Your outdoor spaces are a bridge between your home’s interior and the natural landscape beyond. Some of my favorite time at home is spent on a quiet spring afternoon, sitting on my deck listening to the rain hit the metal roof overhead. Whether it’s watching the sun...
Nothing compares to enjoying your log or timber home and its beautiful environment. From outdoor porches designed for relaxing to gazebos created for entertaining, the pandemic has created more desire for outdoor living spaces than ever before. Photo by Heidi Long The...
Porches add character while providing a comfortable way to enjoy the great outdoors without leaving home. You can share dinner with family and friends, relax alone, get some office work done outside, watch television, or take a nap. In short, you can enjoy all the...
Fall is a particularly wonderful season for log & timber homes. The wood takes on a special glow when the light changes from an intense summer glare to a more mellow, lower sunlight. There may be snow up on the mountain peaks, but down below the weather is ideal for outdoor activities or just enjoying the spectacular fall hues. When the trees take on an autumn glow and there’s a hint of snow in the mountains, it’s a prime time for log & timber homes.
With a panoramic view of the mountains and rolling hills, it’s no wonder that these homeowners created an outdoor living room to enjoy year-round. There are two tables for dining al fresco and plenty of comfortable seating around the fireplace.
Every year, magazines ranging from Cosmo to Consumer Reports give their lists of what’s “in” and what’s “out.” When it comes to housing, what’s in IS what’s out—outdoor living spaces, that is. As the square footage and footprints of homes continue to shrink in size (see Big Trend: Small Homes on page 16), people are finding innovative ways to maximize their living space, and the concept of the “outdoor room” is at the forefront of the movement. Log home…
The glass doors separating the great room from the porch fold back to create an enormous space for entertaining. The identical roof timbers match well with the top structure of the glass doors…
Sunbathing, dining, and relaxing with friends all take place on this spacious deck with a magnificent view of the lake and mountains. The horizontal cables on the railing keep the view wide open from indoors or while seated on the deck.
Some of my favorite time at home is spent on a quiet spring afternoon, sitting on my deck listening to the rain hit the metal roof overhead. Whether it’s watching the sun set on a long, lazy summer evening, entertaining family around an outdoor fire pit, or playing a friendly game of flag football on the lawn, our time spent outdoors is the stuff memories are made of. Many of us choose our home’s location specifically for the abundant natural beau…
Of a whopping 86 percent of U.S. households having outdoor living space, 79 percent of those spaces are frequented at least once a week, and 27 percent of homeowners use their backyards and front porches almost every day when the weather permits, according to the International Casual Furnishings Association’s (ICFA) latest home furnishings survey. In light of these statistics, it should come as no surprise that more log homes are being built and/or retrofitted with beautiful decks, o…
Maybe you dream of a tucked-away sanctuary ideal for escaping into the pages of a good book; a cozy outdoor fireplace for gathering on crisp early autumn evenings; or a festive patio that lends itself to endless entertaining. We use our outdoor spaces in so many different ways—to entertain, to celebrate, to retreat—that we should apply the same care and attention to detail to those spaces as we do when planning the home itself. Planning for Perfection The design of outdoor spaces s…
