Home & Outdoor Living Show focuses on outdoor amenities

All possibilities will be explored at the 2013 Oklahoma City Home & Outdoor Living Show Friday through March 24 at State Fair Park. The show will be staged in Cox Pavilion, the Centennial Building and an outside area located between the two.

Event organizers and exhibitors promise lots of new ideas, especially for homeowners ready to greet warmer weather by spending more time outside in it.

“We've changed the name this year,” said show manager Jessica Boweak of show producer Marketplace Events. Based on an attendee survey that showed growing interest in outdoor living and patio amenities, the “Home and Garden Show” has become the “Home & Outdoor Living Show.”

“It's a name attendees told us they liked,” Boweak said.

Boweak said those “likes” are expected to translate to higher attendance than ever, topping 15,000 for this year's event.

Among the exhibitors offering ideas for money-saving, innovative home and outdoor space improvements, Jerry Ward of Ward Design Group said his firm would install a 1,600-square-foot “outdoor sanctuary.”

By trucking in soil, trees and groundcover, Ward's crew will do “four weeks worth of work in four days” to prepare the outdoor living space he has designed, with “isolated intimate spaces” for family, entertaining and personal retreat.

Combining “antique elements” with contemporary furnishings and fixtures, Ward said he hopes to create an installation that will spark ideas for himself and visitors to the show.

Among those ideas: expect outdoor bedrooms, outdoor showers, backyard kitchens and even an al fresco meditation library.