Alfresco designs for Brisbane: getting the outdoor room right

Most of the extensions we design in Brisbane end in an alfresco. It is the room people want most and the one they have thought about least, because it looks easy: a slab, a roof, some chairs. The alfrescos that get used every week and the ones that hold a dead barbecue and a folded table look the same on a mood board. The difference is decided at the planning stage.

Orientation first

The single biggest decision is which way the alfresco faces. North and north-east catch the winter sun and the afternoon breeze and are shaded by the house from the western sun in summer. West-facing outdoor rooms are unusable from about two o'clock in January and that is most of the months you want to be outside. If the only place for the alfresco is the west side, it needs a deep roof and a screen, and we will tell you that before it is drawn.

Level with the house

An alfresco works when it is a continuation of the kitchen and living floor. A step down of even one riser turns it into somewhere you go, rather than somewhere you are. On a Queenslander that is set a metre or more above the ground, that means a deck rather than a slab, and the deck becomes the room. On a slab-on-ground house it means setting the alfresco slab at the internal floor level with a proper threshold and fall for the rain. Both are ordinary building. Both are often skipped.

Under the main roof or its own

A roof that continues the line of the house is the quietest and usually the cheapest option, and it keeps the ceiling height you have inside. It also darkens the rooms next to it, so we often pair it with a highlight window or a skylight in the room behind. A separate roof, flat or skillion, lets us hold it clear of the house and let light in between, at the cost of a second structure and its own drainage. Which one is right depends on the ceiling height, the orientation and how far out the room needs to go. A shade sail is not a roof and will not survive a Brisbane hail storm.

The outdoor kitchen, honestly

The full outdoor kitchen with a fridge, a sink, drawers and a rangehood is the item most often cut from the final quote and least often missed. What gets used is a good barbecue on a bench with a stone or concrete top, a sink if the plumbing is close, and a cupboard that seals. Put the money into the roof and the floor instead. If you do want the appliances, they need weatherproof cabinetry and marine-grade fittings, and a power circuit planned at the drawing stage.

Fans, screens and insects

Ceiling fans are not optional in an outdoor room in Brisbane. A large-diameter fan on a low setting does more than any amount of open sides. Fixed timber battens or adjustable louvres on the western edge control both sun and the neighbours' view. Retractable screens on tracks keep the mosquitoes out in the evening and disappear in the day, and they are much easier to build in than add later.

The looks that survive the climate

The design magazines offer ten styles for an alfresco. Three survive a Brisbane summer. Hardwood decking, painted or oiled, that matches the verandah of the house. Concrete, polished or broomed, on the ground-level version, with a fall to a drain. And a rendered or painted masonry wall on the western side, which holds the western heat and gives the room a back. Rattan, unsealed pine and white fabric do not last their first storm season.

What it connects to

The alfresco is only as good as the door to it. A stacking or bifold door the full width of the opening, with the same floor finish or a level threshold, makes the kitchen and the outdoor room one space. A single sliding door in a wall does not. We plan the alfresco and the room behind it together, which is why it is usually part of an extension rather than an afterthought.

If you are thinking about an outdoor room, come to a free meeting at the studio with a photo of the back of your house and a rough idea of where the sun comes from. That is enough for us to tell you where the alfresco wants to be.