Outdoor Rooms; Rooms with a view

outdoor roomsRenovating an outdoor space can be a costly affair. If you want the popular trend of an outdoor chef’s kitchen, covered eating area on a natural stone patio, a fireplace and a pool, expect to spend anywhere from $100,000 to $300,000. Keep in mind, however, that if you live in a northern climate, this outdoor space will only be useful for six months which means you may still have to cook in your old and tired kitchen for the rest of the year. And on top of that, you might have to get to the patio through an inconvenient passageway and a door that is too far away from everything else.

We are currently designing a space for a family who already has a landscaped pool area. They have no desire to replace the old stone grill with a testosterone-laden steel kitchen, but would like to be able to bring dinner outside and have a better connection between the interior of the house and the pool area.

The house was built in the 1930s, is situated on a bit of a hill, and has a narrow and unused back porch that faces the pool. The porch was poorly constructed and needs to be replaced. The small and outdated kitchen is situated two rooms away, and there are no doors directly from the house onto the porch, so swimmers had to go through the front door to change or use the bathroom.

We suggested creating an outdoor room by opening the back of the house up to be included in the outdoor space. There were two rooms between the old kitchen and the porch: a dining room that was rarely used and a small sitting room.

The first thing we did was eliminate the dining room to make the kitchen larger since there are other spaces on the first floor that can and will function as a formal dining area. Then we enlarged the porch by three feet and wrapped it around the corner to make room for a small eating area as well as lounge chairs. Then we added French doors from the kitchen to the porch and pocket doors between the kitchen and the little sitting room, which also will have a small eating area. To complete the project, the porch steps that lead to the pool are being reconstructed and will be landscaped with stone landings to become a terraced sitting area that will connect the porch with the pool area.

The entire back of the house now opens up to the pool and the garden so that during the warm months, the homeowners and their guests can walk out on the porch directly from the kitchen, or can continue down to the pool (and grab a towel from the pantry closet on the way.) During the winter, or on days where the weather doesn’t cooperate, the small eating area in the side room offers an expanded window, allowing the family to enjoy a beautiful view of the grounds while basking the warmth of the great indoors.

In the end, we have created two separate, but connected, spaces-which I guess means this project is what you might call a “two-for-one” special!

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