Question: We need to reorganize a problem room, our family room. We use it primarily in the summer. The French doors open out to a rather nice saltillo-tiled patio and we would like the room to complement it.

Doreen Moore, Oakland

Answer: Designing a room that complements the outside of a home is worth the effort; the inside will flow more gracefully with the outside and the overall appearance of your home will be more harmonious.

In days past when homes were larger or used only during the summer months, people had "solariums," rooms that were filled with plants and flowers, and furniture that had a light, airy feeling. Wicker furniture was popular and the cushion fabrics incorporated floral patterns.

Since you use this room primarily in the one season, I suggest you follow the thinking of our design ancestors to make this truly a "summer" room. While nature is boundless in her palette of colors, good landscape designers narrow the bandwidth they use when creating a garden in order to avoid visual chaos. The same is true when designing an interior room that complements nature.

START WITH THE GARDEN

Start this design project by looking closely at your garden. Determine which colors, other than green, are dominant. If your flowering plants are pink, salmon and pale colors, keep these as the colors you'll feature inside. Or, if your garden is mostly bright yellows, reds and oranges, then this will be the color group you'll work with instead.

Of course, tones of green will be part of your interior palette; it's just a question of where and how much of it will be used.

Walls and floors are the background for everything else done in any room. As you choose the feeling of the room, think about these two large areas first. Since the objective is to have the feeling of a garden transplanted indoors, think about materials found in nature.

Wood immediately comes to mind and, because you already have hardwood floors under the carpeting, let that be part of the design of the room. The money you would have spent on wall-to-wall carpeting can be used for something else.

Next are the walls. They'll be the background for all the other elements in the room. Nature uses green as the background color for your garden, so follow her design and use a soft pale green as the wall color. Choose a green that works as a good neutral - that way, a tone of almost every other color will work with it. Keep the ceiling a soft white and add white crown molding and baseboard molding to frame the walls.

With the glow of a beautifully finished wood floor and the soft green walls, you're ready to choose the furniture and fabrics.

WICKER SAYS SUMMER

White wicker furniture would be the most obvious choice for this project. It virtually screams "summer" and few people can resist its charm. When used outside it requires maintenance each season; inside your house it will last much longer with very little work. Vintage wicker furniture can be very expensive and might need repair work. However, the good news is that now is the perfect time of year for purchasing new wicker furniture at retail stores. They're anticipating people "decorating" their gardens soon, so their stock is good.

If you're not overly fond of wicker, there are many other furniture materials to choose from that would be suitable for creating an indoor garden room. These include bamboo, rattan and sea grass. Homes in Florida, Hawaii and Southern California use these materials to create "lanai" style rooms that need the light feeling associated with tropical areas. Furniture manufacturers are using these materials quite frequently and, because they're so popular, the cost can be quite reasonable.

Once you've selected the furniture style, choosing fabrics is next. Floral patterns will work well with any of the furniture styles that we've discussed. Whether you choose traditional "cabbage chintz" patterns, Caribbean, Indonesian or Hawaiian-style tropical prints, or softer, more subtle Laura Ashley style patterns, remember to be consistent. It takes a deft touch and good coordination to pull off layering florals, patterns and stripes, so use caution as you venture forth.

To make your job easier, some fabric companies have selected combinations of floral designs and complementary stripes, plaids and solid colors as whole groupings. These presentations can be found in the home decorating sections of large hardware stores or in fabric stores that specialize in home decor.

Don't forget your window treatments when you're looking at fabrics. These will frame your view to the garden and help bring the outdoors in.

Area rugs of sisal, coir, jute or synthetic materials that replicate natural fibers help define the seating areas in the room. Many carpet stores will make rugs with borders that complement the colors you'll use in your upholstery and drapes.

Remember to be generous with plants and flowers in your newly decorated garden room. They're the finishing touch that keeps the illusion of your outdoor garden flowing to the inside.

 

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