Why Does My San Diego Property Need An Outdoor Room?

Traditionally, the yard space of an American home is seen more as a decorative accouterment to the home rather than a space to be put to use. Outside of pool owners and dedicated gardeners, most homeowners rarely spend much time in the outdoor spaces of their property, even in sunny San Diego. After all, what’s out there besides a patio and a patch of grass?

What is really missing here is a little bit of imagination. Your property’s outdoor living space can provide as much utility to your home as a living room, dining room, or any other room you’d find indoors. All that’s needed is to take your home’s interior design and extend it outwards to create the outdoor room!

What Is An Outdoor Room?

An outdoor room is a designated, unenclosed or secluded space outside your home that incorporates many of the amenities you’d typically find in an indoor room. Outdoor rooms let you experience the benefits of getting out of the house while still providing the creature comforts and entertainment options you’d get while inside.

The design of your outdoor room can match the style of your home, the rest of your landscape, and the general theme of your lifestyle. Each room is different and unique – whether it be a small, open platform with comfortable seating you created to enjoy the sunset or a decked-out entertainment space. They can be open-air, yet private or  complete with a full roof to shelter you from the elements.

Much like their indoor counterparts, outdoor rooms are typically specialized by their purpose. Your new outdoor environment can serve as a second living room, an entertainment area for parties and engagements, a kitchen, or whatever else your imagination can conjure up. Here are some of the most common outdoor rooms our clients have requested over the years:

Welcoming Entryway Courtyards

You only get one chance to make a first impression, which is why the entryway courtyard is the most expedient option to transform your home and help even smaller spaces create an outsized impact on your guests. Entryways range from expansive porches to secluded, shaded alcoves that provide guests with respite from the hot summer sun or cold winter winds.

The entryway courtyard can work in conjunction with the rest of the landscape to draw the viewer’s attention towards the entryway to the property, creating a sense of the home beckoning or welcoming the guest towards it. The space can make use of a variety of materials and features, like polished river stones and fountains, in conjunction with trees and other greenery to enhance the sensation of peace and tranquility and provide an aesthetic continuance or break from the rest of your home.

Outdoor Kitchens

While the trusty barbeque has been a staple of the American lifestyle for generations, the typical homeowner has been limited in what they can prepare and cook outside. With the introduction of an outdoor kitchen, these limitations disappear, allowing aspiring chefs to create a full menu for family and friends to enjoy without needing to run inside to check on their other dishes constantly.

The basic elements of an outdoor kitchen are a hardscape counter space with an in-built barbeque that allows cooks to prepare and serve their food without needing to transport it from the kitchen. The options for expansion are limitless, with some dedicated chefs incorporating refrigerators, wine coolers, brickwork pizza ovens, spice racks, and even evo woks to facilitate their open-air cooking. 

Those gifted with a green thumb and who enjoy incorporating farm-to-table elements into their cooking style can utilize raised beds to house homegrown veggies and herbs. These beds serve a dual purpose, providing both fresh produce and a unique aesthetic benefit with stylized hardscape and a verdant splash of color.

Entertainment Areas

Thanks to the large, open spaces they provide, yards are usually the go-to spaces to hold larger parties. However, most households aren’t equipped to handle the influx of guests, which means slapped-together DIY solutions are needed to get everyone seated and relatively comfortable.

Rather than opting for the usual motley assortment of mismatching folding chairs and tables, some homeowners opt instead to create a dedicated area for entertaining in their yard space. In addition to more permanent and aesthetic seating options, the outdoor entertainment room optimizes comfort for guests in its construction. Common elements include fixtures like pergolas and shades to provide shelter from the harsh summer sun or provide warmth during colder nights with fire features and heaters.

Garden View Relaxation Space

Many prospective homeowners dream of having an expansive and thriving garden and are let down when they discover that every available property has the same cookie-cutter, mow-and-blow yard space. This is where landscaping miracle workers like Torrey Pines Landscape Company come into play – they won’t just create you the landscape of your dreams. They’ll also build you a dedicated room to enjoy it from.

Garden rooms tend to be more open, utilizing simple outdoor seating arrangements that are strategically placed in one of the focal points of the landscape. The room is bordered by retaining walls and raised beds filled with cut flower plantings for floral arrangements that work together to create a unified aesthetic to match the look and style of your home. These spaces are perfect for enjoying a morning cup of coffee, a light afternoon lunch, or an evening cocktail while watching the sun dip below the horizon.

Pool Room Feel

The in-ground pool is a staple of many southern California single-family homes, but the space is usually isolated and poorly integrated into the surrounding yard space. The outdoor pool room provides aesthetic congruence and continuity with the entirety of the yard’s design despite the area itself giving pool goers the sensation of being in an indoor environment, not unlike a high-class resort.

The ultimate use of the pool room is to make homeowners and guests as comfortable in their watery play area as possible. Pool rooms incorporate vertical elements like pergolas and columns in conjunction with shades to help keep cool during the long summer days. Seating arrangements, either bought or constructed, are essential to the pool room, letting even the non-swimmers enjoy their time by the water.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the types of rooms we have designed for our clients. Torrey Pines Landscape Company’s specialty is making your dream garden a reality, so your imagination is the only limitation on your options when creating your outdoor room.