Take it outside
Expand your living areas into the open air with a contemporary outdoor room created by Suncraft.
Outdoor living has changed. What was once a deck, a barbecue and somewhere to sit is increasingly being considered with the same care as the spaces inside our homes.
And perhaps nowhere does that make more sense than in New Zealand.
“We love being outdoors, but our climate doesn’t always make it easy,” says Kate Grubb, co-founder of Suncraft. “Strong sun, changing winds and cooler evenings mean a beautiful outdoor space also needs to be adaptable.”
Suncraft specialises in shade solutions and bespoke outdoor furniture, and Kate says some of the most successful outdoor areas begin with a simple question: how do you want to use the space?
For one home, it might be long lunches around a table with shade overhead. For another, it is a quiet place to sit beside the fire in the evening. A restaurant may need to comfortably accommodate guests through changing conditions, while a family might simply want to make better use of a deck that becomes too hot in summer.
Shade plays an important role, says Kate, but increasingly it is being treated as part of the architecture rather than an addition to it. Retractable shade sails and fabric roofs allow spaces to change throughout the day: open to the sky when conditions are right, then providing protection when needed.
The same thinking extends to furniture. Comfortable, modular pieces and a wide choice of fabrics and colours are helping blur the boundary between indoors and out. From quiet, natural tones to bold statement colours, outdoor spaces can be designed with just as much personality as the interiors they connect to.
The team at Suncraft see this shift in the projects they are asked to work on. “The conversation is becoming less about simply covering an area and more about how light moves through a property, where people naturally gather, how views can be preserved and how an outdoor space will actually be lived in,” says Kate.
Ultimately, good outdoor design shouldn’t feel complicated. When everything works together, the result is simply another part of the home: one that happens to have the sky for a ceiling.
Visit the website to see more about how Suncraft helps design outdoor living spaces throughout New Zealand, combining retractable shade, fabric roofs, umbrellas and European outdoor furniture.
suncraft.co.nz
