There’s no doubt that Outdoor Rooms now are a component of the American Dream.

How can we be sure? Outdoor Rooms are among the options offered by luxury homebuilders.

While the most lavish Outdoor Rooms continue to be built by third-party firms specializing in that market (The Specialists Deliver), the inclusion of Outdoor Rooms in ground-up construction by homebuilders working at the higher end of the market is further confirmation that the Outdoor Room is a permanent residential lifestyle feature.

There always will be a place for decks, patios, lanais and verandas. But the Outdoor Room tops them on that list of aspirational home features.

Home buyers, after years of exposure to lavish Outdoor Rooms on television home shows and in shelter magazines, expect to find well-appointed outdoor living spaces in upscale homes. They see real-life examples and get inspiration from websites such as Houzz.com.

Much like a gourmet kitchen with commercial-grade appliances and a master bedroom with an en suite bath worthy of a Trump hotel, the Outdoor Room in certain markets is a must-have feature.

From large-scale, national builders such as Toll Brothers, to smaller-scale builders who focus on local markets, Outdoor Rooms have become a signature element for forward-thinking homebuilders catering to the upper echelons of their markets.

Let’s be clear that we are talking about true Outdoor Rooms as understood by the outdoor living industries.

We’re talking about thoughtfully designed spaces that seamlessly integrate with interior living areas. We’re talking about Outdoor Rooms with specific areas for cooking, entertaining and relaxing. We’re talking about amenities such as infinity-edge pools, multiple fire features, plus sound and lighting systems reminiscent of those found at high-end hotels and resorts.

In short, we’re talking about major investments in outdoor living.

Toll Brothers.

The amount spent on an Outdoor Room can easily run “north of $250,000,” says Tim Gehman, director of Design for Toll Brothers. The Pennsylvania-based company ranked fifth among the nation’s homebuilders in 2014, based on sales of $2.7 billion representing 4,235 closings the previous year.

Toll Brothers’ upper-end homes can sell for as much as $3 million. The amount spent on outdoor living features often is “at least 30 percent on top of what they are spending for the house,” Gehman says.

In the New England market, he says, it’s not uncommon for the buyer of a $400,000 home to spend an additional $150,000 on an Outdoor Room. “Out West, they spend a lot more,” he says. 

Those figures take into account constructing hardscapes, water and fire features, fireplaces, retaining walls, irrigation, electrical and gas utilities, roofing and pergolas. Furnishings are an additional expenditure.

Each luxury Outdoor Room constructed as part of a new home represents an opportunity for the design trade and retailers dealing in hearth equipment, outdoor kitchen gear, and furniture and accessories. Creating relationships with high-end homebuilders and designers can lead to potential sales, as home buyers often look to trusted professionals for recommendations.

For casual retailers, building a market presence that appeals to upscale clientele and a relationship with designers who specify furnishings could make a significant impact on the sale of furniture, fabrics and accessories such as rugs and art. 

Regional Differences

It’s no surprise that the areas where Toll Brothers’ Outdoor Room options are most popular – and most extravagant – are in California and the Southwest, places where the climate is most amenable to year-round outdoor living.

Florida is another market where luxury homebuilders specializing in Outdoor Rooms have set themselves apart from the competition. Christopher Burton Luxury Homes builds in Brevard County, on Central Florida’s East Coast. The area is home to Kennedy Space Center.

“These outdoor spaces are really important to us,” says Tom Davis, vice president of Business Development and Residential Design for Burton Homes. “I think we’ve been cutting edge and created a little bit of our own market.”

Burton Homes constructs from 20 to 24 homes a year, he says, with an average selling price of close to $1 million. The company has been refining its Outdoor Room philosophy over the past 10 years.

Christopher Burton Luxury Homes.

The Burton Homes website showcases features that seem in line with the state of the art in Outdoor Room design. Disappearing or folding doors on exterior walls (and sometimes on corners) create wide-open expanses. These broad openings create the sensation of a free-flowing space, with little distinction between indoors and out. It’s space to live in, relax in and entertain in.

“Most buyers enjoy going seamlessly from the inside to the outside,” Davis says. “We’re really trying to make it so they (Outdoor Rooms) are an extension of the home and the living experience. Rather than make it feel inside or outside, we try to make it one space.”

Toll Brothers’ Gehman refers to these areas as “transitional spaces.” Front porches, for decades a feature of grand as well as humble homes before falling from favor in the 1960s and ’70s, are examples of transitional spaces. They’re coming back into vogue.

“Transitional spaces where you can meet your neighbors or sit and relax have become super popular,” Gehman says. “We don’t do any elevations (designs showing the front façade) without a porch. I don’t know why they ever went away.”

Toll Brothers was already offering its customers options for refined outdoor living spaces, Gehman says, when he joined the firm some 14 years ago. Customer demand for Outdoor Rooms first made itself known on the West Coast, and gradually spread eastward. “We’re starting to see more demand” on the East Coast, he says.

During the recovery following the Great Recession, Toll Brothers has seen the Outdoor Room phenomenon “take on a life of its own,” says Kira Sterling, senior vice president and chief Marketing officer. The Outdoor Room “has become much more than it ever was. It’s on a different order of magnitude of spending.”

Consumer interest, she says, “hasn’t abated. We don’t see it reversing.”

Demand for luxury Outdoor Rooms can be found in any market and climate, even those where the summer season is appreciably shorter than in Florida or California. Gehman recently visited Colorado, where, he says, “I was surprised at the amount of outdoor living that goes on there, and how houses are planned around it.”

Planning outdoor living spaces in conjunction with indoor spaces is necessary to produce a seamless, transitional living experience. When the totality of design is considered before home construction begins, construction efficiencies can be realized. There’s also the likelihood that a more pleasing overall design can be achieved.

Flooring surfaces in areas where indoors meets outdoors require particular forethought. The best solution is to use the same flooring material throughout, which “blurs the line.”

“That’s one of the major aspects – the continuation of inside to outside,” Gehman says.

In some climates, terra cotta tile or stone flooring is traditional and appropriate. In other regions, hardwood may be preferred. “You can pick from a million different hardwoods, but you can’t put them all outside,” he says. “When you decide you want to make this blurred connection, you need to look at outside material first, and decide that’s what you want to come into your home.”

A successful Outdoor Room design process is 180 degrees from the standard home design approach, Gehman says. “You have to think exterior first; you have to think landscape, and then you think house.”

Flooring manufacturers have responded to this design consideration with new products that can span the transition zone effortlessly, he says. These products, typically ceramic tile or a cementitious material, are made to look like hardwood “and give people more options.”

Davis says Burton Homes’ customers regularly specify outdoor entertainment areas, complete with televisions and sound systems that integrate with home audio systems. Pool companies that work with the homebuilder routinely build fire features into the pools, with lighting, fountains and water jets, and flames controlled through a single unified system. 

Fire, Davis says, “really makes the atmosphere cozy and warm in the evenings.”

Florida has no shortage of warm evenings, as well as plenty of nuisance insects. Burton Homes’ solution to control both involves fine-mesh, motorized screens that retract into the headers supporting the roof over an Outdoor Room. When lowered, the screens help control solar gain during the day and keep insects at bay. This setup allows the indoor-outdoor living area to remain a seamless, barrier-free space that looks out onto pool areas.

Pools may have a traditional, Florida-style, metal-framed screen enclosure that is separate from the Outdoor Room environment, letting swimmers enjoy the water any time of day.

Solair Shade Solution’s Power Screens.

The Outdoor Room screens offer another benefit, he says. The fine mesh effectively traps 80 to 85 percent of the air, which allows Burton Homes to air condition screened Outdoor Rooms. A dedicated cooling unit handles the chore, preventing extra stress on the home’s regular HVAC system.

“Depending on the material” used for screening the Outdoor Room, Davis says, “it can be extremely efficient.”

Not so many years ago, the idea of mixing fire and water in the backyard might have been labeled a crazy notion. So would the thought of air conditioning a screened porch. But in 2015, these ideas are Outdoor Room realities and selling points for luxury homes.