Dreaming in Desire: My Quest for a Stylish Outdoor Sanctuary

Comfy cushions, ethnic patterned pillows, rustic round tables, cocktails spread about on shiny trays - all lit with an eclectic mix of cleverly hung candle lanterns from above. This is the vision that I have been mentally mulling over when I go to sleep at night. I have rethought the furniture arrangement several times and I have changed color schemes enough to have made it around variations of the color wheel twice. I want it to be the ultimate outdoor lounge space. I have also begun envisioning the great nights the girls and I will have in my new haute hippy lounge. It's like the space was made for this.


The outdoor space this OCDite desires: (www.westelm.com)


And it doesn't help that I'm constantly surrounded by my own space now. I love my space - I've made it my home, and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. But now that I am also working out of my home, it is much harder to escape my wandering analytical eye of interior design. I want it all to be perfect, to appear precisely like the image in my head. I think I get these decorating compulsions from my Mom. Mom still rearranges her furniture so often that I don't think it has ever been the same on two occasions when I return home for a visit.

I'm sure we have all thought about the things we desire while we reach for sleep each night, but for an OCDite, these kinds of desires to organize or redesign or calculate or shop can plague our minds until we can no longer think about anything else. I know it sounds odd, and probably rather crazy, that outdoor patio furniture can have that much of an effect on my thoughts, but that's the way it works. And in addition, it seems that every website right now is torturing me with that seasonal wave of advertisements for outdoor spaces. This is also why I cannot go shopping without buying something (see Dad - there is a valid reason), because there is always something that can make my wardrobe a little closer to complete.

My urge to want to complete this project so that I can live my summer months in the outdoors has been so strong that Part II of Interpretations from a Compulsive Kitchen has been put on hold. How can I cook and look out my flower-box kitchen window through the orchids into the space which is now empty, just waiting to be filled with furniture and fun times?! I cannot.

So, I had to do something. And that is my advice to the OCDites of the world for this post.

Tip: Deal with the desires of your painstakingly powerful mind by taking action on a level that provides a reasonable amount of satisfaction - enough to "get you by." 

As a girl on a budget, I had to settle for an outdoor umbrella and a few mini lanterns to hang from its rungs. This, by the way, is a great idea which I saw a couple of years ago in a magazine. Hanging mini lanterns from an outdoor umbrella instantly makes the space warm and inviting, and it's inexpensive. So my backyard is now cozy enough for me for those nights when I'd rather be inspired by the tranquility of the outdoors, but sorry girls, you'll have to wait another year before my Zen den is open for cocktail hour.

Summer is coming, so let's move life outdoors! I would love to hear if any of you have recommendations of your favorite places to get quality, reasonably priced outdoor furniture and accessories and how you're decorating your spaces. Please share! All of this mental interior design is keeping me from dreaming about frolicking through fields of flowers and learning to fly.

And don't forget to check out my WEEKLY READER page for my latest article written for LOCALE Magazine!

**photos courtesy of westelm.com and potterybarn.com where I purchased these items