PNW...........what does that stand for?

Palette SW Naturalist : Is that a color or a palette of colors?

Adding our covered patio floor plan and a photo taken from the back yard. Our garage isn't finished yet, so patio is being used for storage temporarily. Landscaping isn't even started.

Gas/electrical/plumbing is roughed out for an outdoor kitchen at the south end of the patio and a TV and fire table at the north end. We'd like to have seating around the fire table for TV watching and conversation. There will be a dining space between the fire table and the outdoor kitchen.

The outdoor kitchen is pretty much dialed in (I think). On the south wall going from east to west, there will be a built-in grill, then outdoor fridge, then sink. We're thinking stainless steel cabinets and already have one soapstone slab for the countertop. If anyone has specific recommendations or warnings around the outdoor kitchen, please shout them out.

What I'm mostly looking for help with is furniture layout for the living and dining spaces. Specifically, what size and shape of fire table? We need to leave a 3-foot clearance from the center of the fire table to the wall. What would be the best seating layout in this area? For the dining area, what size and shape table?

Couldn’t add photos from my iMac, here they are.

Sorry, PNW stands for Pacific Northwest. SW Naturalist is a collection of colors. Here’s a link: https://www.sherwin-williams.com/content/colorid/palettes/naturalist

Your Naturalist Palette. All BS from the paint companies IMO. There's not even a decent white in the palette and all the beiges lean too pink/red.

Post some images of rooms that provided you with your inspiration.

Now that you mention it…I didn’t use any of the beiges. I agree that they lean too pink/red. The colors I’ve used have green undertones (if undertones are a thing). On the interior, walls in all public spaces are painted SW Drift of Mist. Trim and interior doors are SW Origami White. I’d add photos of these two colors, but the app isn’t giving me the option at the moment. We’re happy with the interior colors.

Right now, I’m looking for help with a few questions about the furniture layout for our covered patio.

You are putting in a kitchen, fire table plus a dining table for 8-10, and a TV and TV lounge area in the area of your photo under the covered outdoor space? That seems super crunched and crowded. Why not just cook and watch TV inside and have a nice hang eating and hang out area there instead? I'm sure this is not your vision, but I don't get the appeal of all that scrunched together outside.

That might be the most depressing color collection I have ever seen - and I'm a fan of neutral and drab colors. But, those colors combined with the grey weather of the Pacific North West would make me need daily therapy or high dose anti-depressants.

Hey Kendra, thanks for helping me to clarify. I’d like seating for 8-10 on the entire patio, not just at the dining table alone. So maybe four around the fire table + four at the dining table + a couple of garden stools or something to perch on.

With 30 feet x 14 feet to work with, I think it’s totally doable.

Forging ahead here. Some of the vendors we’re considering also offer “free design consultations”, so I’ve gotten the ball rolling with them. First up is BBQ Guys for the outdoor kitchen. Turns out that their “design” services are somewhat limited in that they don’t consult on the kitchen layout. They provide only a rendering based on the layout I want. Outdoor cabinet offerings are limited to “RTF” (ready to finish) steel boxes with doors sold separately. The rep told us that our GC would need to cut holes in the steel boxes for the sink and doors. Our GC said he’s not up for that, so… BBQ Guys did give us what looks like a solid recommendation for the sink, which comes with a stainless cover to keep the critters out. This is our first outdoor kitchen, so not something we’d thought of.

Hi Sofia, your house looks great and you will love using your porch.
I do have a concern about your plan to put an outdoor kitchen on that porch. I believe that a gas grill will need to be vented with a hood through the porch roof, which would be very expensive to retrofit.
Also, I would suggest checking how dry your porch stays when it rains. I have a similar sized porch and am often surprised to find that my dining table is wet, even though it is a little over 5 feet in from the edge of the porch! So that definitely affects furniture placement and cuts down on the useful area overall.
I have found some square “poufs” are great for extra seating, they can be stacked out of the way, and can add pretty colors and patterns to the area. They are fairly comfortable to sit on and can also be used as ottomans—even better some have removable covers so that they can be laundered as needed.
We decided that we wanted an outdoor kitchen several years after moving into our house, and as it couldn’t safely be installed on the porch for reasons of ventilation, I looked around for cabinetry that could be exposed to the elements. We bought cabinets from NewAge, they are stainless with a teak look “louvered” door, but they have several styles. I removed the stainless tops that they come with and installed a piece of quartzite, so it has a better built-in look. Now they also sell grills, though they did not when I purchased mine in 2017. ( I would recommend a light colored non-porous stone or tile if outside with any sun exposure because countertops can get very hot in the sun.)

Wishing you many happy days on your porch with family and friends!

Thanks AC M, we're really looking forward to hanging out on our patio and spending more time outdoors! And thanks so much for giving me more good things to think about. We're checking into ventilation requirements for the natural gas grill. I'll definitely pay more attention to where the patio gets wet the next few times it rains. And I looked at NewAge cabinets too -- the teak look louvered doors are really pretty!

Some progress to report. I've worked with a Yardbird design consultant to come up with this preliminary plan for the patio furniture layout. We're seeing that four swivel chairs around the fire table will be a bit tight, but I think we'll give it a shot anyway. And we're going to need places for folks to set drinks too. The edge of the fire table? A couple of martini tables?

We went and sit-tested their Harriet swivel chair yesterday and brought home some samples. The chair is comfy and DH likes that it feels sturdy and well-made. Now just need to decide whether wicker is a good choice for this patio and pick a cushion color. Silver or mist? Mist looks blue online, aqua in the store, and green on my patio.

Gas grill does not need to be vented on a covered porch. Ours is covered and our grill is just there. Our porch is quite a bit bigger than yours though. We have a sectional and coffee table, dining table for eight and a bbq. This is not cleaned up at all but what it looks like. We also need to ditch our old bbq

Actually yours is longer! Somewhere is saw 8-10 and thought it was only ten feet. Is it actually als or 30 across?

WestCoast Hopeful, thanks so much for sharing photos of your porch (and for reassurances about venting the grill). Such a great space! It looks perfect for enjoying the outdoors, especially in our climate. I really like your ceiling and decking. Is the ceiling pine or cedar (or something else?)? Stained or clear finish?

Our patio is 14 feet x 30 feet. What are the dimensions of yours? Our layouts look similar except your dining table is running parallel to the porch and ours will be placed perpendicular (so far). We had an old picnic table out there over the weekend and eight of us fit comfortably. That gives me hope.

I ordered four Yardbird Harriet swivel chairs today (while they're on sale) for around the fire table. No word yet on delivery date. Went with the silver cushions, very neutral. Will look to punch it up with pillows, etc. The dining table will have to wait until (a) the patio gets finished, it still needs polysand and some flashing, and (b) the detached garage is finished enough so that DH has somewhere else to park his motorcycle.

Our deck is 24x10 yours is bigger! I believe our ceiling is pine. The deck is cedar and my husband cleaned it thoroughly this year and it looks new again. No seal on deck. Yes a clear coat on ceiling. Super fan of the heaters too. That was a Covid addition for us.

WestCoast Hopeful, and your deck doesn’t look crowded at all! Now I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to comfortably house lounging, seating, and grilling all on our patio. We’ve also got pine tongue and groove on our ceiling. Your clear coat looks great, we plan to go with the same. A friend who’s also building used a semi-transparent black stain on hers and is unhappy with the results. She said the painters sprayed it on and it looks like black shoe polish.

I didn’t notice your heaters until you mentioned them. Our plan is to use the fire table to provide some heat when it’s a bit chilly outside. I’d like the patio to be livable for 7-8 months out of the year. I ordered this gorgeous fire table from Linderman Builds yesterday. Added an aluminum tabletop so it can do double duty as a coffee table. Delivery is 3-5 weeks out. The Yardbird swivel chairs have also been ordered and should be here soon.

Holding off on ordering the dining table and chairs until our garage is built so DH has somewhere else to park his motorcycle. Still waiting on renderings of the kitchen from both BBQGuys and Werever to see how the different options look.

Outdoor kitchen floor plans and renderings are in! Overall, the design process took about five weeks from start to finish for both BBQ Guys and Werever.

First pic is from BBQ Guys. They inexplicably placed the cabinet run parallel to the patio and butted up to the north wall. This eats up too much space and doesn’t leave room for both lounging and dining spaces. And unfortunately the run is too long to flip and place along the south edge as intended.

Second pic is from Werever. They managed to fit everything in the available 135”. DH likes that the grill is somewhat centered in the space and there’s sufficient countertop on both sides. We’re moving forward with this plan with black slab doors. Cabinets will take two weeks to manufacture, then add shipping time.

Fire table was ordered three weeks ago and I was told 3-5 weeks, so hoping to hear something soon. Grill and sink have been ordered and are on their way. Refrigerator is already here and running in our dining room. Filled with smoked meats and cheeses and beer :) If anyone knows of a great outdoor faucet, I’d love some recommendations.

Is your grill against the window? That’s going to be terribly smoke filled and not ideal if so…

Sorry I see now it’s not against window! But consider putting it at the edge of the patio vs where you have it. Will naturally vent so much better. Or even on the end of the patio

Agree! The design you see as problematic is the one put together by BBQ Guys and we’re not going with that one. The kitchen will be at the end of the patio just like you suggested. Here’s the kitchen layout overlaid on the patio floor plan. It’s very similar to the layout of your deck.

So cozy! Love it

We live in the pacific north west.. in the mountains… our house faces sw to receive the morning sun..at the front of our house…in planning our outdoor spaces it was very affected by the angle of the sun at all times of the day…and during all seasons… since you are facing west I would consider heating and cooling elements in your plan.. we found pull-down sunscreens and pergolas very effective in extending our comfortable outdoor hours…for instance …,will you get LOTS of hot sun on the porch and into the house in the hours you will use it often?

The grill need to be 10’ minimum from the house, with a hood, if under a porch. Grills are a huge source of house fires!

Btydrvn raises a really good point. We’ve talked about getting some kind of sun shade for our deck, at least in one section for morning enjoyment, which is opposite to your problem but same.

Thanks everyone for all the great thoughts on temperatures! It’s been on my mind too. Our covered patio faces east and is shielded by a wall on the north. It abuts a 40’ deep backyard bordered by tall cedars to the east. We haven’t spent long periods of time out there yet, but so far it’s been comfortable on our warmest days. It’s possible that a ceiling fan and/or mister will come in handy later. DH has also mentioned the possibility of some kind of sun shade on the south side.

As we head into Fall, I’m also curious about how much heat the fire table will throw off and whether that’ll be sufficient for our chilliest evenings.

Oh, and the outdoor Ruvati sink was delivered today. The pieces are slowly but surely coming together. Anyone have recommendations for a faucet?

Fire table was delivered and installed today. It also has a removable aluminum top so it can be used as a coffee table.

I’ve ordered two garden stools to use as side tables between each pair of chairs. Then we just need to hang the tv and the lounging area will be ready for action.

I was thinking about putting a bench against the wall beneath the tv for extra seating, but now I’m not sure there’s enough room. We’ll see…

Seating and fire pit look awesome. Red wine is calling you.

Bench Idea is good in many situations..but a fuller picture …from further back …will make it easier to see how it will work best…benches have many handy uses.. beyond just as a bench..