Everybody needs their own special place to relax.  For many, they choose a place that is outdoors.  Where do we go when we want to relax inside of our home?

Consider decorating one aspect of your home, meant only to encourage and promote relaxation.  One of the best ways to do this is to bring the outdoors in.  What better way than to bring in natural, raw elements, inspired by nature?

Design a Relaxing Room

Design one room in your home that complements the outside of your house.  The design will flow more gracefully along with the outside and the overall appearance of your home will be far more harmonious and appealing.

Homes that are enjoyed, primarily, in the summer months, often feature "solariums." These are truly beautiful rooms, filled with plants and flowers, and natural wood furniture that look light and airy. Wicker furniture has been enjoyed for centuries and is still very popular, today, along with cushion fabrics that have wide, bold displays of floral patterns.

To earmark this one room as your relaxation room, think about using all of the natural colors and hues from the great outdoors.

Begin in the Garden

Start by deciding on a garden color to be dominant in your room design.  A good suggestion would be to start with the natural hues of pink, salmon and similar pale colors. You can also swing for the deeper and bolder colors of bright yellows, reds and oranges.

For best effect, add tones of green. This will be a major part of your interior palette; you just need to decide where and how much of the green will be used.

Your walls and floors will be used as the background for everything else you will design in your relaxation room. As you decide on the feeling or mood of the room, think about these two large areas to begin with. Your objective is to bring indoors the feeling of an outdoor garden, so think about materials to be found in nature.

Wood should immediately come to mind and, if you already have hardwood floors under your carpeting, let that be part of the design of your room. The money you might spend on wall-to-wall carpeting can be best used in another area of your home.

Next take a look at the walls. Natural green will be the background color for your indoor “garden,” so follow this same design and use a soft pale green as your wall color. Choose a neutral color of green and this way, a tone of almost every other color will work with it nicely. Keep your ceiling a soft white or ivory and then add white crown molding and baseboard molding to frame your walls.

You will now have a soft glow from your beautifully finished wood floor and the neutral, soft green walls.  You are now ready to choose your furniture and fabrics. This is the fun part!

Bring in the Warmth of Summer with Wicker

White wicker furniture will nicely compliment your relaxation room.  Nothing says calm and serenity like warm white.

Most people appreciate the charm of white wicker furniture. Pre-summer is the best time to buy wicker.  Gardening shops anticipate the summer run on buying outdoor furniture and have a good supply.

An alternative to buying wicker furniture is to consider buying bamboo, rattan and sea grass furniture.  All of these are very popular for bringing the outdoors in. Costs are quite reasonable.

For fabrics, think floral.  These are your best bet when creating a garden inspired room. These work very well with any of the furniture styles that we've mentioned.  The important note here is to be consistent. 

Some great ideas to consider are the following:
 
Traditional "cabbage chintz" patterns
Caribbean patterns
Indonesian patterns
Hawaiian-style tropical prints
Softer, more subtle Laura Ashley style patterns

You will need a good sense of coordination to pull off layering of florals, patterns and stripes, so ask for help.

You can ask fabric companies to show you selected combinations of floral designs and complementary stripes, plaids and solid colors as whole groupings. This will simplify your task.  Find these presentations in home decorating sections of large hardware stores or in fabric stores that specialize in home decor.

Select simple, understated window treatments to frame your view to the outdoor garden and to help bring the outdoors in. Choose from neutral hues, muted and not bold.

To help define the seating area in your room look for area rugs of sisal, coir, jute or synthetic materials that replicate natural fibers. Ask the carpet stores to make you rugs that have borders to complement the colors you'll use in your upholstery and drapes.

Finally, no relaxation room will be complete without a generous display of live plants and flowers. They're the final touch that brings the realistic impression of having your outdoors flowing to the inside.

Fill your relaxation room with everything that you love and enjoy best.  Stock up on good books, board games, a great music system – anything that will promote rest and calm.  Make this your special room and you will have a lovely retreat to go to whenever you need to most.

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