Author Archives: admin

Ideas for an Outdoor Building to Enhance Your Home

The days are getting longer and it is time to consider exterior remodeling ideas to increase the value of your Kansas City area home.

This may be the year to create a sun room on your front porch or deck. Add screening or windows to allow fresh air and sunlight to enter while keeping out pesky bugs. This gives your house friendly curb appeal.

You can still enjoy your garden while you modernize your yard. A rebuilt and extended back patio or wood deck can offer additional room for plants, hanging pots and bird feeders.

A built-in brick or stone barbecue with a food preparation area or a copper cooking pit can add a new dimension to your patio by turning it into an outdoor kitchen.  This can be a natural extension of your dinning room or family room with the addition of a pass-through window or sliding door.

Think about adding an attractive, garden tool shed to your backyard or side yard. You may even have room for a romantic gazebo or a hot tub enclosure suitable for use all year.

No matter what plans you have for styling and designing your home’s back yard, Outdoor Environments are the experts in the Kansas City area, so contact us today if you want a perfectly-designed backyard experience

Ideas for an Outdoor Building to Enhance Your Home

outdoor living spaces

Image via Houzz

The days are getting longer and it is time to consider exterior remodeling ideas to increase the value of your Kansas City area home.

This may be the year to create a sun room on your front porch or deck. Add screening or windows to allow fresh air and sunlight to enter while keeping out pesky bugs. This gives your house friendly curb appeal.

You can still enjoy your garden while you modernize your yard. A rebuilt and extended back patio or wood deck can offer additional room for plants, hanging pots and bird feeders.

A built-in brick or stone barbecue with a food preparation area or a copper cooking pit can add a new dimension to your patio by turning it into an outdoor kitchen.  This can be a natural extension of your dinning room or family room with the addition of a pass-through window or sliding door.

Think about adding an attractive, garden tool shed to your backyard or side yard. You may even have room for a romantic gazebo or a hot tub enclosure suitable for use all year.

No matter what plans you have for styling and designing your home’s back yard, Outdoor Environments are the experts in the Kansas City area, so contact us today if you want a perfectly-designed backyard experience

 

Lighting a Deck for Safety and Beauty

outdoor deck

Image via Pinterest

To make your deck among the most beautiful decks in Kansas City you will want to make sure that you take advantage of great lighting. You will find that there is a large variety of deck lighting from which you can choose to make your deck not only look great but to also be much safer for your family as well as for visitors.

All decks in Kansas City should offer the benefits of being able to be useful after the sun goes down and with smart lighting  you can almost use your deck as if it were another room added to your home. You can enjoy eating dinner on your deck or entertaining friends and family at get togethers during the evening hours or the late night hours if your choose.

Selecting from the vast choices of deck lighting will help light up the steps to your deck so that the deck is easily and safely accessed. Lighting can also be placed along your handrails to outline your deck. You may also choose to place your deck lights in areas that you want to be focal points.

For the best in outdoor deck construction and design, be sure you talk with the experts at Outdoor Environments if you have a home in the Kansas City area.

Tips for Gardening Around a Deck

outdoor garden decks design

Image via Pinterest

Are you looking to add some color to your backyard? Some exterior remodeling ideas for your yard include planting a garden that surrounds your deck. This is a good choice if you have a small backyard, since it only takes a few easy steps to have a beautiful garden wrapped around your deck.

The first step is to take a hose and lay it around beds  you have set up for your garden. This well help your garden to curve smoothly. The next step is to put some potted plants on the beds and determine where you want each plant to go. When you have made that decision you need to take the sod out of the beds and put organic matter in the soil.

After the soil is in place and the plants are firmly in the ground, you  need to install the brick edging and lay down the cedar mulch. Some people even add limestone pavers at the bottom of the stairs to their deck.

Contact Outdoor Environments today if you want to add more color to your backyard and give it a new look that will last for ages.

Bring Peace to Your Landscape with Water Features

outdoor living space design

Image via Houzz

When you are searching for exterior remodeling ideas, peace can be attained with water features added to your landscape. Water ideas are abundant, and these ideas can depend on both the size and shape of your landscape area. You may consider a small pond with turtles, frogs and fish. Plants lining your new pond will give you the sense of being in the middle of a nature reserve, even if you reside in a major city.

Some other great ideas are waterfalls of many types, using rocks or glass as a backdrop. You may want to have a beautiful fountain in your landscape. We have even dug and formed amazing creek beds running down the midst of your yard and falling into a small pond.

Whatever water feature that you may desire for your landscape, here at Outdoor Environments we can assist you in getting that peaceful landscape. Give us a call at 913-897-2706. We do landscapes that will make the neighbors jealous.

Beautify Your Deck – and Your Diet! – with Container Herb Gardens

garden design tips

Image via stock.xchng

Those who are lucky enough to have decks in Kansas City are also able to create natural beauty and enhance their diet by growing their favorite herbs on their deck. Many herbs and veggies grow best when they are placed in containers as opposed to being placed in the ground.

Consider growing garlic, parsley, sage and even tomatoes on your deck. You will be able to move the containers around so that the plants are able to get the proper amount of sunlight or shade that they need. Container gardens are a great way to spruce of the decks in Kansas City with color and detail.

Growing herb gardens on your deck is the perfect solution if you have limited backyard space in which to grow you plant in the ground. You may find that it also makes caring for the plants easier on you when you have them on your deck.

All of the decks in Kansas CIty can be filled with everyone’s favorite herbs and vegetable that they want to enjoy freshly picked right there out their own door. You’ll love the benefits of gardening on your deck. So contact Outdoor Environments today if you want to have the most beautiful deck on your block.

Build in Benches and Secret Storage for a Comfortable Deck

deck design

Image via Outdoor Environments

Decks are great outdoor places. When arranging seating, it can be annoying to use patio sets that wither under weather and require quick replacements. For your deck you should try built-in benches.

Built-in benches offer some great benefits for outdoor living rooms and kitchens. Now, the first concern when remodeling a deck and adding seating is that it will stand out. A quick trick to use is to make the benches out of the same material as deck so that it looks like it’s original.

You can even personalize the benches with some patio cushions and even some nice throw pillows. It adds comfort for you and your guests. As a plus, if you decide to go with built-in benches that also have storage, you can have a place to store your cushions and pillows when not in use.

These benches not only provide great seating options but for larger decks, they can be used as a barrier instead of just protective rails. The cushions hide and comfort the benches when you have guests and you can preserve them from the weather by storing them when the deck isn’t in use. Seating, comfort, rails, and storage all in one.

For the best outdoor deck construction and design in Kansas City, look no further than the experts at Outdoor Environments.

Building Bridges in Your Garden

garden backyard design

Image via Pinterest

If you have painstakingly constructed a garden outside of your Kansas City home only to find that despite your efforts, it appears as dull and two dimensional, one way to add color, depth, and texture to such an outdoor space is the addition of a bridge.

In the realm of exterior remodeling ideas, bridges come across as one of the most beautiful and diverse, simply because they integrate flawlessly into any type of garden. More importantly, a flowing river is not required to merit a bridge because one can just as easily be incorporated into dry rock beds, pathways, or grass.

Incorporating and matching a bridge to other exterior remodeling ideas is not as difficult as you may think. This is because a wooden bridge can be built in a variety of styles with the use of different woods, different accents, and different stains. By the same token, a bridge with stone or metal accents can blend into most any scenery or create a stark yet beautiful contrast.

Outdoor Environments can help you to design, build, and situate your bridge in order to make it the true focal point of your garden. Please contact us at 913-897-2706 for more information.

Use Multiple Levels in Your Deck Design to Maximize Space

outdoor deck design

Image via Pinterest

Building a deck as part of your exterior remodeling project is a great way to add beauty to your yard and living space to your home.   As a homeowner, you might think you need a lot of room for a deck, but if you’re short on space, don’t worry.  A deck with multiple levels might be the solution for you.

Some of the nicest decks in Kansas City feature multiple levels.  What makes this design so popular?  Multilevel decks create architectural and visual interest while maximizing your use of both the vertical and horizontal space in your yard.  This makes them a good choice for small or sloping lots.  If your house has two or more stories, a multilevel deck provides ready access to the outdoors from all levels of the home.

Multilevel decks offer other benefits as well. They help easily define spaces for specific purposes, like lounging or dining.  Finally, a deck with multiple levels can be strategically designed to take advantage of your backyard’s microclimates and daily patterns of sunlight and shade.

For more ideas on multilevel decks in Kansas City, contact Outdoor Environments at (913) 897-2706.

The Art of Building a Shade Arbor

outdoor design

Image via Pinterest

When you are searching for exterior remodeling ideas to add interest to your home, you might want to consider the addition of a shade arbor. Shade arbors can give you both the feeling of being enclosed while staying open to nature.

You can use your shade arbor in a variety of ways.  They are a wonderful opportunity to grow plants that will vine around the exterior of the shade arbor, giving it a natural, cottage garden-style appearance. Your shade arbor could have nice benches underneath it for a relaxing spot to sit and have comfortable conversation in your yard.  You could even add a hot tub underneath it for a luxurious outdoor space.

Shade arbors can be somewhat complicated to build. Concrete footings need to be poured to hold your main posts. You will want to use a wood that resists rot and insects. The cuts on the boards need to be accurate. It is recommended to use a professional to build your shade arbor.

We at Outdoor Environments would be happy to help build a custom shade arbor for your home in Kansas City.  In addition to building shade arbors, we also build decks, gazebos, and room additions.  Contact us by calling 913-897-2706 to get your outdoor area looking the way you want it.