- Add an outdoor kitchen
During summer days cooking can be quite a bother with smells and the heat. So, consider building your second kitchen outside, and you can even add a barbecue grill and pizza oven to make it more exotic. Outdoor kitchens are perfect places to prepare food for a lot of people for celebrations or parties, and also to prepare winter stores. To use your kitchen during bad weather, consider building a roof and using canopy walls, but to use it all year round build a stable structure which will not only keep the elements away but also the cold. - Build a dining area
One of the ways to extend your home without demolishing walls is to extend to the immediate outdoor space. Implementing the same design and colors as in the interior, you can add a porch with dining area. You can protect it from the elements with a vinyl curtain or glass folding doors, depending on your resources and conditions. The other option is to combine the newly added addition to your home with your exterior by building a new structure made of the same material. This can cost more than the first choice but will fit better with the rest of the house and prove to be more permanent. - Outdoor showers
It may seem silly, but having outdoor showers can really help during the summer when you’re sunbathing outside or have kids enjoying the big vinyl swimming pool in your backyard. If you opt for this extension, go all out and create small bathing heaven with a hot tub and a fire pit to toast marshmallows. This will be quite an attraction during winter if you decide to build walls around it and keep it warm with gas heaters, for example. In that case, for full enjoyment, consider building glass walls that you can open during the summer and close in the winter. - Turn your backyard into a swimming pool
Who wouldn’t want to enjoy the refreshing and cooling benefits of having a swimming pool? Although it may sound expensive and too much trouble, a swimming pool is actually not that complicated to build if you have enough outdoor space for it. Adding some chairs beside it and with overhead protection, like Oztech awnings, Sydney and other larger cities’ inhabitants will be able to relax during hot summer days at home and still be protected from the scorching sun or the rain. Place some plants around your pool to create a more natural look and cover the inside of your pool with patterned tiles to make it chicer. - Move your living area outside
There are more solutions on how to create an outdoor living area, but the most attractive one will certainly be to build a fireplace and arrange your outdoor furniture around it. Although fireplaces can be the last thing you want to use during the summer, they’re quite a plus in the spring and autumn months. Placing comfortable and elegant furniture in front of it will be a perfect entertaining area during the day and night, and even when the fire is out. This luxury addition will improve the character of your home and if you place it under a pergola or some other roofing solution, you can make it a go-to place when you need some relaxation or peace. - And finally
If you’re presented with an option to extend your home, don’t hesitate and start planning what and where to build. Renovating interior space is quite a hassle most of the time, and usually requires more money and can restrict the existing living place. But instead of wasting your resources on dividing rooms and demolishing walls, use the already available outdoor space and extend your living arrangements by building areas suitable to entertain, have parties, spend quality time with your family and enjoy some peace and quiet from busy everyday life.
Author: Cate Palmer