Previously, the deck stopped roughly a foot short of the corner, creating an awkward dead area and visually making the structure feel unfinished.
It wasn't a huge change on paper.
But gaining that additional floor space meant the outdoor room could now accommodate different zones rather than trying to squeeze everything into one entertaining area.
There was room for the main outdoor dining setting, more casual areas for relaxing and greater flexibility when family and friends came over.
When we're designing outdoor rooms, we often describe floor space as your real estate.
Sometimes finding an extra half metre in the right place can completely change how comfortably a space works once you add furniture and, more importantly, people.
It was the stairs.
Instead of treating them as something that simply connected the deck to the backyard, we made them part of the outdoor living room itself.
We widened them.
Opened them up.
And wrapped the hardwood decking over and around the edges.
The result was much more than a way of getting from one level to another.
The stairs became somewhere to sit while the family was outside. Somewhere to stop with a coffee. Extra informal seating when friends and family gathered.
But more importantly, they changed the way people moved through the entire space.
From the moment you stepped through the back door, there was now a natural path through the outdoor room and down into the backyard.
No bottleneck.
No awkward transition.
No narrow staircase tucked away behind a wall of balustrading.
The home, outdoor room and backyard suddenly felt connected.
That's something we think about on every project because great outdoor living isn't simply about adding beautiful features.
It's about creating a space that naturally draws you outside and makes you want to stay there.
Sometimes that comes from the roof design.
Sometimes it's the layout.
And sometimes it's simply getting the stairs right.
Someone preparing food or drinks inside could still talk with family and friends outside. Open the window and the existing kitchen immediately became part of the entertaining space.
Together with the redesigned stairs, it helped change the outdoor room from something sitting against the back of the house into something that genuinely connected the inside of the home with the backyard.
That included organising the site survey, architectural documentation, Statement of Environmental Effects, NSW Planning Portal lodgement, council liaison, Sydney Water requirements, BASIX, the Construction Certificate and the required certifier inspections.
The Development Application was approved in 56 days.
For Kim and Michael, the important part wasn't learning how all those individual pieces worked.
It was knowing they were being taken care of.
Rather than chasing consultants, trying to interpret council requests or wondering what needed to happen next, they could continue with their lives while we managed the approval process through to construction.
Using the same timber species as the deck allowed the screening to feel connected to the wider design, while the narrower battens created a more refined finish than simply constructing a screen from leftover decking boards.
It gave Kim and Michael the privacy they needed without making the new outdoor room feel enclosed.
Apart from providing a strong and durable foundation for the outdoor room above, reducing the number of posts underneath opened up an entirely new area.
Michael could install water tanks beneath the deck while retaining additional storage space that otherwise would have been lost.
It's not necessarily the first thing you notice when looking at the finished project.
But these are often the decisions that make a home work better long after we've finished building it.
