Outdoors rooms are wonderful for extending your living space. They often function as a dining area and living room. The ambiance of surrounding plants, hummingbirds and cool breezes is refreshing and peaceful at least 3 seasons out of the year. In the winter, you can cuddle around a fire pit as long as you protect the stone underneath with a piece of tin or plywood.

For this family, the outdoor room we created is a great place to host get-togethers for their 3 active teen-age sons, their extended families and neighbors. It easily seats 20 people with 2 tables and the seat wall. Others can move throughout the area and visit on the screened in porch.

This terrace is an artistic mix of features that the homeowners, my talented crew and I developed together. Features include:

• The large upper terrace with a curved seat wall and chiseled stone cap.
• A smaller seat wall near the hose bib with an adjacent 4′ limestone stepper.
• A small area for hummingbird birdfeeders or a small ornamental tree.
• A functional “walk thru” from the carport to the upper terrace
• Below ground drainage with a series of slotted stone drain tiles to handle water that falls off the steep roof of the house and shed
• A small landing in front of the shed doors.

The terrace floor, hand-cut curved capstone and drain tiles are Sienna pattern flagstone. We cut 3 slits in each 12″ by 12″ sienna stone to make the drainage solution a unique feature rather than an eyesore.

The 2 seat walls are made of Falcon Mist Thin stone with hidden mortar. One seat wall has a curved chiseled capstone and the other an unfinished top of the Falcon Mist.

The chunky stones that edge the drain along the shed are Tennessee Split building stone. We also used them as an edge between the gravel and terrace under the screened porch.

An antique millstone was a medallion accent that we dropped into and center of the functional walk-thru. We placed a boulder beside the 4′ limestone stepper to help hold the soil that may wash onto the lower terrace in the event of a gully washer.

(click on image to see larger view)

Don’t be fooled into thinking this was all engineered ahead of time. No matter how much we plan, there are always technical considerations. There was a lot of detail work with cutting the diamond pattern which runs up to the 12″ by 18″ curved border edge and bay window at the house. Grade changes were carefully scoped out with a transom.

The hidden drainage that runs under the terrace and slotted stones is a cement channel. This allows water to run off quickly in a heavy rain. We also put a diverter on the shed roof and kick plates with rubber seals on the base of the shed doors to prevent rains from entering the tool room.

Whew! Lots of moving parts on this job!