How amazing has the weather been of late? This time of year always leads us to reflect on how you can successfully connect your indoor and outdoor living spaces. If budget permits the most obvious way is to continue the floor finish you use inside out on to your garden or terrace at the same level. Porcelain tiles can be perfect -there is an incredibly wide range of sizes and finishes available, often durable enough to be used outside. Advances in digital printing technology have resulted in super realistic natural finishes in these tiles. Concrete can be poured inside and out. Wood? That’s getting tricky, but again there are some amazing porcelain copies of wood flooring now. Whatever you do choose it is VITAL that the outdoor surface is slip resistant.
Ideally access to the outside via sliding doors or bi-fold will be obstruction free by sinking sliding rails into the floor to avoid trip hazards. A company local to us Maxlight are experts at providing a minimally intrusive finish in this regard.
In the UK we have to plan for the weather not always co-operating with our plans… As you can see for this project we built an outdoor kitchen area, covered with a zinc clad roof, complete with lighting and infrared patio heaters built into the roof, the BBQ is gas fed for ultimate convenience and the kitchen worksurface is suitable to use indoors and out. It’s a year round space, but undoubtedly most lovely when the sun is shining. Everything is better when the sun is shining!
Photo (c) Luke White Photography