Terraces, kitchens, fire features and shade structures that give you somewhere to actually be, rather than something to look at.
An outdoor living space earns its cost in hours used. That sounds obvious, and it is the thing most often designed away — a beautiful terrace positioned where the wind funnels, or a fire pit sited so far from the house that nobody walks out to it after October.
We plan these spaces around how a household already moves. Which door people actually use. Where the late sun lands in September. How far someone will realistically carry a tray. The result is a room without walls that gets used most of the year, not three weekends of it.
Terraces and patios
The floor of the room, and the element that has to survive everything else. Material choice is driven by how the surface behaves wet, how hot it gets in full August sun, and whether it will spall after a decade of freeze-thaw. Dimensional stone, cut flagstone and large-format pavers each behave differently, and the right answer depends on the grade and the architecture it sits against.
Outdoor kitchens
Built to take a Front Range winter, which means the plumbing and the appliance housings are detailed for drain-down rather than treated as indoor cabinetry moved outside. We plan counter runs around where people stand while someone is cooking, and keep the working side out of the prevailing wind.
Fire features
A fire feature is what extends the season. Sited well, it makes a terrace usable from March through November. Sited badly, it smokes into the seating. We resolve orientation, seat-wall geometry and gas runs at design stage, and detail the surround in the same stone vocabulary as the rest of the property.
Pergolas and shade
At altitude the sun is the harsher problem, not the heat. Overhead structure makes a west-facing terrace usable in the afternoon and gives an open lawn a sense of enclosure. Structures are sized against the house so they read as architecture rather than as an addition.
What’s included
Scope of work
- Terrace and patio construction
- Outdoor kitchen and grill surrounds
- Fire pits and outdoor fireplaces
- Seat walls and built-in seating
- Pergolas and shade structures
- Gas, water and electrical rough-in coordination