Your choices of color will determine whether your garden feels warm or cool. Thinking of your small garden as an outdoor living room that needs to be painted is extremely helpful. You can do this exercise anytime whether it’s Minnesota landscaping in winter, spring, fall or summer. The question is, “How do you want the space to feel?” The use of warm or cool colors in a small garden are critical, they can open it up or make it feel confined.
Cool colors—those centered on green, blue, and violet-tend to retreat visually, giving the impression of greater space. While warm colors— those that are clustered around yellow, orange, and red—come towards you, making the space seem smaller.
Choosing colors is something that our landscape designers at Architectural Landscape Design in MN excel in. We choose whatever you like and design it to meet your needs. Because at the end of the day it’s all about what you want and like.
Cool colors are usually the most effective in small gardens-but no need to be limited to them. You may want to use contrasting colors—violet and yellow are good, or any other colors that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel. If you decide to use warm and cool colors together, plan on four to five times as much of the cool color to balance the warm. Why? Because warm colors jump out at you, they demand attention.
Deciding on whether your outside garden room with color will be warm or cool can be a lot of fun, contact our Mpls and St. Paul landscape design group to help you design it. We’ll consider your trees and shrubbery to be the “trim” to your outside room, call us on 952-292-7717.
