How to… bring some outdoors inside

My most calming room is the one painted with a-hint-of-green, a big painting of a palm and trees through the window. Now the sunshine is out, the outdoors is even more enticing: but how to bring as much of it inside, and what else can maximise this feel-good style beyond stocking up on pot-plants? 

Most of us would like more light, but if additional windows aren’t an option, a mirror opposite, or at right angles to what you already have will double the view (pick those overlooking trees, gardens or even window-boxes).

Natural textures and colours are the ticket – but don’t go beige-ly boring: love the flat near me with a wall adorned with shallow rattan baskets gathered on a sunny holiday. So easy and cheap as chips. More advanced, Rattan Man also created a ‘chandelier’ out of a delicate, shapely tree branch – it was suspended by fishing wire from the ceiling over the dining table. 

Stone or wood walls and floors can lend a delicious calm to a space. But you can cheat – with self-adhesive wood and bricks effect wallpapers from Decowall (£9.95 for 100cm x 1m). You could also try the Brewers wood effect range at Wallpaper Direct, £36.95 per 8ish metre roll. Check out also the log wallpaper in the Pedlars country pub interior and Piet Hien Eek's Scrapwood papers.

Photo via Wantist.com

Grow your own indoor living wall with Wally Woolly Pockets, £29.99 each from Amazon, or from Wantist in the US.

National Geographic do a range of photomural wallpapers for Graham Sanderson interiors. As a feature wall it could look a bit dodge but love the idea of swathing a downstairs loo or small bathroom with ‘Sunday’ – a forest of beautiful birch trees.

Paine’s Balsam Fir or Cedar incense cones, from Labour & Wait, promise to add ‘log cabin’ feel to any home. And the packaging is gorgeous. 

For further inspiration, check the Flickr group, Inspired by Nature.