Plenty More Space & a Landing Too! New Alfresco & Laundry Walkway

From the moment we enter your property, our design ideas are flowing. At Custom Outdoor Living, you’ll find that our decades of experience translate to bucketloads of practical and aesthetic concepts that can transform your home from the ordinary to the extraordinary – in a very short space of time. And this project in Plenty is no exception.

The owners of this large home on an unusually-shaped 1000 sq.metre corner block longed to have a better outdoor entertainment area. The existing space was cramped, angular and hardly practical. This back area of the house originally featured a blend of red brick, stucko panelling and heritage fretwork, and the patio provided little more than storage for a trolley BBQ, a large couch set, an upright gas heater, and a coffee table all vying for limited space. There were gutters and a run-off pipe that had never been properly fitted to the formal stormwater system either. It was time for change!

Glamorously designed to blend with the substantial house, this new Alfresco in Plenty provides shade, shelter, protection for the outdoor furniture, and loads of natural light. There’s plenty of everything in this new home extension in Melbourne.

Built in open-plan style, the Alfresco features gable windows up high, merbau decking, and a ceramic tile roof to match the main home. Notably, we meshed the old with the new carefully, by sourcing secondhand roof tiles, complete with characteristic moss!

Customisation in all aspects of the design is our specialty.

Structural steel beams, posts and lintels give premium support to the otherwise timber frame and trusses, and we took advantage of nearby utility connections to plumb new hot water, gas and electrical lines for the new outdoor kitchen bench, inbuilt BBQ, bar fridge, LED lighting, overhead fan and two strip heaters. We also retained the original concrete base of the former verandah, and extended the footprint using additional timber joists and bearers to minimise excavation costs and make the most of the existing infrastructure.

The surrounding intricate brick paving and sandstone retaining walls were pressure washed, and a new guttering and rainwater catchment system was installed to meet proper compliance requirements.  The 42.5 sq.metre extension features a plaster-lined ceiling, four fabulous skylights, a fire-rated kitchen wall, and built-in cabinetry with plenty of powerpoints, drawers, a sink, and ample bench space.

With double exit doors from both the kitchen meals area, and the rumpus room, the alfresco has custom-made remote-controlled electric weather protection screens to shield the kitchen window and side entries, making the space usable all year round, whilst feeling cosy but roomy all at the same time – and it has left the owners with plenty to smile about as they can now entertain in the sunshine, or out of the rain.

To value-add to the project, a 5.8 sq.metre side-of-house laundry deck was also replaced.  The exit door is now sitting pretty with a merbau deck, wire detail set amongst the new handrails, posts and boxed steps, and everything here was achieved whilst retaining the original surrounding plants and landscaping.

Find out what’s possible

Custom Outdoor Living would be delighted to arrange a professional consultation meeting with you and discuss the possibilities about how we could help transform your home’s look and feel, and give it some new spacious appeal.