Despite the frequently cloudy and drizzly weather, you’d be hard pressed to find a part of the country that’s more beautiful or wonderfully temperate than the Seattle area. Our proximity to the Puget Sound and the Pacific moderates the local weather, making severe heat waves or extreme cold snaps rare. We’re also blessed with natural beauty that makes most other parts of the nation jealous.
All this means homeowners rightfully want to maximize their outdoor time and make use of their home’s outdoor spaces as much as possible. In short, the whole concept of indoor-outdoor living is one that feels like it was designed with Seattle in mind.
If you’ve researched indoor-outdoor design, want to learn more about it or are ready to apply indoor-outdoor design principles to your home, Procraft Windows is the local Seattle company to call.
Maximizing Your Entertaining Areas with Bi-Fold Doors, Stacking Sliding Doors and Extended Openings
The fundamental feature underlying indoor-outdoor living design is a freedom from the walls that separate your living areas from the outdoors. Achieving that goal usually involves replacing long walls with bifold doors, stacking sliding doors, French doors and other window and door solutions that allow for extended openings or visibility outside.
When there’s nothing separating your living room and your backyard and there are consistent design elements inside and outside it really starts feeling like one big entertaining area.
Natural, Easy Flow in and Out
Creating a natural flow that seamlessly unifies your indoor entertaining area and your backyard patio requires a bit more than the replacement of walls with bi-fold doors, stacking door, sliding doors or French doors – it also requires a unified design.
Design elements don’t have to be duplicate, but they should at least be complementary. Using similar styles, colors and designs on flooring, furniture, lighting fixtures, fans, ceiling ornamentation and furniture is the best way to make your indoor entertainment area and outdoor entertainment area feel like one big connected indoor/outdoor room.
Increase Home Value
There hasn’t been an abundance of analysis on the impact indoor/outdoor living modifications have on home valuation – yet. Early evidence suggests homes optimized for indoor/outdoor living are rapidly growing in popularity, especially on the West Coast. Floor to ceiling glass panels consisting of recessed sliding doors that stack and disappear into walls are especially popular from a resale perspective.
Although there aren’t many hard ROI estimates for a comprehensive indoor-outdoor living renovation, there are documented average ROIs for some of the home improvement elements an indoor/outdoor living design often incorporates:
Refinishing or repairing an existing patio can deliver a 500 percent ROI
The addition of an outdoor kitchen has the potential to provide a 100 to 200 percent ROI
A new wood deck has the potential for a roughly 82 percent ROI (A $1,500 refurbishment or repair could potentially return 600 percent)
A new outdoor firepit has an ROI of about 80 percent
Extended roof overhangs supposedly only have about a 50 percent ROI on average, but no studies have been done on an overhang plus the addition other indoor/outdoor design elements
Improve Your Home’s View and Flow of Fresh Air
While having an eye towards valuation is never a bad idea when you’re considering major renovation or home improvement, it’s important not to lose sight of the real benefit – a more comfortable, joyful home. Natural light makes people feel better, and provides some significant documented health benefits:
Vitamin D, which is absorbed from sunlight through the skin, is an important nutrient that helps stave off bone loss and reduces the risk for things like heart disease, weight gain and some ailments
Natural light helps stave off seasonal depression, which is a risk during the sometimes-cloudy stretches we experience in Seattle
Exposure to natural light during the day helps maintain a healthy sleep cycle
Some people – not all – do experience an elevated stress response after prolonged exposure to fluorescent lighting
Reliance on artificial light all day every day can also increase the risk of eyestrain and migraines
Current homeowners and future buyers alike covet natural light – it’s something many people look for when shopping for a new home. Indoor-outdoor living features are probably the most efficient way to flood your home with those prized rays of sunshine.
Find Out More About Indoor/Outdoor Living Modifications
If you want to find out about your indoor/outdoor living options or want to learn more about the process and the price of potential design solutions, don’t hesitate to call the experts at Procraft Windows. We’ve already established ourselves as Seattle’s premier window and home modification experts in the indoor-outdoor living field, and we’d love to talk to you about transforming your living spaces to bring the outside in.
Give us a call at 260.361.5121 to schedule your free in-home design session.
