Creating Outdoor Rooms

Today's garden lifestyle has its roots in one of our nation's oldest cities, Charleston, South Carolina. Here is a city where the houses blend seamlessly with their piazzas and gardens, affording an enviable outdoor lifestyle. Charlestonians have long used their verandas and gardens as outdoor rooms where they relax, join others for meals and special occasions, or work in a peaceful setting.Today, family and guests gather outdoors where there are natural light, unlimited ceilings, and gardens that delight the senses. Creating Outdoor Rooms provides inspiration and practical advice for designing beautiful and comfortable outdoor rooms. Chapters are devoted to extending the home to the outdoors, selecting furniture, choosing accessories, using architectural elements and fountains, and bringing the outdoor room alive through entertaining. Beautifully illustrated with over 150 color photographs taken in Charleston's historic homes and gardens, Creating Outdoor Rooms is a guide for the celebration of life outdoors, and it will help develop a vision for your outdoor room that is individualistic and achievable.

Leeda Marting, a Southerner by birth, combined her knowledge and love of the home and garden with her passion for business by founding Charleston Gardens in 1994. The company sells garden furniture and furnishings through its popular catalog, Web site and retail store in Charleston, South Carolina. With an eye for good design, she presents inspirational ideas for creating outdoor rooms that truly extend the home.

Jacket photographs 2007 Terry Richardson

Jacket design by Debra McQuiston

Creating Outdoor Rooms shares ideas for creating comfortable, yet elegant, Southern-influenced garden rooms anywhere in the world. In her first book, Marting reveals how to use today's broad range of durable outdoor furniture and accessories to create garden rooms, verandas, and piazzas infused with the hallmark charm of one of America's most beautiful and historic cities. Creating Outdoor Rooms is superbly illustrated with over 100 color photographs featuring some of Charleston's most exquisite outdoor spaces.

Leeda Marting, a Southerner by birth, combined her knowledge and love of the home and garden with her passion for business by founding Charleston Gardens in1994. The company sells garden furniture and furnishings through its popular catalog, website and retail store in Charleston. With her eye for good design, she presents inspirational ideas for creating garden rooms that truly extend the home into the outdoors.