Your home is much larger than you think.  We typically measure the square footage within the exterior walls of our house and consider only the interior as our livable space.  But when you look beyond the walls and consider the usable land your home sits on, the size of your home practically doubles in size.

A home is a place for your family, and the function of each room is determined by how the family uses the room.  For instance, the kitchen is for everyone of every age that lives in or visits your home, while your bedroom has specific functions for a limited number of people.  The family room is for varied levels of constant interaction, while a bathroom is for solitary retreat.  It is the number of people and how they use a space that creates the identity of a room.

Rethinking Your Backyard

Think of a typical backyard deck and how it is used.  Decks tend to be accessed by public spaces from inside the home and serve as an informal entertainment area for family and guests.  The deck has flexibility of use; yesterday it was a dining room for an intimate dinner for two, today it hosts a child’s birthday party and tomorrow it will let you relax and read a book on a lazy afternoon.  In essence, your deck is an outdoor extension of your family room, and a room addition without walls.

A patio may just be a slab of concrete in your backyard, but when you add a table and chairs, lighting and a grill it becomes the second kitchen of your home.  And just like your indoor kitchen, the patio is where everyone will gather, so furnish it the way you would a kitchen and you’ve just added another room to your house.

Endless Summer?

Outdoor living in, say, Southern California makes sense because of its year-round temperate weather, but why would you invest in creating outdoor rooms that can’t be used during Midwest winters?

Let’s observe that we in Metro St. Louis have a solid 4 months of cold weather that can preclude using a deck or sunporch, which leaves 8 months when our outdoor living spaces can be a part of daily life.

But even when the temperature is chillier than you’d like, patio designs can include fireplace accessories like a fire pit or fire ring to create warmth and cozy light for cold-weather get-togethers.  Another deck design option is various sizes of heaters powered by the same type of natural gas or propane tanks used for outdoor grills.

A 4-season room is essentially a screened porch with storm windows, insulation and a heat source for colder months, and when the weather changes, it converts back to an open-air room for enjoying nature in your outdoor room.  So, for those who thrive in the great outdoors, there are endless options for an endless summer all year long.

The designers and architects at Mosby Building Arts excel at creating unique outdoor living spaces perfectly tailored to your personality and lifestyle.  We work with you to craft a master plan of desires, needs and practical solutions that will transform your yard into an extension of your home, all year long.  To explore the possibilities of outdoor living, call our office at 314.909.1800 or contact us here.

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Learn the Art of Living at CallMosby.com.

Tags: 4-season room, deck design, decks, fire pit, outdoor kitchen, outdoor living, patio design, screened porch

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 6:54 am and is filed under outdoor living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.