Al fresco dining in Palo Alto, CA
The recently renovated kitchen / family room of this Craftsman-style home in Palo Alto, opens onto the backyard, creating the opportunity to make the latter feel like an extension of the house.
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The owners wanted to maintain the same modern look of the interior without clashing with the more traditional exterior; their other requirements were:
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- A patio for dining near the house protected by a waterproof pergola with lateral shades, to shield them from the hot afternoon sun.
- Heaters to allow the use of the area during the colder evenings.
- A kitchen / bar area, with room for a stand-alone wood-fired pizza oven and BBQ.
- A seating area.
- A shed to store the BBQ and the pizza oven.
- A vegetable garden.
- Space for bike sheds.
- Drought tolerant planting and an olive tree.
To keep an harmonious look we used a simple palette of materials that were repeated throughout the design:
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- IPE for deck, shed, bench and the lower raised beds (vegetable garden).
- Poured-in-place concrete for the paving and the other raised beds.
- Pebbles to break the expanse of concrete slabs.
- Light colored Quartzite for the kitchen/bar countertop.
- A strip of glass mosaic, that recalls the blue house trim, along the bar cabinet and the taller raised beds.
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