It is part of the lore of the Lowcountry. People learn it soon when they come here to make the home of their dreams come true. The fact is that sometime in March, we can expect to see the end of what we laugh and call winter around here. Spring blooms quickly, and by Heritage week in April, we are already enjoying what our friends up north would call summer.
If your vision includes making more than ever of your home’s capacity for outdoor enjoyment, then being ready for summer means beginning now. Patios, porches, and decks have come to be expected from a home in the South, and especially along the coastal Lowcountry. People treat them as an extension of their home, rather than a shelter in their yard. It’s time to take that lesson to heart. Our outdoor spaces have become more capable, more fully furnished, more like places where we want to spend more time.
The Comforts of Home Outdoors
The comfort you have come to expect from all the best your home has to offer can be extended outdoors, thanks to design elements readily available today. Everything from life’s landmark celebrations – birthdays, anniversaries, and graduations – to an everyday family meal goes even better and becomes even more memorable outdoors.
Control your sun exposure with the shade from a retractable awning or a variable pergola – even a motorized pergola that changes its pitch automatically as the sun progresses across the sky. We have long admired the gentle shade that pergolas provide, compared with the all-or-nothing nature of other approaches to shading the deck or patio. The variety of options available now makes a pergola next on the list for many.
The indoor-outdoor feel of a screened patio is what some folks prefer, and never before have the materials and designs for achieving this been so flexible and unobtrusive. More than ever before it is possible for your favorite room to be the one outdoors.
Far Beyond the Barbecue
The relaxation, the informal fun that comes from enjoying a meal outdoors has stepped into a new dimension. Outdoor entertaining includes no compromises in the meals you can prepare and the company you can enjoy while preparing them, thanks to the fully capable outdoor kitchen you can envision and achieve today. The evolution is complete – and there is no reason to make all the stops along the way. Kitchen ranges, sinks, and cupboards that are expressly designed for the outdoors make carrying things in and out of the house a thing of the past.
Progressing from a gas grill and a cooler to a wet bar to an outdoor room where you’ll be comfortable any time of day and where you’ll be proud to welcome your friends calls for the same kind of design and planning you would engage for any other room of the house. Just as we find with any home design process, the best beginning is a conversation. Let’s get together and talk about making the outdoors a part of your home you can enjoy whenever it calls to you. The possibilities are exciting, and the time to begin is now.
