outdoor
The outdoor dining room. This outdoor alfresco dining room celebrates all the attributes provided by a landscaped garden while embracing a sense of enclosure and protection from the weather. To create a sense of intimacy, walls are defined by their function. On one wall, an outdoor kitchen and built-in fireplace provides all the internal comforts outside, undercover and protected from the elements. On the other wall, built-in seating set amid a lush garden allows for respite to take in those rays of sun on a crisp spring morning. Out of shot, the space opens into the home via bifold doors. The roof appears to hover, supported by minimal supports. The design philosophy here is not to completely enclose the space but to capture garden and outdoor glimpses.
The invisible room. Creating an outdoor bathroom whereby its use is limited by the weather may not be everyone’s idea of a practical outdoor room. Instead, fling open those double doors and open up an entire wall to your garden. Here Studio 74 has created an outdoor porch that allows direct access to the bathroom inside.
The outdoor living room. You could be forgiven for thinking you were viewing a photo of a living room in a summer house, styled to reflect its location with the cool blues and whites of the ocean, when in fact, you are not inside the house at all. Rather, this photo was taken outside in a contemporary porch. The furnishings are durable outdoor-suitable materials like wicker for the seating area, durable wood and stainless steel for the table and plastic resin for the chairs. The interior designers have created the full outdoor experience with a built-in kitchen at one end and a central dining area and a place to sit at the other. Who says style has to be relegated to only the interior of the house?
The trellis effect. The architects of this contemporary porch have designed an outdoor room that has a sense of enclosure while maintaining a relationship with the outside. Laser-cut screens both block and allow sun to penetrate, creating geometric shadows. The space is minimal while also being rich in material.
The inside-outside experience. Creating an outdoor room or experiencing the feeling of being outdoors does not always mean styling an entire alfresco area as seen in previous photos. Why not, instead, open up the back of your home and utilize the internal functions such as the kitchen to enjoy outside with all the comforts of the inside. Danny Broe Architects has created this simple concept by providing bifold doors that slide to the side to open up the space. What makes the space more interesting is that the bifold doors cut through the central island kitchen bench, provide a permanent serving area and under-counter storage for the outdoor dining area.
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