As the weather warms, we will be using our outdoor spaces for family gatherings and entertaining friends and family, more and more. In this article, we dive deeper into outdoor living and finding a way to expand your home by creating new spaces for gathering, lounging, entertaining and cooking. Sometimes we can all use a little more space!
Patio Entertaining
By adding or expanding a patio space to your home you can essentially create another living space. It provides an area for outdoor dining furniture or even an outdoor living room. Change up your environment by enjoying more sunshine and fresh air. Patios are easy to maintain with regular power washing every 6–12 months, add resale value to your home, and enhance your family get-togethers. Get creative with your patio design and think outside the box! Consider shapes that will work with the lines of your yard. You can even add landscaping and planting beds for a luxurious gardenscape.
This patio creates a large outdoor dining space for family gatherings or even a casual weeknight dinner. Just a few steps from the house you can easily serve food from the kitchen or the grill.
This stepped and arched shape provides enough space to get around to the head of the table, and adds a decorative and architectural element to the space. Nearby flowerbeds add color, lushness and aroma.
Make Your Patioscape Work For You!
Your patio can just be a flat stone surface that’s open to the surrounding yard, or built low perimeter walls to make the space feel more enclosed and separate from other areas, like a nearby pool. These walls can provide a barrier for small children and pets, and even provide additional bench-style seating.
Add an outdoor fireplace to extend the use of your outdoor living space into late spring and early fall. It can also provide light, warmth and ambiance at night.
The lush gardening around this beautiful outdoor fireplace and lounge area makes the space feel romantic as well as private. See more outdoor environments by Homeline Services now part of Homesquare.
Adding outdoor lighting can let your daytime enjoyment transition into nighttime. Learn more about our home lighting and electrical services.
Take The Kitchen Outside!
Take your outdoor living to the next level with an outdoor kitchen for ultimate entertaining. No more feeling locked in the house preparing sides while everyone else is gathered around the grill. Outdoor rated appliances such as fridges, beverage centers and even outdoor TVs allow you to create a second set of living spaces outside for cooking, lounging and dining.
You can create an expansive outdoor kitchen area with a lounge area for guests to hang out while food is being prepped and served. It provides an additional space for gatherings of all kinds and memories to be made.
Add a fire element – either fireplace or firepits to the space. You can create a wonderful space that will take you into the fall.
Outdoor TV lifts allow you to put the TV away and protect it when not in use, doubles as a counter surface.
You can create a covered space over the outdoor kitchen/entertaining area so that even on rainy days you can sit at a countertop and enjoy the breeze. Water resistant TVs can also be mounted under a covered surface, like the side of the house, or in a covered outdoor area. The new outdoor rated TVs or TV light mechanisms allow you to keep everything out in the open – it’s all a matter of preference!
Outdoor fridges mean you can keep the party fully stocked with beverages! No more digging for the drink you want in a parade of coolers or melted ice bucket!
This outdoor kitchen has a counter so you never need to be far from your guests while prepping and enjoying the sunshine!
Expand Your Home To The Outdoors
Here’s a project we completed for a young family in Norwalk, CT. In this outdoor environment, our client wanted to be able to enjoy their outdoor space and water views of Long Island Sound. Wanting to provide plenty of space for their twin girls to play in the grass, a formal dining area, space for dad to grill, friends to lounge, and for the guys to watch sports, we designed and constructed this space.
An elevated U-shaped dining area to accommodate a large circular dining table, with steps down to a seating area with lounge furniture surrounded by a firepit, facing a long stretch of outdoor teak cabinets and a home for the grill and a TV lift.
For safety, uplighting was installed from the patio, along the bushes and existing stonewall and even small LED lights in the stone patio steps as well as the stairs off the back deck. The location of the kitchen area was up against a shared walkway to provide privacy.
We added access doors below the deck for storage with roll out units to place all of the furniture for winterizing when the space isn’t in use.
We planned this beautiful outdoor area early, so it would be ready for summer-time enjoyment. With comfy lounge furniture and a firepit, the space can be used well into the fall months, despite being in the northeast. Don’t think of your outdoor space as something that can only be used 3 months of the year!
It’s the perfect time to invest in your outdoor environments! To get started, contact your Homesquare Account Manager to schedule a complimentary consultation.
Katie Canfield is the founder and principal designer at Studio KC. Studio KC got its humble start in 2015 when Katie was just 23 years old. While she was freelancing with other interior designers in the NY and CT area she also became a go-to designer for local contractors and trades that needed a designer’s help for their clients whether it be for custom cabinetry drawings or plans for a gut renovation on an entire home.
Katie Canfield’s design aesthetic is eclectic and flexible. She delights in the marriage between old and new- keeping spaces approachable but still matching each client’s unique aesthetic and family narrative. Her passion for design keeps her motivated and constantly on the hunt for new trends and materials. Her broad experience includes an art history background, study at the Accademia Italiana in Florence, a stint with the renowned Manhattan firm Amanda Nisbet Design, as well as collaborations with builders and designers across the tri-state area. She’s seen it all: from gutting prewar Manhattan apartments to new construction in the ‘burbs.