The room in between

8/14/2026

Where the house ends

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For most of the year the french window is a border: living room on this side, balcony on that. In summer that border loosens. It is left open, meals move outside, we read in the shade of the porch, we come back in only to sleep. Life slides towards the edge of the house, and the edge is almost never furnished with the same care as the interior.

Yet that is where we spend the best hours. The in-between zone, the one that is neither fully inside nor fully outside, should be thought of as a real room, with its own function and its own materials.

Materials that straddle

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The secret of a good threshold is continuity. A floor that runs on, similar inside and out, a porcelain that withstands frost and sun, an outdoor wood that speaks to the indoor one: they stretch the house visually and erase the step between the two worlds.

The furniture has to handle the double regime too. Seats that do not fear the evening damp, outdoor textiles that dry quickly, tables that stay out without spoiling. These are pieces made for the threshold, where the sun beats at noon and the dew falls at dawn.

Borderline light

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The in-between zone has a light all its own, filtered: the kind that passes through a curtain, a sunbreaker, the leaves of a plant. It is gentler than the full light of the garden and more alive than the indoor one. Governing it well, with light screening and considered shade, makes the difference between a corner you can live in and one to avoid in the hot hours.

A room in every sense

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Treating the threshold as a room means giving it the same attention: a light source for the evening, a surface to rest things on, something soft to sit on for a while, perhaps an outdoor rug that defines the space. When the strip between in and out is furnished with intent, the summer house doubles, and it does so in its most beautiful part.

Read more: Micro-outdoor: balcony, loggia and terrace as a room, even a small one and the outdoor collections of Scab Design to live the threshold with the mark of Italian design.