Home Renovation in Bethesda, MD
Project Overview
For this cozy home addition in Bethesda, Maryland, our team created a custom outdoor living space complete with a wet bar, swing bed, and woodburning fireplace. Our clients wanted to make better use of their sunroom and existing porch, which was hard to enjoy fully due to summer mosquitoes. This project was designed and built during the Covid-19 pandemic, which informed our client’s desire for a comfortable outdoor space for safe gatherings. With the addition of the screened-in porch, some wall mounted heating elements and the fireplace, the space was crafted to be usable throughout the majority of the year.
Design + Layout
Creating this space required our team to transform an existing interior sunroom into an exterior room, which then connected seamlessly to the screened-in-porch. The rear wall of the sunroom was renovated to act as the new exterior wall, and the spaces were joined together. Existing sunlights in the sunroom inspired the sunlights in the new porch, bringing a light, airy feeling to the combined spaces. Further enhancing the indoor/outdoor utility, we incorporated a pass-through from the kitchen into the sunroom. Throughout this project, we worked within Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission guidelines, which governed the size of porch we were able to build due to lot occupancy restrictions.
Style + Finishes
The focal point of the outdoor room is the brick clad fireplace at the end, with a custom sycamore live-edge mantle. The swinging bed next to the fireplace enhances the cozy feeling, framed in a similar style to the porch railing. A tongue-and-groove pine ceiling adds a sense of surrounding warmth to the porch, playing off of the cumaru tropical hardwood decking. The contrast between black Marvin windows and doors and white trim lends a modern touch to a classic farmhouse aesthetic.