The Outdoor Room - Hardcover

Jamie Durie hosts the television series Backyard Blitz and runs a landscape design business.

A cross between Trading Spaces’s Ty Pennington and Jamie Oliver (aka The Naked Chef), Durie hosts the Australian TV show Backyard Blitz. In this, his second book (after Patio), he explains that no matter how big or small an outdoor space is, it can still be transformed into a place to relax or entertain. Working on enclosed spaces only, Durie covers all aspects of outdoor rooms, from walls and floors to furnishing and lighting. Durie’s creative approach employs such materials as cor-ten (bendable sheets of metal), driftwood, timber and foliage to shape a space; he suggests making a path out of stepping stones to make people take "extra care" with their steps and "consequently a little more time to soak up the surroundings." He often gives several solutions to one problem. For example, if readers are desperate to build a "water feature" in their outdoor space, Durie suggests running a "skin" of water down an existing wall, hovering an elegant tap over an ornamental basin or installing a system of miniature canals around the perimeter of the space. The book includes lovely photographs and sketches of possible layouts, and is written in the first person, which gives it an accessible, personal tone.
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