J. Savage Gibson

Want to live outdoors in easy, breezy style? Our all-time fave porches and patios are filled with ideas to adopt in your own little piece of alfresco

Marcie Bond has one simple rule when it comes to decorating: "Wing it." "I'm not one to take myself—or design—too seriously," she explains. So when Marcie and her husband, John, bought a Palm Beach apartment as a pied-à-terre for the four or five days a month when they visit the mainland from their home in the Bahamas, she resolved to furnish it with a delightful joie de vivre.

Psst: We used this shade of blue in our South Carolina Idea House. When choosing the ceiling color for the screened porch of our 2018 Idea House, designer Jenny Keenan stuck to tradition: piazza blue. She wanted the cottage to include a mix of classic and modern details, and no element is more time-honored than the blue porch ceiling. “We pretty much use it in all of our projects in the Lowcountry,” she says.