A gathering place designed for outdoor festivities and fireside chats on crisp winter nights (Photo by Sarah Mattozzi Photography)
“We decorate the front side of our homes for the holidays for our neighbors, guests and passersby to enjoy,” Greg Koehler notes, “but the back of the house is for you.” Koehler is lead designer at Outdoor Dreams, where he and his team design and build outdoor living spaces across Central Virginia.
“Whether you’re setting the scene for an outdoor celebration, offering a fresh-air escape from indoor festivities, or you simply want to see something merry and bright when you look out the back windows,” he says, “you are more likely to celebrate the season outdoors if the space is decked out for the holidays.”
Koehler recently built a patio for a home in a wooded area along Goodwyn Lake in Powhatan, creating an outdoor living space perfect for holiday entertaining. Flagstone pavers, laid in a random pattern of mottled tans and grays, extend the floor of an existing back porch. A Virginia fieldstone fireplace with bluestone caps and accents is met on both sides by a matching low wall that embraces a grill island, seating and dining space for six to 10 guests.
For the holidays, Koehler and his team dressed the fireplace in a simple evergreen wreath. Draped over the adjacent storage nooks are delicate necklaces of dried orange slices, and a pair of stockings — one deep green and one amber — hang above the left side. Juniper boughs, woven through with rustic brass bells, twinkle lights, brass candlesticks and gleaming brass deer, run along the top of the wall.
Next to the fireplace, Koehler trimmed a fresh cut fir with burnished copper ornaments and dried orange slices. The fruit doubles as a treat for local wildlife — one of Koehler’s favorite additions to an outdoor display. Under the tree, the team tucked gifts wrapped in deep green and amber plaid and tied with amber velvet ribbons, brass bells and more orange slices.
Cast-iron planters, left vacant when summer annuals died, are filled with evergreen arrangements. Plumes of pampas grass sway above pinecones nestled in blue-green juniper branches, whose hue contrasts with the cinnamon-colored undersides of glossy green magnolia leaves.
Black-and-white pillows and cozy throws make the space even more inviting. At dusk, vintage lanterns cast their warm glow over a charming, rustic scene, ready for making holiday memories.
