Do you ever look out over your garden and think it’s all just a little too overwhelming? There are just so many green, grassy areas that it seems impossible to tackle and rather dull to view.

There’s a way to make your entire garden feel whole without resorting to a blank slate of lawn. Creating an outdoor room may be the solution.

The concept of rooms in the garden is nothing new, but how to best create such a space can be a bit baffling. With increasing housing costs and shrinking lot sizes, backyards and gardens are becoming premium living spaces. While you may think that sectioning off the outdoors will only make your precious space seem smaller, that is a misnomer. In fact, garden rooms make the yard appear larger because you can’t scan the whole landscape from one spot.

To get started, think of your families needs first. Do you dine outdoors? Is your nose buried in a book many afternoons? Is taking a nap on the hammock your idea of bliss? Are you a master of the grill?

Depending on your personality and interests, you can suspend a bed from a tree with linens draped around it as an outdoor bedroom. You can even buy an entire kitchen outfit with a cutting area, a refrigerator and the works. Whatever you can imagine for an outdoor room can be achieved, from grand spaces to intimate hideaways.

Shining example

Carol and Dan Abrahamson have created an outdoor oasis that is a fine example of how to best fashion outdoor rooms. Both have a great eye for deals, and this is most evident in the floors of their garden rooms. Bricks – most of which say something like “Buffalo Block” or “Lawrence Kansas,” highlighting their knack for salvaging – create constantly curving lines that softly section off their landscape.

On the Abrahamson’s large brick patio sits a stone table with benches for dining. A stroll leads to a garden room for sunning and reading. This space is outfitted with two Adirondack chairs perched above the yard for a magnificent view of the entire garden.

Further down a winding brick path, a secluded stone bench flanks a wooden bridge that spans the massive water garden, leading to a room with an ice cream parlor table that is set apart by a low wall of rocks, teetering on their sides like a mini Stonehenge.

The couple even created a room for their garbage cans, potting accessories and yard tools.

A plethora of personal touches distinguishes the Abrahamson’s space. They’ve devoted an entire wall to a collection of sun sculptures. And sculptural herons wade in the pond.

Labor of love

Dan laid each brick by hand.

“Dan is very handy, so he did all of the work himself. I help while the work is in process,” Carol says. “One of us has an idea, it germinates, we collect natural materials that are cheap, we finally get started, and the project evolves as we build it. There are rarely any printed plans.

“Usually visualizing something in your head and adapting to problems as you go along works. Actually, we both think that visitors like our projects because they are not like anything you have ever seen before.”

In Carol’s estimation, the best part of her garden rooms is that they give her and her husband a place to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor.

“Because our water gardens are the focus of our yard, we also enjoy the sights and sounds of flowing water and croaking frogs,” she says. “There’s always a place to escape the blazing summer suns. Our miniature schnauzer of one year certainly enjoys every part of the yard and zips across the stepping stones with much aplomb.”

You can achieve the same oasis feeling. Unify your garden rooms with color, material and curving beds. Whether you have a deck, rooftop garden, courtyard or patio, make it comfortable with a few unexpected indoor luxuries. Then invite friends and family over to enjoy your home’s bonus rooms.