Let’s face it, many of us long for that ageless, rustic Tuscan look for our exterior spaces – soft earthy colors, weather aged cast iron or stone furniture, large weather worn stone planters or urns, and a grape vine growing over rustic looking wooden archway .
Unfortunately of course it’s not really possible to re-create an enchanting Tuscan look where weather conditions are vastly dissimilar and buildings are constructed in vastly different styles and with different building materials. But nevertheless, with a bit of effort and the the right choice of materials, it’s feasible to produce at least a semblance of a Tuscan ambiance within your courtyard or patio.
The best place to start is with the walls. Ideally walls should be given a rough rendered finish to give a slightly rough texture and either an ochre colour is added to the render or can be painted on afterward . Take a to get an idea of suitable colours.
Next you need to consider what to lay on the ground . To avoid back breaking work and cost of digging up existing concrete and re-laying with natural stone slabs, a much more simple and convenient solution is to use interlocking deck tiles. These tiles can merely be laid directly over the top of the existing hard surface . They don’t use any adhesives in view of the fact that each tile is locked to the neighboring tile with inbuilt connecting tabs. These days, it’s possible to purchase interlocking deck tiles in a variety of surface materials, but for a Tuscan look, your best choice would generally be natural sandstone interlocking tiles .
After you have installed the tiles or pavers , then you can start on the accessories . Try to find some large planters or urns. Rather than going to the expense of purchasing natural stone products, you can buy rather good reproductions crafted from cast cement which are treated to give an vintage appearance. Be aware that just a few large and appealingly designed planters or urns will always look better than a larger collection of smaller objects.
Next you need to consider the furniture. Preferably you should select rustic cast-iron furniture or if expense is no object , you could select a stone bench or two, a couple of stone seats or even a stone table.
To finish, you need to select appropriate plants to use in your urns or planters and around the area you have just fashioned. You really want to be using plants which have a Mediterranean feel and not bright, showy plants. Generally speaking, the most suitable plants those with greyish or brown strap like leaves. If you have the space, you could also incorporate a pergola structure and train a vine to creep up and over the pergola. Otherwise you could attach panels of lattice to one of the walls and train a suitably selected vine to grow over the lattice.
Of course it will be impossible to achieve the total effect overnight, but then Rome was not built in a day either. But with a bit of patience and good planning, you can have your own special corner of Tuscany, right in your backyard.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com
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