Outdoor living spaces refer to an outdoor area (or space), usually a backyard, that has been renovated with patios, outdoor kitchens, outdoor fireplaces, and much more—all for enhanced outdoor living and leisure. Traditionally, this includes areas like patios and decks, but it’s come to mean a lot more. Now those features are just the foundation for more sophisticated renovations.
They’ve become quintessential to homeowners in Calgary thanks to early springs, later summers, and plenty of chinook weather throughout winter. For Edmontonians, summer air and sun are just as valuable. If you’re considering exterior renovations, you should know that outdoor living spaces are one of the hottest trends in that area in recent years, and that popularity isn’t waning any time soon. But how has an outdoor living space come to be the epitome of a luxury home?
Increase Home Value
As you can imagine, the extensive work done to a backyard can often require the expertise of a complete home renovation company or even a custom home builder, depending on what you’re going for. That kind of investment will certainly show on your next appraisal, and you can drive a harder bargain upon resale. It can also encourage buyers in your neighbourhood to keep up.
Outdoor living spaces effectively increase the habitable square footage of the home in practical terms, and are a great option to add appeal and value to your home.
Helps to Improve Your Health
An outdoor living space provides homeowners with a chance to spend some time in the open, where they can enjoy the fresh air and natural light. This can improve their mental health as it is known to relieve stress and relax the body—and there’s even some evidence that suggests it can increase the body’s resistance to infections. Other studies have shown that exposing yourself to natural light for at least 15 minutes each day can also improve your sleep patterns and mood.
So whether you’re building a space with motorized screens and privacy walls or inviting the neighbours over for backyard cocktails, staying connected to the outdoors has its benefits.
It Creates More Space For Entertaining
An outdoor living space, combined with a kitchen, provides a perfect setting for entertaining. A hose and tap are all that’s needed to convert it into a private beer garden, where guests can mingle, lounge, sit, drink, and eat outside the house. With the proper exterior renovation, you can even enjoy an audio/visual setup to watch movies or television outside. Enjoy wood burning fireplaces, overhead heaters, chef-style barbeque areas, hot-tub retreats and more!
How Does Demand for Them Increase as People Spend More Time At Home?
The number of people who are choosing to spend more time at home has significantly increased over the years, for reasons you might be able to guess. People are no longer spending most of their days at work and only coming back home to enjoy the summer evening before retiring indoors for rest or sleep. There’s been a work-from-home revolution, and backyard living spaces are looking like tantalizing places to set up your laptop for work from home.
Having an outdoor living space could be that breath of fresh air for those homeowners who do not have enough space to create separate rooms for work or play, regardless of whether it’s workday or weekend lounging.
Further, with the growing trends of home automation and sensor-based technology, homeowners may spend more time at home. For example, you can use motion sensors to turn on lights when someone enters a room, an automatic system that opens the garage door with remote control, and others. That way, you can set up your home to adapt itself to your lifestyle preferences.
Outdoor living spaces provide a solid (and potentially weatherproofed) base of operations for all sorts of technology, from barbecues to televisions. And with proximity to your Wi-Fi router, the smart home revolution can roll into your backyard. None of this is possible on a bar’s patio without first asking the manager to accommodate you.
Design & Feature Options for Outdoor Spaces
Outdoor living spaces can come with a variety of different design/feature options. It depends on what your home’s style is and what you would like to achieve from the outside. Some homeowners prefer to have areas solely dedicated for entertaining, others prefer a more casual space, while some would like their space to mimic a cafe on their patio area.
Areas For Hobbies & Games
For homeowners who do not have enough space to create separate rooms for their children to play in (like a playroom or basement), outdoor living space is the perfect solution. It offers children enough room to enjoy seated games and provides a place for air-hockey tables, ping pong tables, or even old arcade machines if there’s adequate cover. They’ll really get a kick out of playing indoor games outside, as will most adults!
Outdoor Kitchens
Backyard barbecues with family and friends are transformed when you’re sitting in an outdoor kitchen, whether you’re the pitmaster or a guest enjoying the feast. Outdoor kitchens take the grilling experience and add the core amenities found in your kitchen. Barbecues, wood fire ovens, embedded fire tables – just about anything is possible.
How Pergolas & Patio Covers Enhance Outdoor Living Spaces
Four seasons in a day is almost as much of an Edmonton phenomenon as it is a Calgary thing. For extensive patio furniture and finer things like fire tables or A/V setups, cover is essential. A little drizzle shouldn’t send you out throwing covers over everything.
Pergolas provide light cover, and they serve as a great base for vines and other climbing plants. They’re much more geared towards aesthetics than weatherproofing, for that reason, but they provide a good deal of shade at least, so you can spend hours in direct sunlight underneath one with reduced UV hazards.
On the other hand, overhead cover, possibly with full-fledged roofing, is another option and partially rainproofs your outdoor living space. You can even include skylights! With full overhead patio covering, moderately rainy days are no reason to pack it in and head inside.
Our goal is simple: to bring your dream home to life. Contact us about exterior renovations in Calgary or Edmonton and learn more about how a new outdoor living space can help your exterior property transcend “backyard-hood”, bringing nature and luxury together.
Ultimate Homes & Renovations is Calgary’s only 11-time “Renovator of the Year”. Our mission is to bring your home to life. For over 42 years, we have established ourselves as the industry’s elite team of contractors for complete home renovations in Calgary and Edmonton. Our quality craftsmanship, superior customer service and our ability to exceed expectations are how we have established ourselves as the renovator of choice for homeowners. Contact us at (403)-287-3122 (Calgary) or (780)-430-6441 (Edmonton).
