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    Outdoor Design Tips

    5 foolproof tips to beautify an outdoor living space in North Texas

    Leah Shafer
    Jul 19, 2015 | 10:04 am
    Outdoor living space in North Texas
    Some well-placed lights and plants and a patterned rug help make this patio feel like an additional living room.
    Photo by Devin Miller

    Transforming backyards into additional living spaces is a growing trend in North Texas. Even the hottest summer day can turn into a pleasant evening, and the other three seasons are mild, which means your patio is a prime perch for relaxing or entertaining friends.

    Upgrading outdoor living spaces can range in investment. A higher-end renovation and finish-out could include using a professional designer and contractor to implement adding structures like cabanas, swimming pools, built-in kitchens and covered patios. A DIY project could include updates to existing structures and surfaces that homeowners can do themselves.

    We talked to Nicole Arnold, who owns a full-service Dallas interior design firm, Nicole Arnold Interiors. She’s worked with many homeowners to create cool, comfortable outdoor living spaces that work with the rest of their home’s design.

    “In a lot of cases, these outdoor retreats are visible from a main living area inside your home; therefore, make sure they look on par with the rest of your home, and, ideally, a natural extension of your interior style,” Arnold says. “Of course there’s a wide spectrum of upgrades and accouterments available to personalize your particular space, and make it aesthetically pleasing, comfortable and functional.”

    These are Arnold’s top five tips for accentuating an outdoor living space, regardless of scope or budget.

    1. What goes outside should belong outside
    Ensure what is placed outside is sustainable, particularly furnishings. Teak, cast aluminum or weather-rated wicker (actually a PVC product) hold up best. Cushions should be of Sunbrella or other outdoor-rated fabrics to prevent fading and mildew. Furniture covers are always a good idea, even when you have a covered porch. They can keep critters away as well as protect against our occasional sideways rainstorms.

    2. Make it bright
    Adequate lighting is imperative to fully enjoy evening functions. Illuminate with overhead lighting such as recessed cans in a solid ceiling or string lights in an open ceiling, as well as indirect light from outdoor-rated lamps on end tables. Lit candles can be beautiful, and a glass hurricane can help keep them that way in the breeze.

    3. Don’t forget the rug
    A foundational piece in any outdoor setting is a rug, and today they are easy to find in an array of options. Brightly colored floral or geometric prints enliven neutral-colored furniture, while natural-looking sisal designs add a quiet softness to a more organic and neutral theme. Ensure that a good outdoor rug pad is used to prevent mildew. If mildew does occur, a gentle bleach and water solution can usually be used safely to remove discoloration.

    4. Comfort is key
    Staying cool can be a challenge in our Texas heat, so things like outdoor water misters around a patio ceiling perimeter or ceiling fans can help tremendously. Depending on the direction your patio faces, there will be a time of the day (or sometimes two) that the sun will bear down, preventing you from enjoying your space. Some great solutions for that are outdoor curtains that can be drawn closed (also adding a layer of softness or a pop of color to your living area), woven wood shades or a mesh-style shade. Any of these solutions can be manual for a smaller budget or automated for more convenient use.

    5. Plants add color and texture
    Landscaping can be that final touch on your outdoor retreat’s design. Container plants, trees and flower beds add color and texture and soften the hard nature of stone patios, brick walls or wooden structures. Succulents in containers on a tabletop make great heat-tolerant additions, and the experts at your local nursery can tell you which other foliage will work best in your particular exposure.

    ---

    A version of this story originally was published on Candy’s Dirt.

    unspecified
    news/home-design

    Floral studio in booming Celina blossoms with plans for full flower shop

    Karen Chaney
    Jun 10, 2026 | 3:24 pm
    Greenologie Flower Shop
    Photo by Karen Chaney
    Greenologie Flower Shop floral designers Julie Holland (left) and Rebecca Calvert have big plans for the future.

    Tucked behind the sprawling grounds of Shades of Green, a 10-acre garden center in Celina, sits a house where Rebecca Calvert and Julie Holland often work into the wee hours creating floral arrangements for their Greenologie Flower Shop.

    Open since June 2025, Greenologie is a boutique floral design studio that offers handcrafted floral arrangements, flower delivery or pick-up, floral design workshops, and wedding and event floral design services. For the last year, Calvert and Holland have been operating from Shades of Green, by appointment only.

    But the floral business is booming in Celina - one of the fastest-growing cities in the country - and the duo has ambitious plans to transform the floral business into a traditional flower shop. They're used to putting in the long hours it will take to make it grow.

    “We flower-design a lot at nighttime,” Calvert says. “We always joke — because the lighting isn't great — that we're kind of designing in the dark. The next day we get over there, and we're like, oh, it's really, really beautiful.”

    In addition to making custom floral arrangements, Greenologie also offers flower arranging classes for the public, including the upcoming Sips & Stems: Wine Glass Flower Arranging Night, on July 15 at Valley Vines in Celina.

    Last fall, the company launched a porch decorating service called Pumpkin Porch Party, which featured multi-colored pumpkins, gourds and seasonal flowers. It was a hit, and they plan to offer the service again this year.

    “People pay you to zhuzh up their porch,” Calvert says. “We launched it last minute, and it went really well. We did about 30 porches over North Texas and it was super fun.”

    Greenologie Greenologie will offer Pumpkin Porch Party in the fall.Photo courtesy of Greenologie

    Calvert co-owns Greenologie and Shades of Green Nursery + Landscape with her husband, Jarratt Calvert. Flowers are a family business.

    Rebecca Calvert’s father, Jeff McCauley, opened Shades of Green in 1977 with a childhood friend while they were students at Texas A&M University. The first Shades of Green garden center opened in McKinney in 1988 before relocating to Frisco in 1994. In 2022, a second location opened in Celina, which is now the company’s sole Shades of Green garden center.

    Calvert and Holland have to be nocturnal florists because of their day jobs at Shades of Green.

    After graduating from Texas A&M University with a degree in communications, Calvert, a longtime Celina resident, spent nearly a decade working in corporate human resources. Following the birth of her first child, she decided to leave the corporate world and found a new way to use her HR experience through her work at Shades of Green.

    “I would say [Shades of Green] is the job I have to do, and Greenologie is the job I get to do,” Calvert says.

    Holland, the garden center manager and a Celina resident, earned a degree in agricultural services and development with a focus on horticulture at Tarleton State University. Prior to beginning her career at Shades of Green four years ago, she taught floral and horticulture classes and ran a flower shop from her classroom. Holland traces her botany bond back to her grandmother, whose flower shop she loved visiting as a young girl.

    Greenologie Flowers used in Greenologie arrangements are sourced from Trader Joe’s and from Rebecca Calvert’s Celina home garden.Photo by Karen Chaney

    Calvert says she and Holland share responsibilities as well as a similar design aesthetic.

    “We are more on the contemporary side — whimsical is a good word,” Calvert says. “We've done a few events and weddings where it was kind of copy and paste, and that's great too. But we both have the most fun whenever we can design without any constraints.”

    The owners' goal is to open their own brick-and-mortar shop in the next five years. For now, orders placed online for Greenologie can be delivered or picked up at Shades of Green, 1213 E. Sunset Blvd., Celina.

    “Greenologie will have its actual own little flower shop next to the Shades of Green storefront,” Calvert says. “It will be a traditional flower shop with gifts and a flower bar to pick your flowers from.”

    celinacelina growthflower shopfloral design
    news/home-design

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