Unleashing Mediterranean Charm in Your Outdoor Living Space

by Evelyn Long

Your home should feel like a relaxing getaway. Interior design is the best way to make any living space evoke the things that make you feel most at ease, like beachside vibes.

Mediterranean style is perfect for outdoor living spaces like porches, patios and decks. You’ll feel like you’re on vacation whenever you spend time around design elements that draw inspiration from Mediterranean coastlines.

What Is Mediterranean Style?

Mediterranean style is an aesthetic that pulls natural elements from coastal regions in southern Europe and combines them with timeless decor. It makes rooms feel bigger by opting for minimalist lines, natural materials and beachside details that remind people of vast coastlines and ocean waves.

It’s also a great option for outdoor living spaces because it relies on the natural world. Elements like sunshine, colors picked from the environment and relaxing vibes are always easy to integrate into spaces like porches.

Does Mediterranean Style Include Landscaping?

Mediterranean design includes landscaping opportunities because it draws so heavily on the environment for inspiration. Some homeowners might recreate the Mediterranean Sea with its 12,000 marine species by building a fish pond in their backyard. Others could add hardscapes with classic clay tiles used for roofing in the same region.

Matching your interior design with your landscaping choices gives your home visual cohesion. You’ll never wonder if your home’s aesthetic feels disjointed because your outdoor spaces reflect each other.

How to Make Your Outdoor Living Space Mediterranean

Begin your Mediterranean design project this summer with these ideas. They elevate any outdoor space into a southern European getaway without requiring an extensive budget.

Use Mediterranean Planters

If you’ve seen pictures or documentaries about the Mediterranean area, you’ve likely seen large clay pots with short necks. This iconic style comes from the region’s long history of terra cotta pottery. Use these instead of plastic plants to give your porch a naturally coastal vibe.

Your porch will take you on an international vacation if it’s full of Mediterranean plants like agapanthus blooms, rose bay petals and yarrow flowers. Just ensure they have enough sunshine and the proper amount of watering. The Mediterranean region has hot, dry summers and wet winters. Your plants may not thrive if you overwater them just because you’re used to American varieties that get rain throughout the year.

Make the Flooring Rustic

Rustic wood floorboards represent the weathered floors of places with extensive histories, like the Mediterranean region. They also suggest that many people have loved that space for years, walking there during parties and family gatherings.

Consider adding rustic floorboards over the cement or wood your porch floor already has. You could also use weathering techniques to make your existing wood appear aged if you’d rather use the existing flooring to cut costs. Scratch it with a wire brush to create a distressed appearance before sealing it with a top coat.

Rethink Your Landscaping

Outdoor living spaces always connect with the landscaping around them. People sit on their porches or lounge in California rooms to gaze at the plants they work hard to maintain. Don’t forget to revitalize your landscaping with Mediterranean inspiration.

Recreate the views of unbarred coastal sights by clearing out debris or plants blocking your view of your yard. Line your property with beachside fauna and add foliage that naturally thrives in the hot weather of southern Europe. Olive trees and Mediterranean cypresses would make your landscaping unlike anything else in your neighborhood while bringing southern Europe to your home.

Remember to prepare for the work if you need to plant a new sapling or replace a diseased tree. It’s slightly different from something like planting flowers. You’ll need to dig a hole at least 2 feet deep and 1 foot wide. The root ball should fill the hole when you place the sapling in your chosen location. Not digging deep enough will prevent your tree from forming an adequate root system.

Uplift Your Furniture

The beach doesn’t have any confined spaces. It’s full of natural light and always has a breeze. Recreate that airy, light atmosphere by replacing furniture featuring heavy materials or darker hues. If you need inspiration, use colors you’d find on the beach. White sand and the deep blues of the ocean are great places to start your design adventure.

You could also choose furniture pieces made with things that lean into your theme. Opt for wicker furniture that lets the breeze sweep through your porch. Minimalist furniture with classic colors and rounded edges allows your backyard to be the focal point while evoking coastal themes like rolling waves and warm dunes.

It’s also better not to crowd your outdoor living space with furniture. A few seats and a place to put your afternoon iced tea will make it a gathering place. However, adding couches, seating, tables, and bookshelf storage to every square inch of empty flooring will diminish the airy nature of Mediterranean spaces.

Indulge Yourself in Mosaic Art

Although the art form likely existed before the Romans became an indomitable Mediterranean force, historians credit them with making mosaic popular. They used tiny tiles to create geometric art that still exists today in many historic sites.

You could hang mosaic art on your porch by getting framed pieces from a local store. Use it to create a focal point at the base of your porch steps or on a stone slab that will become the centerpiece of your garden.

Mosaic tiles are small, so they’re perfect for new DIY enthusiasts who want an easy coastal upgrade for their outdoor living space. Find an image you want to make and line your pieces up on paper. You can transfer them to their permanent location and confidently glue them into place. The tiles are easy to chip off and replace if you need to move them around after gluing.

Add Hardscaping Details

Red clay tiles are a common construction material in southern Europe. Clay and water are widely available, so the tiles have been easy for many generations to make. Use them in your outdoor living space by adding hardscaping details to your property. They could become a stunning walkway through your backyard to a new stone statue or a water fountain you’ll add to your garden.

This is also an excellent way to add Mediterranean charm to your yard if you live in a region without much rain. Hardscaping fills empty yard space and minimizes the brush around your house that could otherwise feed a wildfire. A sidewalk, patio or tiled lounge area would make your property more Mediterranean without requiring additional plants.

The key is to never go overboard with hardscaping. Start small and expand your project if needed. A minimalist walkway will look more natural in your backyard than uprooting grass and replacing everything with stonework. You can always get to that point later if you find yourself falling more in love with Mediterranean stonework.

Incorporate a Bright Color

Mediterranean getaways have sparkling blue waters that reflect the brilliantly hued sky. Paint your porch a stunning light blue or use it as an accent shade against neutral furniture. Sky-blue pillows on a cream-colored porch couch would nod back to the geographic region that inspired your upgrades.

The bright colors could even motivate you to keep your porch clean. If the colors don’t dim with seasonal grime or hide beneath clutter, they’ll inspire you with southern European vibes year-round. It could motivate you to clean your outdoor living space as routinely as the rest of your home.

Remember Tiny Decor Additions

Filling your porch with decor turns it into an inviting space. Once you have furniture like a coffee table or shelving, your outdoor living space is ready for decorative pieces. Add earth-inspired colors and things that make you think of the beach to reinforce your design scheme.

You could prop a sand dollar on a shelf or add a faux fig tree in a corner to fill your porch with greenery. Hang gauzy curtains to visually emphasize a nearby breeze.

Stone amenities would also evoke the Mediterranean architecture that lines the ocean in southern Europe. Look for a tabletop stone firepit, add a pizza oven covered in stone or line the bottom half of your porch walls with tiles if you only have screens or windows on the top.

Swapping a porch light fixture with a brass chandelier might not seem like an extensive upgrade, but every change transforms how a space feels. Start your decor changes by noting what sticks out about your current items. Change those details for Mediterranean alternatives and you’ll quickly feel like you have a European getaway on your property.

Revitalize Your Living Space This Summer

Coastal Mediterranean regions are stunning. You don’t have to plan an international trip to enjoy them, either. Use these ideas to add Mediterranean charm to any outdoor living space.

Your home will have the coastal vibe that soothes your mind without extensive renovations, so you can feel like you’re on a European getaway just by stepping onto your back porch.

Evelyn Long is the Editor-in-Chief of Renovated Magazine, where she writes on interior design and home organization content. She is passionate about making home styling easier for all homeowners and renters by writing about home interior trends. Subscribe to renovated.com/subscribe for more posts by Evelyn!

Also read: A Guide to Mediterranean Interior Design: Styles, Colour Schemes, and Contemporary Ibiza Touches