If you thought your house was bounded by four walls, think again. The landscape of home includes not only your house but, yes, your landscape. That's the premise that underlies "Outside the Not So Big House" (Timber, 2006), a new book by landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy and the mother of the "Not So Big" movement, architect Sarah Susanka.

"We wanted to create a book that talked about home in a new way," explains Messervy, a Vermont-based designer known for creating gardens that reflect her clients' own inward, personal journeys. (One of her best known public works is the Toronto Music Garden, created in collaboration with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the City of Toronto.) "Home and landscape should be integrated, because it is the two together that create the sense of home."

Talk about a big design challenge.

"Outside can be designed like the inside," Messery says. "What stops people is that they are afraid. We want to make them comfortable dealing with the outside as well as the inside. We are going to give them some tools for dealing with the outside."

Here are some tips from Messervy on how to go about making that seamless weld between house and landscape.

DETAILS: CRAFTING ELEMENTS OF NATURE.

1. Consistency. "You want to craft the outside of your home as you do the inside. By echoing forms and patterns throughout the space you bring consistency to the whole." For example, incorporating natural materials, such as a local stone, connects the home with its broader landscape. These materials can be used repeatedly throughout the interior and exterior for features such as fireplaces and patios.

2. Line it up. Center an axial point in a home, such as a hallway, with a feature, such as a pathway, to extend the walkway into the landscape. This will draw you outward toward the landscape.

Messervy: "Continuing the direction of an interior feature, like a hallway, by lining it up with a path outside is a nice, easy way of bringing your outdoors in."

SITE: EMBRACE THE HABITAT OF HOME.

1. Play up the corners. "Erode" the solidity of corners and draw the outdoors in by wrapping a bank of windows around the corners of a home. Encourage lingering by placing a bench with views into the surrounding landscape.

Messervy: "Corners are cozy; it's the booth in the bar everyone wants. A corner creates an arm you can nestle into. Extend the presence of home into the yard by putting a bench in a corner. You get a more stretched view of the yard that you inhabit (from a corner angle)."

Even better, Messervy says, is to plant a weeping tree in a corner of the yard and set the bench beneath it. "It starts to make the movement in the garden more dynamic and animates your back yard."

2. Borrow the landscape. Boring vista? Says Messervy: "Borrow the view of a neighbor's tree by planting a similar one in your own yard to mirror it."

Extend the apparent size of your back yard. Plant trees and shrubs that provide privacy from your immediate neighbor, without blocking the view beyond.

3. Create landscapes that embrace home. Soften transitions. "You can put a number of layers of [plant] material in your yard to create depth even in a relatively shallow space to hide a fence." For homes situated on level land, add features such as walls and tall plantings around the house to soften the transition from home to land for a pleasing, natural look.* FLOW: COMPOSE A JOURNEY.

FLOW: COMPOSE A JOURNEY.

1. An integrated journey. Every home and landscape can be composed of one or more journeys. A carefully choreographed journey links the inside to out, offering generous views from both inside the home and along the pathways of a garden. Offer mental and physical cues such as a gateway to signify the start or end of a journey. Says Messervy: "Decide what it is that you want your feet and eyes to go to along the way and provide cues," like recurring glimpses of the garden through various windows or the sound of a fountain whose water music engages your attention and leads you to its source.

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