint or the exterior of the garden room.

Improving Any Room’s Design With Feng Shui

In any room, Feng Shui can improve the feeling and flow of positive energy in the space. Arranging the furnishings within the room in a certain way help to keep good energy flowing throughout, and improving this positive energy flow makes a person simply feel better, whether in a home or even an office.

Creating a Flow
While practicing the art of Feng Shui can become very complicated, its basic tenets are not. Many of the basic ideas used in Feng Shui are also good design practices. Adding organization and function to a room also help to keep anything from blocking energy from flowing through the room. Letting the energy flow freely through the room also lets people travel an unobstructed path through the room, and this easy movement makes a room feel comfortable and harmonious.

Starting at the Front Door
In Feng Shui, the front door, or main entrance, to the home is of paramount importance.

It is called, “the mouth of Chi”, because it is where the positive energy, or Chi, enters the home. The best way to describe this energy flowing through the home is to imagine water flowing into the home as the front door is opened. Imagine where the water would flow and where it would be blocked and settle into a stagnant pool. This will help identify where there are blockages in the room; clearing them will allow energy to freely pass.

Clearing Out Clutter
One of the key components to a home employing the Feng Shui design principles is that it is always neat and tidy. Since disorganized rooms generally are full of clutter, a clutter filled, badly organized room is the antithesis of the Feng Shui aesthetic. Even without moving a single piece of furniture, clearing clutter out of a room is the first and most important step of moving a room’s design in the direction of Feng Shui. After the clutter is gone, the remaining elements in the room can be examined, and it is easier to identify furnishings that are not really needed in the room. Electronics, while not considered clutter, can disrupt the positive flow of energy, so housing electronic components in cabinets keeps the energy moving freely through a room.

Thinking in Circles
When designing a room with Feng shui in mind it helps to think in circles. The advantage of circular thinking is that all harsh corners are removed. Consider the flow of water, it arches and swirls, but never does it take a hard left or right turn. So arrange furniture in circular patterns and do not place any furniture where it blocks the entrance to a room. Arranging furniture in this manner will make the room feel easier to move through, and this easy flow is the point of Feng Shui design. Place furniture in such a way that people sitting on sofas and chairs can see all who enter the room. This placement not only allows positive energy to enter the room, but it allows all who enter to feel welcome and instantly included in the activities of the room.