Newest Home Feature Is the Garden Room

If you’re not already spending much of your free time gardening orentertaining, you will be, according to a recently published survey bythe International Furnishings and Design Assn

Experts polled in the report, titled “20/20: IFDA’s Vision for theFuture,” say garden rooms will be a popular home feature by 2020, part ofa new wave of decorating that expands living spaces outdoors.

Porches, sun rooms, large decks and patios will be incorporated into aliving space that brings the outdoors inside and the indoors outside,according to the designers.

Kitchens already have begun moving outdoors onto expanded decks. Hottubs are expected to become more prevalent, but swimming pools areexpected to become less popular.

A majority of those polled said that low-maintenance gardens will befeatured in most homes by 2020, with less space allotted to lawns.