Get Out of the House: Create the Perfect Outdoor Space for Your Climate

Enlarge Image Image Gallery In Portland, Oregon, Janie Lowe and Ginnie Young use their walled garden year-round. The solid wall provides privacy, a windbreak, and a sense of security, and the sky views from the hot tub are dynamic. The mosaic around the hot tub is of broken-up, salvaged ceramic tile. Photo By Susan Seubert

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You can create an outdoor room that extends your season of al fresco living—wherever you live.

Northwest

Climate: Temperate and wet

Solutions:

• Six-foot walls for privacy

• Sloped deck collects rainwater

• Clay tile stays cool on hot days

When Janie Lowe and Ginnie Young bought their home in Portland, Oregon, the dining room looked toward an unappealing alley. “We wanted a hot tub and privacy—a room we could live in and a place to sleep on hot summer nights,” says Janie.

They built a clay-tiled deck off the dining area, surrounded by six-foot walls. Janie and Ginnie do earth-friendly decorative finishes through their business, Yolo Paint, so they applied their artistry to the outdoor room by using stained, sealed thinset mortar on Wonderboard over the wood-frame walls and a mosaic of broken, salvaged tile around the hot tub. The deck floor slopes slightly to a gutter, which directs rainwater to their bamboo grove.

Located on the east side of the house, the outdoor room is a sunny, warm, breeze-protected place for coffee on cool mornings, yet it’s shady and cool by evening. “We’re out here almost daily, even in winter,” says Ginnie. “When it’s cold, we sit in the hot tub and look up at the sky. On hot days, we water the plants and the tiles, and that cools the whole space. We only close the French doors to the deck in winter.” With windows open on the other end of the house there’s great summer cross-ventilation, and the awning over the doors deflects winter rain.

Midwest

Climate: Hot and cold extremes

Solutions:

• Courtyard aligns house with solar cycles

• Front of house shields courtyard from breezes and street noise

• Trellis lets in summer shade, winter sun

Architect Nathan Kipnis designed his house around a courtyard; he wanted his family’s home to function with solar cycles for daylighting, winter warmth, and summer cooling. Working with a west-facing lot in Evanston, Illinois, he devised an L-shaped plan with the street-facing wing protecting a generous, sunny, side yard. The kitchen, dining room, and family room face south onto a deck and the yard beyond.

The portion of deck adjacent to the house is protected by a trellis that’s half solid and half open, admitting sunshine in winter and providing welcome shade in summer. Nathan plans to grow Boston ivy on the trellis, which will create more summer shade and lose its leaves in winter for solar gain.

The house’s front wing shields the courtyard, making it feel like an entirely different world. The deck’s shape allows small seating groups near the house or a dining table in the extended center—a ­perfect party space.

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