London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Aug 28, 2025

How to Create an Outdoor Living Room

How to Create an Outdoor Living Room

This entryway by Seattle landscaper Scot Eckley shows how you can create a multi-functional outdoor living room no matter the size of your outdoor space.

If you ask landscape designer Scot Eckley to point to his best work, the small garden courtyard with outdoor living space that he created for one Seattle couple is it.

“This is a little garden where every decision counts,” says Eckley, noting he’s so proud of it he brings new employees to check it out. “It’s a garden where we have multifunctional spaces, and no detail wasn’t considered. It’s just really thoughtful and cohesive.”

The clients, Yann and Angie Christensen, a software architect and a crime-victim advocate, respectively, wanted Eckley to make the most of their small entry space of 507 square feet. On their list: to screen the front patio off from the busy street, create a new entryway for the house itself, add an outdoor living room to make the most of indoor/outdoor living, and include a “spa deck” for Yann where he could bring his laptop and work during the day.

As a result, this garden is like a Bento box; each piece fits together just so, while Eckley’s attention to the smallest details—from creating garden views while seated at the fire pit, to screening the front door without enclosing it—can be seen throughout.

Landscape designer Scot Eckley transformed this small Seattle courtyard with garden views by the fire pit.


One thing this garden is not, however, is “pretty” in a conventional way. Contrasting tones are used in both the hardscape and the plantings, and brutalist materials like concrete and steel give the space an edge. (Albeit one softened with textural plants like Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’ and Fatsia Japonica).

“You don’t hire us because you want a ‘pretty garden,’” Eckley says. “You hire us because we will create an incredible outdoor space that’s super functional and comfortable, and is beautiful on the crappiest, gloomiest, wettest day of the year.”

Here, Eckley breaks down the elements that tie this small space together, with tips on how anyone can emulate his principles in their own yard.

An Outdoor Room with a View

Eckley didn’t want people looking down at the ground, so he elevated the plantings in gunmetal steel raised beds, which gave the outdoor living room an eye-level view. “The space was designed to be really rich when you’re sitting down,” he says, “because that’s the way you’re going to appreciate the garden most of the time.”

TIP: To lift the eye in your garden, low beds or planters at 2 feet high or less will give you eye-level views of your plants when sitting down.

A Carefully Planned Escape

The Christensens wanted to use the available square footage to create more living space outdoors. They also wanted a way to beat the heat in the summer. “Yann and Angie really conceived of this garden as a respite—a way to get away from the sun here in July and August,” Eckley says, noting that the house itself, not the plantings, created the bulk of the shade they needed.

The street, meanwhile, is a mere 10 feet away from the edge of the fire pit, so creating extra privacy was a concern. Eckley addressed this by adding overlapping concrete walls, punctuated by a well-placed Japanese maple.

TIP: Use walls, screening fences, and bamboo to create privacy from the street and adjacent homes. If heat is a concern, consider locating your outdoor living room in the shadow of your home.


The Plants Are Saying ‘Hi’


Since guests have to walk by the outdoor living room to get to the front door, a row of pavers leads the way. To create a small foyer of sorts, Eckley hung silver orb planters that catch the light but don’t completely wall off the space from the rest of the garden.

TIP: For a small-space entryway, consider lightly screening it while creating a moment of visual interest. “The mirror ball planters block your view and create a boundary at the front door,” Eckley says, “but it’s like those little planters are greeting you.”


Compare and Contrast


As our home and design editor Christine Lennon has pointed out, dark tones are very on trend right now. But that doesn’t mean the look is gloomy—quite the opposite. To contend with the darkness of Seattle’s rainy days, Eckley created contrast with plantings of ferns and hostas that pop in bright green shades against darker backdrops. Textural plants like Japanese forest grass spill out of steel planters to add drama to the look.

TIP: “To see if your plant plan works, take a black and white picture of your plantings,” Eckley says. “You’ll immediately see if there’s good contrast in color, size, leaves, and texture.” He adds: “If it looks good in black and white, it’s going to look good when you plant it.”


Keeping It in Perspective


One of the things Yann wanted was a spa-like area in a corner, but the couple also wanted it to be open to the rest of the garden. “They had these dreamy concept images of very lush places you’d see in Bali,” says Eckley. To give the space its own identity, he added lighter wood tones and used perspective to add depth. (In one brilliant detail that tricks the eye, Eckley used cedar for a screen with gunmetal steel behind it and textural plants in front.)

TIP: To create a sense of perspective, “use backdrop screens and plant plants with really big, bold textures right in front of them,” says Eckley. “This will make the plants appear to advance toward you.”

To give a deeper insight into this idea, Eckley waxes poetic in the best possible way: “Think about if we were standing next to each other in Seattle, and we were looking out at the view to infinity,” he says. “The things closest to us would have texture, the things further away would have less, and then we’d hit the horizon where everything turns blurry and gray. … We provided really high contrast colors between plants, and contrasted that with the backdrop to add depth.” A unique perspective on garden design, indeed.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
A new faith called Robotheism claims artificial intelligence isn’t just smart but actually God itself
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner Purchases Third Property Amid Housing Tax Reforms Debate
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Italian Facebook Group Sharing Intimate Images Without Consent Shut Down Amid Police Investigation
Dutch Foreign Minister Resigns Amid Deadlock Over Israel Sanctions
Trump and Allies Send Messages of Support to Ukraine on Independence Day Amid Ongoing Conflict
China Reels as Telegram Chat Group Shares Hidden-Camera Footage of Women and Children
Sam Nicoresti becomes first transgender comedian to win Edinburgh Comedy Award
Builders uncover historic human remains in Lancashire house renovation
Australia Wants to Tax Your Empty Bedrooms
MotoGP Cameraman Narrowly Avoids Pedro Acosta Crash at Hungarian Grand Prix
FBI Investigates John Bolton Over Classified Documents in High-Profile Raids
Report reveals OpenAI pitched national ChatGPT Plus subscription to UK ministers
Labour set to freeze income tax thresholds in long-term 'stealth' tax raid
Coca‑Cola explores sale of Costa coffee chain
Trial hears dog walker was chased and fatally stabbed by trio
Restaurateur resigns from government hospitality council over tax criticism
Spanish City funfair shut after serious ride injury
Suspected arson at Ilford restaurant leaves three in critical condition
Tottenham beat Manchester City to go top of Premier League
Bank holiday heatwave to hit 30°C before remnants of Hurricane Erin arrive
UK to deploy immigration advisers to West Africa to block fake visas
×