Take It Outside: A Guide to Designing Beautiful Spaces Just Beyond Your Door: An Interior Design Book

by Mel Brasier, Garrett Magee, James DeSantis

From the hosts of Bravo's Backyard Envy comes a beautifully photographed guide to converting your outdoor space into an enviable oasis, whether you have a backyard, brownstone patio, or three-season porch.

Dubbed the "plantfluencers" by the New York Times , Mel Brasier, Garrett Magee, and James DeSantis, owners of the Manscapers landscaping company, do more than plant, mulch, and manicure a garden; they look at the space just as interior designers do a room, considering the aesthetics and the way people live in it. Now they show you how to apply familiar interior design principles to your outdoors,


Plus, you'll have information on hiring a contractor and landscaper and the specific materials and plants the Manscapers love to use in their designs. No matter how big or small your exterior space, this ultimate guide to landscape design will help you bring the comfort of the indoors outside.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Design

272 pages, Hardcover

Published December 7, 2021

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not actually a garden book. It’s more of a how-to look great for an outdoor party book.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

this has beautiful pictures and many of them as well as decent descriptions of examples of people's style preferences, but the advice on how to get started (and DON'T DO ANYTHING BEFORE YOU DO THIS!) is just too esoteric for me. I actually need someone holding my hand and getting me to my theme or providing me a personality quiz to get there rather than making me figure it out myself. I don't know! I'm a beginner outdoor gardener - tell me what to do!!
If I had used this to just look through for ideas (and I did get many wonderful ideas from it!), I would have rated it much higher, but it honestly depressed me and set me back instead of encouraging/aiding me to jump in and get going/making mistakes to figure out what I like.

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeous book that takes you through the process of personal landscape design from beginning to end. Great, usable tips but really I just want to hire them now. I bought the book before realizing they have a show that I've been catching up on. I love that they are designing for spaces that don't necessarily have perfect light or even any soil. Its refreshing to see container gardening at this level. It really shows that gardens can be for anyone.. who has the budget.

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I pulled this book off a library cart, not knowing anything about the authors, drawn in by the title alone. Turns out, they had a really good publisher and decent editor but the writing left me wondering ‘now where do I go?’ I read the first half carefully, then flipped through the last half, accepting that I wasn’t going to din what I need in this book.

[Lori Kresse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ideas for creating stunning outdoor spaces.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeous photos, lots of urbans, solid, if rudimentary, garden planning advice.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read, broken into manageable sections focusing on designing an outdoor area. Amercian based so plant suggestions may not be applicable but majority of the book is international.