Living Fabulously
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Outdoor Living should Look, Feel, Taste, Entertain and Swim Fabulously anytime day or night
Outdoor Kitchen
EAT SMART, EAT OUTDOORS AND FEEL. FABULOUS
But how do you achieve that all under the hood of the grill? you cannot possibly do this within the parameters of just the grill. To be incapsulated in this elevated quality of life outdoors with others one must think beyond the grill in the direction of an outdoor kitchen.
Success for this type of lifestyle begins inside the home with family planning, meal planning, entertaining and celebrating life’s most memorable moments with the idea of being outdoors.
Outdoor Lighting
In today’s day and age of “on the go” it is inevitable you come home at night or you may even leave so early in the morning that it too can be dark outdoors. It would only appear best suited that your residence is as well lit on the outdoors as it is indoors. The outdoor space should function smoothly and in the dark lighting is the only alternative to seeing at night.
It is proven that a well lit home having low levels of light equally balanced throughout the property makes it normally easy to see within the surroundings of the property. Outdoor lighting also allows night time vision of movement to be recognizable.
Outdoor Room
Outdoor Rooms have become a plethora of outdoor living luxury in todays home environment. A time and a destined place set outdoors to celebrate with friends and family. The fabulous lifestyle of family members interaction indoors can now be portrayed outdoors. The recent move to outdoor living, outdoor kitchens and entertaining lifestyles can be encapsulated in one Grande Outdoor room.
Many of our designs today carry through with an Outdoor featured Home addition. A place called an outdoor room in which an outdoor kitchen or culinary area is shared with the coziness of space. This unique area can be multi functional and pertain in particular to any outdoor dining or celebrating event.
Many Outdoor rooms become the connecting hub for friends and family to gather and meet outdoors. Usually adjacent to the backyard setting, pool or patio, the outdoor room is centrally connected and communicated to the main house hold.
View One of our project – Open-Air Expansion
The outdoor room is complete to be filled with sound, Tv, automation, bar and beverage, fire features, games and cozy furniture. The outdoor room is sometimes adorned with different heat sources other than the grill. A Pizza oven is a great example to have pizza outdoors while watching movies and such. The outdoor room also presents itself as a place to glorify the celebration of a rewarding life and mostly an area to indulge in endless hours spent outdoors with family.
A couple trends I see as an outdoor living fabulous designer is that the head of household both husband and wife don’t realize what could be accomplished outside in an outdoor room. It is a great way to anchor teens and their friends to consider as the favorite place to go. The outdoor room professionally designed, built and decorated is a fully independent lifestyle feature or can easily be opened up to interact with the rest of the household. The idea at hand is that it is versatile to engage in any outdoor entertaining and dining event.
Professionally designed outdoor rooms have capability for heated floors, radiant heat above, sound music, RGB LED color changing lighting and big screen movie type projectors. Grande anytime day or night amongst good weather or even when the weather is not quite as favorable outside.
The outdoor room also comes many times after the house is already built. The house is fully decorated and elements are in place. Where as the newly added outdoor room can be completed decorated and personified to the likings of both husband and wife. Many times an outdoor room addition comes along with a newly constructed office or master bedroom on the inside and the bump out outlines the outdoor space for the outdoor room.
In today’s trendy market of luxury outdoor living the Outdoor room becomes the greatest of all for connecting with the outdoors. When the weather is favorable and the kids want to go outside, this is the hub to begin with. The outdoor room equipped with todays technology can be the outdoor office space you had wished for. Safe from the elements and connected to the outdoors, it is a great addition to your home. Many times real estate decisions are chosen upon location to areas ideal for outdoor living. The fabulous lifestyle of the Outdoor room may help accelerate that feeling of living beyond the walls of your home outdoors.
Not feeling fabulous about your indoor or outdoor living space? Do you feel they are not connected? Seek professional advice, go to visual internet design sites such as HOUZZ and become inspired on how you too can feel fabulous within your newly expanded outdoor room.
Outdoor Kitchen Fabulous designer and Founder of THE OUTDOOR KITCHEN DESIGN STORE Michael Gotowala has over 24 Outdoor Kitchens in National publications such as Signature Kitchen & Bath, Casual Living, LUXE, Hearth & Home, Outdoor Home, Greenwich Girl Magazine, Landscape Contractor DBM, and hard cover book CREATIVE HOMEOWNER BEST OUTDOOR KITCHENS.
Patio
The patio or groundworks as we sometimes reference it has made the most extraordinary strides in landscape design hardscapes ever.
At first leap out of the gate was brick pavers and stayed strong for quite sometime as it was the only choice comparison to the timeless patio stone of bluestone.
Patio Furniture
Patio Furniture, Chairs, loungers and tables vibrant in colors, textures and styles adorn households, apartments and public spaces everywhere. Whatever your desire or need quaint and sturdy or oversized and comfy manufacturers from around the globe have exercised their skill set and tangible resources to make some outstanding outdoor furniture pieces for your enjoyment.
Outdoor furniture surely does elevate the quality of life with family and friends outdoors. A nice sturdy table and resort like chairs around the table most surely welcome all to a great breakfast, lunch or dinner with family and friends.
Pavers
Pavers have paved the way through all of America’s great towns and cities. Hardscapes hold together the backbone of Landscape Architecture and paver types hold the mold. There are so so many choices now from the major manufacturer players that one might need to consult a paver representative or specialist to better understand the paver selection and “why there are so many choices”.
The range is not just size and color but purpose. For instance some of the paver systems are impervious and are perfectly servant in the purpose.
Pavilion
Lifestyle Pavilions attract a plethora of Luxuries in Outdoor Living for the family to enjoy. The backyard patio isn’t getting bigger, Its the ideas within that space that are booming with enthusiasm.
Pizza Oven
Today’s hottest outdoor trends extend well beyond the curve of simply just grilling. There are so many ways to mingle conversation, food and fun outdoors.
The outdoor living design has taken food preparation and entertaining by storm. Outdoor living simply can taste FABULOUS.
Just like there are many grills, refrigerators & beverage configurations there are many styles of pizza ovens to choose from suggesting you hand off the project design, specification product list and build to an Outdoor Kitchen specialist.
Plantings
Where a plant does well and where a plant does best is entirely two different things. In fact in most cases it means the plant is located in two entirely different locations in the yard. Whether it is soil compatibility, sun exposure, wind or wetness. Plants have their own hardiness zones and “vital signs in which they thrive and flower profusely throughout their respective seasons.
Plantings can be broken down into a few segments of importance in the role it plays as part of the landscape design.
Pool
The epic swimming pool over the last 30 years has been earmarked of that being partnered with the most exclusive. If you were lucky enough to be privileged growing up with a pool as a kid that was living the life of luxury.
Pools are favored in a class of their own when it comes to the most desirable thing to have at home.
In today’s new era of wanting to be at home the swimming pool is not a luxury desire but family lifestyle as more and more of Americans are finding ways to not only have a swimming pool in their own backyard but an exclusive resort like surrounding one of which you would find when you are on vacation.
Pool Coping
Fiberglass Pools, Gunite Pools and Liner pools come in all shapes and sizes and all of them require a coping stone piece to go around the entire perimeter along the the edge of the pool.
The coping piece is usually not more than 2 ft wide x 4″ thick x 18″ deep and any variation in-between. There are typically two types of pool coping the first being the cantilever which is actually poured in place as part of the pool decking.
Pool House
In todays trending desire to spend more time outdoors, the pool house is well on its way to be redefined in such a manner to celebrate a greater quality of life with friends and family. Outdoor living and the anchoring pool house is such a great space to reinvent the happenings of family outdoors. Its a place to introduce an outdoor kitchen, tv viewing and even billiards.
The pool house for many became a safe haven for storage. Most recently the pool house and its surrounding lifestyle can attract and entertain everyone endlessly for hours. Pool houses even small in nature can attractfamily and friends simply by introducing outdoor fire features.
Power Burner
Life beyond the hood of the grill is easily assisted with a power burner. When we design our outdoor kitchens we create three concept spaces that handle food preparation, cooking and conversation.
Refrigeration
Outdoor Refrigeration is essential, convenient and required for living beyond the walls of your home fabulously. You don’t have to have a big outdoor kitchen to feel the need for outdoor refrigeration.
A small grill island with a large buffet counter with refrigeration underneath would be an ideal set up for spending endless hours outdoors with friends and family.
Shower
An elevated lifestyle shared with family and friends is no longer a luxury its a family lifestyle. Who wouldn’t want a hot rain shower when its chilly out or a cold refreshing shower when you’re done being outdoors by the pool.
We design and build fabulous lifestyles and have received accolades twice nationally for one of the top 30 Outdoor room designs and most recently top finalist for design excellence. There are two reasons we caught on and designed so respectively was the understanding of living a lifestyle that rewards the homeowner.
Sinks
How is it that the sink which is the most practical component of the kitchen is so easily overlooked when planning the outdoor kitchen? A lack of completion and short sightedness that the entire party or when the day of events comes to an end that all will be filtered through the indoor sink and wash station.
Sound
Lights, camera, action and sound outback in your own yard. What a fabulous way to share life’s most memorable calendar moments with friends and family. Outdoor living has become a plethora of outdoor luxury and often clients like to know more about sound and how they too can turn up the volume resort like. What an added value driven improvement to add a few surround speakers and link them to your bluetooth to be picked up by your song list on your iphone. Laying out by the pool and listening to your favorite songs will put you in a great mood. The design build process of outdoor living should offer more music or atleast the ability to add music at a future date.
Hi tech break throughs have made accessibility to automation, video and audio more probable and affordable than one would think. It is a great sound investment and as ling as you are not trying to automate everything under the sun it will make everyone in the household very happy. For the younger generation sound and music is definitely a priority. I can remember going to a Long Island site visit to add outdoor lighting and they had a tropical backyard not big at all but the most interesting landscape and tropical plants that would illuminate better than resort like. As I began my work and intake of the property the homeowner turned on his sound system to play jungle like sounds and omg is was the most unbelievable thing I took in. I so could see myself by the pool zoning out into the sounds of nature. What a way to take in some time at home and in good hands of the hands of the jungle. But yes sound does touch upon your senses and reaches your soul opening your mindset to see your back yard in a different point of view.
Spa
Spas or hot tubs are probably the most sought after recreation that people seek out and truly testify that they wish to have most. It definitely elevates the quality of life spent outdoors for those of you fortunate enough to experience this. Its fun, romantic and therapeutic.
Stones
When it comes to the real deal is design build the surface texture of Stone and brick always make it to the forefront. Having had the same masonry team for over thirty years I would have to say for the most part it always raised the bar of our design build projects.
We took old world materials and hand chiseled them piece by piece into today’s desire for outdoor living fabulously. Stone is timeless in design and always a part to see in the richness of the home or surroundings. If you were even lucky enough to have a stone fireplace it positioned a lot of pride and succession in home ownership.
Tile
Tile is another attribute to adorning the walls, floors and kitchens in the outdoor world. Its mixed use with stone, granite and marble adds lots of beauty. Of course these applications require the installation expertise of professionals.
Many of our most interesting and notable projects incorporate tile in backsplashes, fire features and pools. As long as the tile is frost free and rated for exterior use and adhered with the manufacturer’s recommended installation directions it will last outdoors for years.
Torches
If there is one thing in someone’s backyard that speaks volumes for itself in a resort kinda way it fire torches. The lit fires at an elevated height sporadically placed throughout the backyard turns your once backyard into the coolest backyard ever. To create such ambiance safely and securely one must have UL listed fixtures that can be mounted on light pole risers and installed in the ground via concrete to keep the pole intact. A fuel line must be equalized and brought out to each fire torch. The torch manufacturer I like to use is the Tempest Torch. The Tempest Torch’s tempered glass housing design directs the oxygen needed for combustion, increasing the flame velocity for a dramatic, spiral-like presentation of fire. Beyond its groundbreaking design, the Tempest Torch’s practicality and usability are just as impressive. The variable flame reaches a height of 17″, puts out up to 20,000 BTUs and is available in electronic ignition.
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Travertine
Travertine pavers are fantastic for pools, patios and courtyards because of the natural characteristics that Travertine offers especially its compressive strength which is more than double psi of concrete. Travertine stone is exposed to high extreme pressure and intense heat during its evolution. Travertine also is cool to the feet as it does not absorb heat like other companion stone types. It also doesn’t reflect heat either so
Travertine would source out as an ideal choice for backyard patios and pool decks. Travertine is a natural sourced stone and its color and beauty has a timeless shelf life.
Travertine also becomes a choice of merit by Architects and upscale builders as the porous divots in the stone have a habit of collecting water droplets around the pool and additionally keeps the pool patio cool throughout the day. The porous side also seems to maintain a steadier surface feel and is considered less slippery than other stone choices.
Travertine differs from other stones such as marble, granite and onyx as in the way it is formed over time in the earth. Travertine is formed in hot springs in limestone caves heavy in concentrate of calcium carbonate and as it hardens and carbon dioxide escapes it is compressed into beautiful variations of Travertine.
Outdoor Kitchen Fabulous Tip
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TV
TV The highlight of television outdoors heightens ones senses of feeling upbeat and excited. The throw of media entertainment and audio outdoors while in your own backyard simply correlates to being in a resort like oasis. Its amazing to see the visual perception of tv at night while surrounded with your friends and family. It really applauds an elevated lifestyle when watching tv outdoors. Great weather, food and tv outdoors is the recipe for feeling fabulous. When our outdoor kitchens and outdoor living spaces are designed we really like to create an area for relaxing as if you were in your own living room. The challenge that parlays into expense is that televisions are priced according to quality and brightness. All tv cabinets have to be weather resistance and moisture proof. Some of the units that are in restaurants or beach walk bars they are out in extreme sun and for the tv unit to outshine the sun they need more expensive technology than that of their indoor counterparts.
At the end of the day tv’s attract a comfort level with friends and family that all are accustomed to. Our outdoor cabinet line includes television cabinets that help prevent excess winds and debris when the television is not in use. The outdoor cabinetry also makes the upper tv area look a lot cleaner when not in use.
Here without due respect I would say the more quality tv you want the more it will cost as attributes for a better quality outdoor television that is exponentially brighter than an indoor television, weatherproof against snow, rain, wind and humidity), warrantied for outdoor use simply costs more.
Walls
As housing development encroaches into the hillsides of suburbia and commercial developers found opportune retail locations site improvements became more challenging and expensive to develop however the end result was worth while. It is so true that flat property development is never nearly visually appealing as is grade change development on the same parcel.
Wine Cooler
Outdoor living fabulously is not a luxury but more like a family movement trending to spend more quality time outdoors with loved ones and friends. Outdoor living fabulously is a total eclipse elevating the lifestyle of friends and family as they celebrate life’s most memorable moments.
All these special dates and family friendly parties circumvent around food, conversation and beverages outdoors at home. Where there is food and drink there should be a designation or outdoor kitchen in which guests feel welcome to mingle, help themselves to a beverage and enjoy the outdoors under the sun and stars. Whether its around the pool, near the outdoor kitchen or by the fire outdoor living has definitely added a plethora of outdoor.
