Composing the Picture: Views From the Inside, Looking Outward

One of my favorite pictures is of my daughter relaxing in her rocking chair, holding her new son with their dog erect next to the chair. Mom and dog are gazing out a second floor picture window. What is capturing their attention? Beneath them is the northwest-facing bank of their home, and I imagine the dog is watching for squirrels, the baby is mesmerized by his Mom's finger and the light, while my daughter, thankful for a few quiet minutes, is gazing at the colorful panorama of azaleas below.

This picture points out to me that perhaps the best gift homeowners can give themselves and household members is to consider how the inside of their homes are used, and what folks see while looking out. Frequently homeowners are so concerned with curbside appeal and the public face of their properties that feelings and emotions which could be stimulated by interior views of the out-of-doors are often ignored. The placement of plants and amenities in landscape design should go hand-in-hand with creating outward looking ambiance for the most important people a homeowner can consider when planning and designing.

The easiest way to begin your interior assessment is to consider daily household activities, starting with yourself.
Where do you sit while eating, resting, and reading to the grandchildren?
What do you look at while you talk on the telephone, wash dishes or peel potatoes?
What do you see while curling hair or brushing teeth?
What meets your eye when you relax with an early morning coffee in your bedroom?
What captures your attention from your deck, porch or entryway steps?

This interior assessment can become a low stress on-going project and may just turn out to be one of the most pleasing aspects of your landscape design process. You will be constantly imagining and creating your own pictures using not only combinations of plants and manmade features but the parts that light, shadows, colors and precipitation play as the seasons progress and each day unfolds.

Your inventory and imaginings should be chronicled in either a notebook or in separate pages of your landscape inventory. I find it's easiest to keep records by:
Taking photographs from key inside locations looking outward and noting date and time of day;
Sometimes making sketches of ideas with a china marker on the pictures, and
Noting ideas that I've seen looking out from porches, decks and inside rooms in others homes.

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