May 12, 2017 • design recipes • Views: 3511

Last month in part 1 of our top gardening trends for 2017, we took a look at some of the most popular things – and ways – to grow this year. And now it’s the turn of the finishing touches – those home comforts that can make your garden feel like an extra room, and which materials to incorporate into your outdoor space in 2017. And of course, if you don’t have a garden or other outdoor space, you can just bring nature inside with some of this year’s top fun and functional houseplants.

Bring home comforts outside

One of our favourite trends from Part 1 of DesignSpice’s Best Garden Trends for 2017 was vertical gardening. Planting vertically is not only growing in popularity because it looks great – it’s also because vertical installations make very clever use of our ever-smaller spaces. Making the most of small spaces has also led to another of this year’s gardening trends – and that’s to extend the home out into the garden. When space inside our homes is getting tighter, it makes perfect sense to treat our outdoor areas like an extra room, which is why we’re also starting to want more style and comfort outside. Fire pits, cosy Scandinavian throws and feature lighting are bringing a bit of hygge into our gardens, but if balance and moderation is more your style, the next big Scandi trend lagom works brilliantly outside, too.

Colour blocking with brightly coloured elements such as a fence, wall or even an outdoor rug is another great way to make an outside area feel like extra living space. Garden lighting is also on its way up; uplighting large plants will make them into a real evening feature, and outdoor lighting needn’t be expensive, either – even a string of fairy lights can do the trick.

Natural-looking outdoor furniture such as the rope and acacia wood Riviera Armchair and Riviera Sofa will combine the trend for outdoor comfort with our next 2017 gardening trend – naturalism.

Natural beauty

As is the case with interior design, natural materials are enjoying a revival when it comes to garden landscaping, too. Organic, tactile elements such as wood and stone are replacing the concrete and other man-made composites of the last few years.

Clean-cut borders, geometry and minimalism are making way for traditional, authentic materials, particularly ones that are locally sourced. Unrefined features such as boulders, traditional rockeries and rough, unkempt hedges don’t just look natural; they’re also a great way to create structure and separate different areas of your outdoor space.

Bring nature inside

With air pollution a hot topic, and a love of kitsch still a continuing trend, houseplants are taking the design world by storm! As well as making efforts to reduce our carbon emissions, we are catching on to the fact that we can also reduce the indoor air pollution we’re exposed to with a few choice houseplants – in fact, just over half of home owners use their houseplants for that purpose. Aloe vera, snake plants, spider plants and rubber plants are all good air-cleansing candidates.

But it’s also about the home aesthetic, with pots and plants being treated more like home accessories and features. And because emerald greens are some of this year’s top colours in the world of home décor, adding some natural greenery to your living area is an extremely easy way to achieve the look for 2017. Fiddle-leaf figs are still popular, and 2017 looks set to be a big year for olive trees, cacti and colourful bromeliads.

And we’re also becoming more innovative and experimental with our houseplant displays – hanging Kokedama (Japanese moss balls), Tillandsia air plants and terrariums are all fun and funky ways to bring nature inside. Happy gardening – inside and out – in 2017! Picture source: pinterest.com

Tags: 2017, design, garden design, inspiration, outdoor, trends