Designing Indoor-Outdoor Flow Into an Extension
The details that make a deck and living room feel like one space — sill heights, deck levels and door choices — and why they have to be decided before the build starts.
When people say they want “indoor-outdoor flow”, they usually mean one thing: stepping from the couch to the deck without noticing a threshold. That feeling is entirely down to millimetres decided long before anyone’s on the tools.
Get the levels right first
The magic number is the step down from the internal floor to the deck. Too big and it feels like leaving the house; too small and you invite water inside. We set deck framing heights against the finished floor before the deck is even ordered.
Doors change everything
Bifolds fold the whole wall away — best for entertaining. Large sliders are simpler, cheaper and let more light in day to day. Neither is “better”; it depends on how you actually live.
Why the two trades can’t be separate
This is exactly where a split builder-and-landscaper setup falls down. If the deck is designed after the extension is framed, the levels never quite line up. Doing both, we set them together.
Planning an extension that opens to the outside? Start a conversation.