6 dreamy ideas for outdoor living

Gone are the days of boring outdoor styling. Instead, there are a thousand and one ideas to spice up your backyards, decks, patio areas... And these inspiring outdoor looks, livened up with Resene paint, will have you grabbing your brushes and getting out there.

Homeowners are taking their personality beyond the indoors into their gardens, with cosy outdoor fireplaces, handpainted furniture, colourful plant pots and even showers. It's amazing what you can do with a paint brush and Resene testpot.

Here are some of our tips for getting started:

  • Resene has a range of paint products and stains designed especially for the outdoors, including Resene Lumbersider that's used in most Resene testpots. Good news for those only needing small amounts of paint for their outdoor projects.
     
  • Want to learn more about painting furniture? Click here.
     
  • Outdoor areas are getting increasingly more livable and bring a bit of the indoors to the outside: think brick ovens, fire pits, hanging egg chairs... think of it as an extension of your home.
     
  • It's not about how much space you have, but what you do with your space. This couple has turned their substantial courtyard into a potager garden, which feeds them throughout the year with organic fruit and veges. If your plot space is a lot tighter, build a hanging garden for your deck. See below for a lovely example.
     
  • Texture is also hot property right now. Bring dimension to your garden by doing things like mixing up colours, creating an ombre effect on a wall, pouring in soft white stones in a few areas, or bringing in potted plants of varying heights.

Published: 16 Nov 2016

Do you have a home full of wonderful Resene paint and colour? Send us some snaps by emailing [email protected].

The deck is a great place to start when creating a sublime outdoor living space. We turned this one into a quiet reading corner as an area to relax... with a chair in Resene Ashanti, pots in Resene Wax Flower and Resene Glorious and cactus in Resene English Holly. The balustrade is painted in Resene Quarter White Pointer. 

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Aimee Magnee. Styling by Amber Armitage. Products from Nannestad and Sons, Superette, Bolt of Cloth, Freedom Furniture and Palmers Garden World Remuera.

You could also bring the garden closer to home, at the ready for picking herbs come dinner time. Keep it contemporary and tidy with a tight colour scheme.

We've gone with darker greens and blues, with the planter box in Resene Madison, the pots in Resene Green Leaf, Resene Amulet, Resene Aquamarine and Resene Moroccan Spice (orange) for an added kick. The tool handles are painted in Resene Delta Blue.

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Aimee Magnee. Styling by Amber Armitage. Products from Citta Design, Superette, Nannestad & Sons, Amber Armitage and MyFlatPack.

Painting furniture is perhaps one of the quickest and easiest ways to make your outdoors pop. And these stencilled triangles are definitely an idea worth giving a go.

For the left chair, we used Resene Waterborne Woodsman Limed Gum stain with a Resene Tasman triangle. We used Resene Waterborne Woodsman Smokey Ash stain on the right chair, with triangles painted in Resene Martini and Resene Celebrate.

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Larnie Nicolson. Styling and paint effects by Greer Clayton.

Why not be more adventurous? Paint effects specialist Greer Clayton has upped the game in this delicious courtyard setting. 

Using Resene Resitex and Resene Sandtex to texture the wall, Greer's then painted it in an ombre of Resene Sambuca, Resene Papier Mache and Resene Martini. She's added a hanging egg chair stained in Resene Woodsman Bleached Riverstone and painted with Resene Alabaster stripes. 

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Larnie Nicolson. Styling and paint effects by Greer Clayton. 

An outdoor shower is always a good idea if you live close to the seaside. Give it personality with a beautiful colour scheme or pattern.

We handpainted our shower wall in hard-wearing Resene Lumbersider low sheen paint, using Resene All Black, Resene Quarter Delta, Resene Quarter Truffle and Resene Double Alabaster. The understated courtyard setting is painted in Resene Delta.

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Wendy Fenwick. Styling by Claudia Kozub. 

This season's fiery shades are more complex than ever before, wearing a muted 'burnt' edge that makes them pleasing to live with and easy to accessorise around.

Bring a piece of Pacifica to your backyard using those new fiery shades in a setting like this one, with Resene Rumour Has It on the walls, Resene Aloha, Resene Malarkey and Resene Celebrate on the peg stools, and Resene Sambuca on the table. The 'deck mat' is made of pine planks stained in Resene Woodsman Banjul.

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Wendy Fenwick. Styling by Claudia Kozub. 

the look

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