Backyard Oasis
While our clients loved their home, they were not in love with its rear outdoor space. They were confident that it had a lot of potential, and as a result, they reached out to our firm to design and craft a new entertaining space where they could host parties and family gatherings throughout most of the entire year.
Our solution was to provide a new covered porch a few steps away from, but not directly adjacent to the interior of the home. Centered on the triple bay dining room windows and the two flanking second floor bedroom windows, we built the new roof structure to ‘slide’ in between those three existing constraints. It was critical for this project to have a wood burning element within it, so we designed a substantial stone-veneered wood burning fireplace and chimney, and located it on the side to play two important roles – 1) the functional and aesthetic anchor of the outdoor living experience, and 2) an additional privacy barrier to the neighbor located on that side of the home.
Furthermore, by placing the fireplace on the side of the rear porch as opposed to its open gable end, we were able to help better connect this new tranquil entertaining space with the also newly cleared rear yard and pond where their kids and friends play lots of games and sports.
Aesthetically, it was important to our clients for us to create a space that was not only functional, but also contextual with the existing home. Therefore, we were certain to install elements such as the stone piers, pier caps, and stained wood posts and beams that were of a similar color palette and texture as the rest of the home and surrounding environment.
To help distinguish this new rear porch further and to separate the existing brick pavers from the new addition, we purposefully raised the level of the porch up six inches and installed beautiful local flagstone on its surface. And with the remaining brick pavers, we added an additional entertaining zone in front of the open end of the porch where the family can easily sit back in their comfortable Adirondack chairs, relax, and gaze up at the stars on clear evenings. Under porch, and above the fireplace rests a blue stone mantel with a large flat panel television perfect for watching sporting events throughout the year! This family has already hosted a few successful get-togethers, and we are thankful to have been a part of bringing this exciting project to reality for them and all of their guests!