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Design Ideas
Inside-Outside Living at Its Finest
These five projects bring the inside and outside together in their own unique – and beautiful – way.
From a Park City mountainside to the Savannah lowcountry, the Tennessee hills to an Oregon neighborhood, the desire to join indoor and outdoor living spaces is a designer and homeowner goal that lands on nearly every project’s must-have list, no matter the locale.
Take these five homes for example. Each is a study in how blurring the line between inside and out takes on its own form and uses its own types of doors and windows to create breezy, sunny, fresh-air experiences.
And for all their differences, each indoor-outdoor space below has the power to instantly change the feel of a home — and often the mood of the people in them — for the better.
Let’s take a closer look at each.
Views for Days from the 'Heart of the Home'
While a house set high above Park City, Utah may seem like an unusual place to include an "outdoor living room" or to throw open massive Marvin Modern Multi-Slide doors and invite the outside in, for architect Michael Upwall and project builder Gary Hill, that experience and connection is exactly what they envisioned.
"The heart of the home is that outdoor living room, and why that works so well is because of the glass windows that wrap around it," Upwall said. "Even if you're inside, you're connected to what's happening outside."
Hill concurred, describing the infinity-edge hot tub, the fireplace, the barbecue area, and the dining space, each reinforcing the question of "Are we indoors or out?" And all of that is possible, as Hill notes, because "we're able to open all these doors."
The heart of the home is that outdoor living room, and why that works so well is because of the glass windows that wrap around it."
Michael Upwall
Architect
A Window that Says 'Pull Up a Chair'
Can something as powerful as connecting with family and friends come courtesy of something as simple as a window? For designer and homeowner Carly Zuba, her Marvin Ultimate Awning Push-Out Servery window provides just that connection.
Zuba essentially planned the entire kitchen and screened porch area of her Evanston new-build home around this fun-and-functional window, creating a space that truly blurs the indoors from the outdoors.
"Whenever we have it open, it feels like I'm cooking in an outdoor kitchen," Zuba said, "which I absolutely love."
And it’s not just her and her family who adore the servery window. Guests find themselves gravitating to this connecting and conversation-friendly space.
"We spend 90 percent of our time in the kitchen," she said. “It’s the first place that my friends like to hang out."
Whenever we have it open, it feels like I'm cooking in an outdoor kitchen."
Carly Zuba
Designer, Homeowner
Joined with Nature Thanks to One Giant Door
For architect Jeff Guggenheim, designing homes in the Pacific Northwest means paying special attention to the nature — and notoriously fickle weather — that surrounds him.
"There's a handful of critical elements that you must get right [for a project to be successful]," Guggenheim said. "Natural light, natural ventilation, a connection to the surrounding landscape, and the use of natural materials that ... really exude a feeling of warmth."
And for this project in the Multnomah Falls neighborhood outside Portland, Guggenheim used one big (very big!) element to meet the needs of those critical goals: a 15-foot Marvin Modern Multi-Slide door.
Supported by a roughly 25-foot steel beam, this movable wall of glass divides the kitchen from the second-floor deck, and when fully open, pockets itself in a space of roughly five feet.
Seeing it slide open and essentially disappear, this stunning transformation underlines the project's dedication to blurring the lines between the home and the natural world — and helps the homeowners take full advantage of those (sometimes occasional, depending on the season) beautiful Oregon days.
There's a handful of critical elements that you must get right [for a project to be successful], natural light, natural ventilation, a connection to the surrounding landscape, and the use of natural materials that ... really exude a feeling of warmth."
Jeff Guggenheim
Architect
Extending the Living Space by Design
It’s an essential element of the southern experience, as ubiquitous as sweet tea and SEC football: the inclusion of porches in home designs. But for their Southern Living Idea House outside Nashville, Lake+Land residential designers Bill Holloway and Luke Sippel wanted to take the home's porches to their logical extreme: they wanted to make them into seamless living spaces.
To achieve this, Holloway and Sippel added a Marvin Ultimate Multi-Slide door to their design, joining the great room with a large, covered porch that runs nearly the entire length of the back of the home’s main floor.
We wanted to give that connection to the outside, that flexibility of space ... for us, that is an extension of the home."
Bill Holloway
Architect
Swinging Into the Out of Doors
For some architects and designers — and as shown in some of these examples — a connection to the outdoors means a sliding door. But that certainly isn’t the only way. This lowcountry Georgia home, designed by architect Guy Grassi, is a perfect case study.
While a more-than-400-year-old live oak tree dominates the landscape (and design decisions) for the front of this southern charmer outside Savannah, Georgia, the back of the home is a different story. Waterfront views and an expansive porch, patio, and deck system made connections to the natural world (and stunning eastern sunrises) a priority.
So in a nod to the home’s more traditional styling, Grassi turned to Marvin Ultimate French doors for access to the screened porches and backyard from the kitchen and living room.
Swinging open one of these more-classic-leaning doors to take in the views of nearby Lake Clara, to maybe catch a glimpse of a passing alligator, or to admire one of the area’s famed trees, there is no doubt this is indoor-outdoor living at some of its finest.
You don’t have to really make a decision to go outside. You’re right there."
Guy Grassi
Architect
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