One of the things that really sold our house to us when we we viewed it back in late summer of 2013, was that it had such a great outlook at the back, into the back garden and beyond.
Our Living room and our kitchen are both at the back of the house, both South facing. I love that we have a near uninterrupted view of the back garden. It gives a feeling of the outside being part of the inside, as the view is such a key part of each of these rooms at the back.
The living room has sliding doors across the back part of the room for easy access to the garden. I shared recently how bright it can get in this room and our solution for it here.
We recently had these sliding doors replaced. The previous ones were aluminium relics from the late 70s/early 80s and were so heavy to use we barely opened the doors in this room at all. The ones we’ve now got are so much lighter to open and make the room look bigger with the white UVPC frames (I wasn’t sure how these’d look at first tbh, but I was worried unnecessarily).
We had a local family firm do our doors, which we’ve been really pleased with. Sliding doors are a fantastic way of bringing the feeling of nature into your home- your garden almost becomes part of the room. If you are looking to have something similar you could try Network Veka which is a network of trusted installers. To be listed with the Network, installers have to prove they offer professionalism, value for money, customer satisfaction and expert advice.
With sliding doors there’s no hiding from the back garden though. It means we see all the work that needs doing to it!
The garden needs some TLC, but it’s just not been very high up on the priority list so far. Despite appearances the girls love to play outside in it. It’s great to be able to keep an eye on them through the sliding glass doors whilst they are outside and I’m having 5 minutes to myself.
One thing I’ve spoke about previously here is my lack of a green thumb- hence the back garden situation. This year I’d really like to work on this skill outside, and also with more house plants inside. I’ve a windowsill with some house plants on but I’d really like to expand on this throughout the house. Here’s my windowsill which is on the stairs.
A girls got to start somewhere right!
I’ve gathered some inspiring images here of some great bloggers who are way better than me at the plant business and who really embrace bringing the outside in, with plants.
This plant stand is gorgeous and I could see something like this in our living room as we have the similar full length windows in our sliding doors. This blog (Lobster & Swan) is fantastic for getting ideas and following Jeska’s journey into loving plants. Link under the photo below.
Image credit- Jeska from Lobster & Swan
I love the way Igor from Happy Interior Blog has styled these plants in his tiny kitchen, bring a real sense of greenery and the outdoors into what can sometimes be a sterile environment. It really warms up the space and makes it feel more like a home. Igor is also part of the Urban Jungle Bloggers which is a huge inspiring place online to learn about plants.
Photo by Igor Josifovic of Happy Interior Blog
I love the idea of having shelves or even picture rails with plants on, succulents would be great for this and are a low maintenance plant to care for (allegedly, I managed to get some fluffy aphids on one of mine) .
Jen from Little Birdie shows off a beautiful example of this idea below in her post about a Plant Shelf. Great for when the weather doesnt allow you to get into the garden.
Photo by Jen Chillingsworth of Little Birdie
Do you have a green thumb?
susan earlam ~ horror author 
I would love your input