5 Ways Interior Design Is Being Influenced By The Outdoors

If you have been keeping up with recent interior design trends, you are likely to notice a shift toward natural design. This term is openly vague and can mean a number of things. Generally, it is used to reference organic architectural form, such as a preference for curves over corners or the use of wood and stone over artificial alternatives. However, it can also be used to describe floral prints, houseplants, and even open spaces.

Often collected under the umbrella aesthetic of biophilia, this new wave of interior design is being influenced by the outdoors. Natural landscapes are being used for colour scheme inspiration while woodland textures are being referenced for materials. As a result of such stylistic choices, the division between the outdoors and indoors is becoming increasingly blurry.

Natural Lighting

It is increasingly common for interior designs to approach the design of a room around its relationship to natural light. The direction of the sun’s rising, the angle of its influence, and the amount of time it illuminates each room are all factors shaping modern living spaces.

Designers will often arrange furniture and choose paint colour for surfaces depending on the direction and intensity of natural light, wanting to ensure that living space arrangements are best presented throughout the day.

Organic Shapes

The ubiquity of vertices and straight edges is seldom found in nature but is common in contemporary living spaces. Homes that seek to celebrate the beauty of nature are, as such, embracing soft edges and curves. Furniture, such as sofas, are now often rounded, creating a more dynamic setting.

Other aspects, such as the portals of windows and doors, are becoming more often rounded too, with the rigid rectangle and square designs being seen as too distant from the cottagecore aesthetics of rural romanticism.

Garden Living Space

The popularity of garden structures, log cabins, and outbuildings, are partly motivated by a need for greater living space, especially at a time of frequent remote working. They are, however, also indicative of a longing for personal space to be set among nature. These buildings are often designed to embrace their natural surroundings, being open to abundant degrees of light and covered in climbing plants, all with views of hedges and trees as residents want to spend time in rooms where they can see nature.

Colour Of Landscape

Following a sudden eruption of whites and greys, not forgetting the ever-present beige, homes are now choosing bolder colour schemes, those mimicking the vistas of natural landscapes. Yellows for sunlight, blues for water, and a spectrum of greens for the woodlands and grasses in between.

Airflow Direction

Ventilation offers several benefits to the home, circulating freshness into living spaces and cooling temperatures during warmer days. A well-circulated home, one open to the elements, is also one that feels closer to nature, not only embracing the outdoor climate but also the potential for natural sounds, such as birds and rainfall. Airflow, along with the aforementioned consideration for natural light, is another pillar of biophilic interior design.