Ultimate Outdoor Living Room

The Plan

Sunset's Ultimate Outdoor Living Room showcases fresh ideas for transforming decks and patios into stylish destinations to dine, entertain, relax, and play.

Scale Model

Hindesign, the designer for this project, built this fun scale model of the Ultimate Outdoor Living Room that starts to bring all the ideas to life. Decking will be provided by Trex. Pavers by Belgard. Fabric panels by Sunbrella. All paint finishes by Benjamin Moore. Outdoor furniture from Orchard's Home by Sunset Collection. Outdoor shower from Toto. House Arc by Bellomo Architects, and plants from DIG Gardens.

Construction is about to start on our Ultimate Outdoor Living Room!

In just six weeks, we'll transform an asphalt patch of our parking lot into this dream backyard. This incredible 3D rendering from Trex gives us an idea what this amazing space will eventually look like.

Watch us build!

Day one of construction. In just a few weeks, we'll transform this blank patch of asphalt into our Ultimate Outdoor Living Room.

Here comes the Trex

We'll be showcasing the Trex Transcend product, deck boards that won't rot, warp, crack or splinter.

Belgard patio and landscape walls

Belgard Hardscapes is providing paving material for the circle patio and firepit, as well as product for the landscape walls.

High performance Trex steel framing

The foundation for the deck is being built with Trex Elevations steel deck framing. The low-maintenance, galvanized steel won't sag, rot, or warp.

The ultimate outdoor shower

Every dream backyard should have an outdoor shower! Will and Steve model where our ultimate outdoor shower will be, under the protective cover of a heritage redwood. We will feature a Toto rainhead, with shower walls made of live succulents.

Work begins on the House Arc

The modular House Arc will be built off-site and trucked into the exhibit. Framing is now underway on the compact 18' by 9' house.

Building the entry hall

With the deck framing almost complete, our deck guys Pedro and Will start to construct the entry hall to the Ultimate Outdoor Living Room. To create the sense of an interior space, the hallway will feature a mural of a living room, painted with a vibrant palette of Benjamin Moore Paints.

The beams are up

Will and Pedro finished installing the structural beams for the hallway, just in time for our first framing inspection. Sunset's heritage redwoods form a beautiful backdrop for our Ultimate Outdoor Living Room.

The ultimate curved couch

One of themany highlights of our Ultimate Outdoor Living Room is a roomy curved couchtopped with colorful Sunbrella cushions and overlooking a Belgard firepit. Here, Will finishes up framing the couch just before the Trex oven arrives to heat and bend the deck the boards. Stay tuned, this is going to be fun!

Finishing the framing

Will is in a race to finish framing the couch before the Trex crew arrives to start laying the deckboards. The curve of the couch makes it one of the more challenging jobs in constructing our Ultimate Outdoor Living Room.

Under the bar, behind the couch

Behind thecouch at the deck level, we’ll feature an outdoor bar with sink. This where Harley and Seth, our Trex experts, are shown installing Trex Transcend boards, in Vintage Lantern.

Laying the deck

While the board bending experts figure out the couch, the rest of the Trex crew start laying deck boards. The are fast!

Board bending oven

The Trex Custom Curve oven heats up 8’ deck boards to soften them for bending. In just under an hour, the boards come out looking like a wet noodle, ready to bend!

Hot out of the oven

Harley quickly curves the hot board to the plywood frame of the couch seat. After forming and nailing into place, we cool the board with a bucket of water.

Seat back done!

Harley takes a break from the oven to finish the back of the couch and apply the fascia boards to the couch front. The extended height of the seat back will create a cozy feel to the completed couch.

Almost ready for paint

Will is almost finished hanging the beams and walls in the entry hall. We’ll soon start painting the beams a handsome dark gray, Benjamin Moore’s Ashland Slate 1608.

Inside the outdoor living room

This is just inside the Outdoor Living Room. We’ll paint the walls a soothing green, Benjamin’s Moore Louisburg Green HC-113. The outdoor dining table will be here, close to the bar!

Hindesign

Hindesign—designer of our Ultimate Outdoor Living Room—provides a thoughtful, collaborative approach to architecture, landscape/hardscape, and interiors.

DIG Gardens

The plant experts at DIG Gardens translated our idea for an Ultimate Outdoor Living Room into a lush garden of texture, color, and architecture.

Bellomo Architects

Innovative, modular, and 100% off-the-grid, the House Arc is an ingenious prefab system designed by Bellomo Architects of Palo Alto, CA. The curvaceous 150-square-foot home, which is part of the firm’s Arc Products line, is designed to be flat-packed and shipped in a box that is 4x10x3 feet and easily assembled on site by its owners.

Watch us build the Ultimate Outdoor Living Room