© Daniel Bowman Ashe www.visuocreative.com for Dal-Rich Construction, Inc.

Fire pit with view of bar island and pergola

This Featured Project is a complete outdoor renovation in Weston Florida. This project included a Covered free standing wood pergola with a cooling mist irrigation system. The outdoor kitchen in this project was a one level bar design with a granite counter and stone wall finish. All of the appliances featured in this outdoor kitchen are part of the Twin Eagle line. Some other items that where part of this project included a custom TV lift with Granite and stone wall finish as well as furniture from one of the lines featured at our showroom. For more information regarding this or any other of our outdoor projects please visit our website at www.luxapatio.com where you may also shop online. You can also visit our showroom located in the Doral Design District ( 3305 NW 79 Ave Miami FL. 33122) or contact us at 305-477-5141.

Cedar Springs Landscape Group is a multiple award-winning landscape Design/build firm serving southern Ontario. To learn more about Cedar Springs visit www.cedarsprings.net. For any inquiries please contact us at 905.333.6789. We'd love to hear from you!

Leland Gebhardt

We began with a structurally sound 1950’s home. The owners sought to capture views of mountains and lake with a new second story, along with a complete rethinking of the plan. Basement walls and three fireplaces were saved, along with the main floor deck. The new second story provides a master suite, and professional home office for him. A small office for her is on the main floor, near three children’s bedrooms. The oldest daughter is in college; her room also functions as a guest bedroom. A second guest room, plus another bath, is in the lower level, along with a media/playroom and an exercise room. The original carport is down there, too, and just inside there is room for the family to remove shoes, hang up coats, and drop their stuff. The focal point of the home is the flowing living/dining/family/kitchen/terrace area. The living room may be separated via a large rolling door. Pocketing, sliding glass doors open the family and dining area to the terrace, with the original outdoor fireplace/barbeque. When slid into adjacent wall pockets, the combined opening is 28 feet wide.

Outdoor entertaining at its elegant best. A pergola designates the dining space of the patio and allows for overhead lighting and electricity. Photography by www.macdonaldphoto.com. Interior design by Marie Christine Design of NYC.

LAIR Architectural + Interior Photography

Architecture & Interior Design: David Heide Design Studio -- Photos: Susan Gilmore

As the landscape matures, plants need to be relocated and replaced in order to keep the original vision in mind and accommodate the always evolving space. As a full service company we are happy to add plants and help to redesign areas. Photo by Linda Oyama Bryan

We were contacted by a family named Pesek who lived near Memorial Drive on the West side of Houston. They lived in a stately home built in the late 1950’s. Many years back, they had contracted a local pool company to install an old lagoon-style pool, which they had since grown tired of. When they initially called us, they wanted to know if we could build them an outdoor room at the far end of the swimming pool. We scheduled a free consultation at a time convenient to them, and we drove out to their residence to take a look at the property. After a quick survey of the back yard, rear of the home, and the swimming pool, we determined that building an outdoor room as an addition to their existing landscaping design would not bring them the results they expected. The pool was visibly dated with an early “70’s” look, which not only clashed with the late 50’s style of home architecture, but guaranteed an even greater clash with any modern-style outdoor room we constructed. Luckily for the Peseks, we offered an even better landscaping plan than the one they had hoped for. We proposed the construction of a new outdoor room and an entirely new swimming pool. Both of these new structures would be built around the classical geometry of proportional right angles. This would allow a very modern design to compliment an older home, because basic geometric patterns are universal in many architectural designs used throughout history. In this case, both the swimming pool and the outdoor rooms were designed as interrelated quadrilateral forms with proportional right angles that created the illusion of lengthened distance and a sense of Classical elegance. This proved a perfect complement to a house that had originally been built as a symbolic emblem of a simpler, more rugged and absolute era. Though reminiscent of classical design and complimentary to the conservative design of the home, the interior of the outdoor room was ultra-modern in its array of comfort and convenience. The Peseks felt this would be a great place to hold birthday parties for their child. With this new outdoor room, the Peseks could take the party outside at any time of day or night, and at any time of year. We also built the structure to be fully functional as an outdoor kitchen as well as an outdoor entertainment area. There was a smoker, a refrigerator, an ice maker, and a water heater—all intended to eliminate any need to return to the house once the party began. Seating and entertainment systems were also added to provide state of the art fun for adults and children alike. We installed a flat-screen plasma TV, and we wired it for cable. The swimming pool was built between the outdoor room and the rear entrance to the house. We got rid of the old lagoon-pool design which geometrically clashed with the right angles of the house and outdoor room. We then had a completely new pool built, in the shape of a rectangle, with a rather innovative coping design. We showcased the pool with a coping that rose perpendicular to the ground out of the stone patio surface. This reinforced our blend of contemporary look with classical right angles. We saved the client an enormous amount of money on travertine by setting the coping so that it does not overhang with the tile. Because the ground between the house and the outdoor room gradually dropped in grade, we used the natural slope of the ground to create another perpendicular right angle at the end of the pool. Here, we installed a waterfall which spilled over into a heated spa. Although the spa was fed from within itself, it was built to look as though water was coming from within the pool. The ultimate result of all of this is a new sense of visual “ebb and flow,” so to speak. When Mr. Pesek sits in his couch facing his house, the earth appears to rise up first into an illuminated pool which leads the way up the steps to his home. When he sits in his spa facing the other direction, the earth rises up like a doorway to his outdoor room, where he can comfortably relax in the water while he watches TV. For more the 20 years Exterior Worlds has specialized in servicing many of Houston's fine neighborhoods.

This paver patio envelopes the pool area and is the foundation for this large outdoor kitchen and outdoor dining area. The sunken eating area creates a lovely separation between the diners and the chef. Or to keep the cook company there is plenty of room for a sitting area near the outdoor kitchen. The custom detail on the patio roof is a luxurious feel that can't be beat. The addition of pot lights and ceiling fans makes this outdoor dining room a lovely retreat any time day or night, summer or winter. The extra large wooden posts create a great masculine feel that is also very rustic. The outdoor kitchen features a wine fridge, gas grill, refrigerator and ice machine. With the stacked stone counter and an outdoor sink, this outdoor kitchen is the complete package.

The essence of Mediterranean living means living inside and out. You don't have a garden as much as much as you have a collection of rooms inside and outside of a fixed structure. Following the architecture set by the home, the exterior spaces look and feel seamless. Photo Credit: Catherine E Smith, Casa Smith Designs, LLC

Roof garden shade cabana, custom cushions, landscape lighting and party lights Photos: Peter Hurley Art

Photography: Ken Vaughn