Creating the 'Perfect' Outdoor Room

Villa Terrazza has been approached as lead designer on a new outdoor room project for a working couple living in Sonoma. The design process at Villa Terrazza starts with the client's filling out a questionnaire, which is designed to concentrate the clients' thinking about how they wish to use their space, how they entertain, and other lifestyle questions. This is followed up by site visits, to ascertain how certain variables will affect the design. The challenge to getting maximum utilization of an outdoor space is the ability to be comfortable in it. As such, sun protection during the day, and warmth to head off the night's chill will ensure outdoor spaces get used - a lot!

This new project, promises to be an exciting one! Our client has a original '70's' house, (actually built in 1973), very solidly built, but no improvements were made to it until they moved in 3 years ago... Original, as in nothing was done to it, still even has the Harvest Gold appliances. House sits on a nice large lot, 1/2 acre. House has been recently upgraded with all new windows, doors, and trim, and lots of paint. The house has no plantings whatsoever in the backyard, and has a 6' patio along the back wall.

Client wanted to have a full outdoor room, with the following as their wish list:

• Outdoor kitchen, with a spot for their beloved Big Green Egg, as well as a modern, commercial-quality stainless steel BBQ
• Clients knew that FIRE=GATHERING, so they wanted a 'living room' type of environment, with soft lighting, and the ambience created by a roaring fireplace. They wanted a true living room, with sofa, lounge chairs, rug, and the wife wanted to have lots of greenery, to remind guests that they were still outdoors.
• The property is on a somewhat busy street, so a water feature which created a nice sound effect was high on the list
• The client also wanted the ability to sit with friends around a more informal fire element, for those times when they had a large gathering. They wished to also include a firepit as well.
• One of the clients was from the East Coast, and had once joked with a neighbor about how a hammock could never be used by them because of all the biting insects. Since there are relatively few insects except in the wet spring, a hammock was to be incorporated somewhere into the design
• A dining area to accomodate 6-8 people was adequate for this busy couple's needs - for entertaining on a smaller, more intimate scale.

With the wish list understood, the outdoor living questionnaire all filled out, we set out to start designing...