A home doesn't stop at the exterior wall. When we think about site-specific design, indoor and outdoor spaces are part of the same conversation. The goal isn’t to build a house on the land - it’s to create a home that opens up to it. Whether that means sliding open a wall of glass, stepping into a sunken courtyard, or simply watching light filter across a room, we’re always looking for ways to connect the indoors and the outdoors in a meaningful way.
Starting with the Site:
For us, the way a home opens to its surroundings starts with understanding the site itself. We’re always looking for natural opportunities: a clearing that could become a patio, a cluster of trees that could shade a deck, or a quiet corner that could be a small retreat off a kitchen. These features help shape where outdoor living makes the most sense - and how to make it feel like an intentional part of the home, not just leftover space around it.
Creating Flow – Inside Out
One of the most important design strategies for indoor-outdoor living is creating a strong visual and physical flow. That often means generous openings - sliders, lift-and-slide doors, or folding panels that erase boundaries when the weather’s right. But it’s not just about big doors. It’s about how spaces relate: how a kitchen connects to a grilling area, how a hallway aligns with a view, how you move from a quiet corner inside to a quiet corner outside.
We also frequently use oversized lightwells to bring daylight deep into lower levels. It’s a way to connect spaces that are typically buried - like basements - to the outdoors. Lightwells let us pull in natural light from multiple directions, and when designed carefully, they can feel more like small sunken courtyards than utilitarian cutouts
"These aren’t extras. They’re opportunities to live more closely connected to a place, and to design spaces that feel open, calm, and rooted in their environment."
Framing Views, Not Just Walls:
Framing a view is just as important as locating a wall. Whether it’s a view of the backyard, a single sculptural tree, or the evening sky, these framed moments add depth and a sense of orientation. One simple but powerful move we make regularly is placing glass at both ends of a room or hallway. This helps draw your eye through the space, floods it with light from multiple directions, and makes even compact rooms feel more expansive.
Shelter and Comfort Outdoors:
In the Midwest, we design for seasons - and bugs. Creating usable outdoor spaces means planning for both sun and shade, and heat and cold. Roof overhangs, pergolas, and outdoor fireplaces are part of the toolkit, but so are more flexible elements like retractable screens. These allow a patio or porch to feel wide open when the conditions are right, while still offering the option to screen it in when mosquitoes crash the party.
Comfort also means choosing durable materials and thoughtful detailing. Outdoor spaces should age gracefully and require minimal upkeep, so they’re a joy to use, not a chore to maintain.
Material Continuity:
We’re often thinking about how materials can extend from the inside out - not for the sake of matching, but to create cohesion. We might carry a wood ceiling from the interior to an exterior soffit, or run a wall material through a large opening to visually tie the spaces together. Vaulted rooflines, beams, and structural elements can continue outside visually, anchoring the home to its surroundings and creating a rhythm that flows between indoors and out.
It’s not about blurring the boundary in a literal sense - it’s about designing so the transition feels natural, intuitive, and grounded in the site.
Designing for Experience
For us, indoor-outdoor living is about expanding the way you experience your home. It’s the feeling of walking barefoot from the kitchen to the garden. It’s a basement family room that doesn’t feel like a basement at all, because it’s lit from two sides with a view of greenery. It’s hearing the rain while sitting under cover, or enjoying a bug-free summer dinner thanks to a screen that quietly disappears when you don’t need it.
These aren’t extras. They’re opportunities to live more closely connected to a place, and to design spaces that feel open, calm, and rooted in their environment.
