Summer Spaces

The weather is here and so are the guests. Summers on Cape Cod are simply amazing but the crowds of people, the long waits at restaurants and the crazy traffic can get to me.

I was longing to create a backyard space I would rather spend my time in and avoid the mayhem. We are lucky enough to be boat owners and have the luxury of enjoying the Cape and Islands beaches by sea. Coming off the boat and trying to find a place to eat without a 45 minute average wait was always a challenge. Many restaurants no longer take advance reservations (post covid) and adding the traffic to it was not worth the hassle. Our backyard was mostly wooded and had a one stall outdoor garage with a covered patio area that was simply too pretty to use as a garage or storage. It’s potential literally screamed at me!

I spent a summer mulling over what I could do with that space and thought what fits best with our lifestyle. I wanted to create the outdoor space that would be fun to come home to, entertain in and most of all give me a reason NOT to go out with the crazy summer happenings on the Cape. That fall we starting building our new entertaining space. We are always entertaining, when you own a Cape house near all the beautiful beaches, everyone loves to come stay and play!

Also, most of our neighbors end up at our place on the weekends to play yard games, drink a

few adult beverages and simply avoid the crazy summer crowds. As a family, we also prefer to

be outdoors. We would much rather be outside than in even if it is just watching television.

Designing the space to keep our guests content with simply hanging here was key.

Before

After

We converted the garage into our own private pub/dining area and converted the outdoor patio to a covered porch adding an outdoor television. We cut down a lot of trees to widen the yard and created an outdoor kitchen and dining space to the patio off of our sunroom and tore the old deck and outdoor shower to create a larger new no maintenance deck adding a new outdoor shower and added a daybed swing for fun! We added a hammock just off the covered porch with fun patio lights highlighting every area. We also added lights in the trees over the hammock. We now have several separate outdoor spaces to enjoy, and all kids love the tree hammock swings. Most of the furnishings we already owned and did not know what to do with, so I came up with the most cohesive plan with what we already owned.

We landscaped adding gardens and since we lost the storage space added a pretty shed in the middle of our gardens to meet our storage needs.

Creating outdoor spaces is as fun as creating interior spaces. Pleasantries as such give us a

reason to STAY HOME and enjoy what we work so hard to pay for. Please enjoy my before and

after pics of the Cape house project provided here and take a look at some additional outdoor

spaces we have designed.

ENJOY.