With the right home renovation, you can walk to the ‘cottage’

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In an era where time is a luxury, many people are finding the long commute and the additional maintenance of owning a cottage to be less luxurious than expected. In fact, more and more people are seeking to escape in their own home after a long week at work.

Lifestyles by Barons has been creating luxurious homes for their clients over the years where the main goal is to transform indoor and outdoor spaces into escapes from the stressful everyday life.

When taking on a full home renovation project, Lifestyles by Barons strives to tie the inside of the home to the outside and vice versa. The goal is to use materials, colours and styles that join the two and then ensure that everything blends in with the surroundings.

At their “Hoover” project, the strategic design was to extend the interior living space to the outdoors for entertaining, as well as creating a backyard oasis for the homeowners to enjoy all year round.

The first step was to add a greater number of windows and doors to the back of the home and to increase the size of these openings. The result is that a once dark home that was visually cut off from the exterior, is now a home that includes a tremendous amount of natural light throughout the day and provides full panoramic views of the entire gorgeous backyard.

The second step was to ensure that the new space was functional and provided the family with various areas that met each of the family member’s individual needs and still provided a large communal space for entertaining. Off the main kitchen is a kitchenette and a powder room that doubles as a dressing room. Both of these rooms service the pool and exterior eating areas ensuring that no little wet feet trample through the main home. Outside, the backyard now boasts a large multi-level deck with defined spaces for entertaining such as a dining area, a sit-down conversation area, hot tub area, outdoor kitchen, lounge and cabana. The cabana itself has multiple uses including storage, bar area, outdoor entertainment area and encompasses a fireplace sit-down area for those cooler evenings. By placing all of the pool equipment behind the structure, the cabana has become fully functional and the machinery does not overheat the interior space, in turn, extending the pool equipment life.

In order to increase the functionality and extend the usability of the backyard throughout the seasons, Lifestyles by Barons built with materials that are largely maintenance-free solutions such as composite decking and natural stone surfaces. Enhancing the comfort of the backyard are three fully automated pergolas that, with a simple press of a button, regulate light from the sun in the summer or protect from the elements such as rain. In the fall and winter the homeowners have full access to their hot tub, which is only steps from the main kitchen garden doors and that, in the summer, overlooks the swimming pool ensuring that all guests have a full view of the majority of the backyard.

To further enhance the functionality and beauty of the new backyard spaces, custom exterior furniture was carefully selected to create the right focal points for a quiet retreat or large entertaining. Equally as important, the lighting was carefully designed to highlight specific details and create a certain mood. At night the Hoover backyard takes on a dreamy and romantic ambiance that, when combined with the outdoor sound system, can quickly transform to festive, when entertaining guests.

Forget the long stressful commutes and relax, swim, entertain, escape without leaving the comfort of your own home.

For more information, visit lifestylesbybarons.com .