The Outdoor Room

by Jamie Durie

Covering all aspects of designing outdoor spaces, including walls, floors, lighting, water features, and much more, this manual is full of simple but effective ideas to spark horticultural creativity. Elegant and practical, this work provides a treasure of hints for making the most of small gardening spaces and making larger spaces worlds unto themselves.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Interior Design

208 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Durie

Reviews

[Sarah Ryburn]

he takes marvelous photographs of his inspiration points; still, aspects of almost every design in the book seem impractical and over-the-top.

[Joseph Burk]

This book was full of great ideas and inspirational pictures. However, I don't have a particularly huge fondness for modern minimalist landscapes (which are the bulk of Durie's designs). While I don't condemn the style entirely, I am not impressed by gardens that rely heavily on modern and rigid plantings. I also think Durie should have incorporated more local ingredients and inspiration into his work. It's not that it's necessarily *bad* to have Indonesian or Egyptian elements in a Northern California garden, but if it's excessive it can look out of place.

Overall, it was a pretty good book. Those who like "minimalistic" artistic styles would enjoy this a great deal more than I did. My favorite part of this book was the section on "vertical gardens"---absolutely fascinating!

[julia]

As with most design books, the photos were inspiring. However what I really loved was how Jamie broke down his design theory and guidelines. It was so informative and inspiring. It helped me have a better understanding of my own design process by reading through how he developed his. It's evident he put alot of time and energy into this book and I love how generous he was with sharing his theories. Oftentimes it feels that designers are afraid of sharing their ideas because others may "steal" them. Jamie was generous enough to freely share his process and be encouraging of other designers. Love him and love his design style.

[Michelle]

Looks are deceiving

[Michael Heath-Caldwell]

Good book on suburban landscape design in Australia.

[Amy]

A great read by the host of HGTV's "Outdoor Room".