Blend Your Hot Tub Seamlessly Into Your Landscape with these 7 Tips

Warm and bubbly, hot tubs are among the most enjoyed outdoor living space additions, but often they come at the expense of aesthetics. Let’s face it, a 500-hundred+ gallon vessel of water with an ugly vinyl cover can be hard to camouflage. Fortunately, with a few tricks, it’s possible to harmonize your hot tub with your landscape, creating an environment just as relaxing to look at as your hot tub is to soak in.

Preserve the Beauty of Your Backyard with these 7 Hot Tub Integration Tricks:

1. Cover it. (Not with that ugly vinyl thing.)
   
   Instead of sticking with the ugly vinyl cover most hot tubs arrive from the factory with (and engaging in a wet wrestling match every time you want to open/close your spa), invest in a rolling spa cover. Custom-made from woods like cedar, these look much better and easily slide out of the way. Adding a deck platform? Be sure to design your deck so the cover can slide conveniently underneath, disappearing out of the way beneath the deck when your spa is in use.
2. Reduce your exposure.
   
   Instead of leaving all sides of your hot tub exposed, mask it, carefully tucking it away in a corner of your outdoor living space, and covering the remaining sides with a wooden enclosure. Add functional steps or keep the sides sleek, creating the look of a warm wood wall.

3. Go undercover.
   
   
   
   Custom hot tub applications offer a number of options for concealment – even when hot tubs are located above ground. Here a feature wall hides the hot tub from patio or window view, blending into the terraced garden.
4. Get creative.
   
   
   With a skilled and creative contractor and the right combination of building materials and motors, the sky’s the limit, such as with this cover that does double duty, serving as a sun deck when not in use.
5. Put it center stage.
   
   
   
   When investing in a custom hot tub, consider a hot tub addition that doubles as a water feature when not in use.
6. Push boundaries.
   
   
   
   Unlike pools, hot tubs don’t require a large amount of paved space surrounding them for access. Fit for just a few, the smaller footprint of a hot tub provides ample opportunity to create a beautiful garden focal point. Working dense plantings nearly up to the edge provides a lush, verdant soaking space.
7. Get a room.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
    When adding a hot tub as part of a multifunctional outdoor living space, consider sectioning off your yard into rooms, separating the spa-like retreat of your hot tub from dining and entertaining areas. Create a true retreat dialing-in just the right amount of exposure with the 170-degree adjustment of an Arcadia adjustable aluminum pergola, integrating motorized curtains and screens for privacy to create a private, relaxing feel.

Ready to relax into your outdoor living space addition? We’ll have you bathing in bliss in no time. Contact Denver Pergola Systems to learn new ways to streamline your outdoor living space design today.

This post was originally published at http://www.denverpergolas.com/7-tricks-for-a-seamless-outdoor-hot-tub-integration/

The Why & How of Outdoor Office Workspace Additions

Bleak surroundings. Hours under energy-sapping artificial lighting. Constant interruptions from bored/drained coworkers trying to stay conscious. It’s no surprise that 76% of workers polled in a recent survey noted they were more productive when working outside the traditional office environment. Is your company thinking outside the box? Checking off your office to-do list in a nice, sun-dappled, Wi-Fi enabled outdoor workspace makes for a productivity oasis. Here’s how you can pull it off.

Interior Courtyards

If you’re building your own office space, including an interior courtyard in your building design offers an ideal outdoor workspace solution. Highly coveted for the natural light they add to a building, interior courtyards are a great alternative to artificial lighting, which has been proven to negatively impact cortisol (stress) hormone levels. In addition to increasing worker exposure to natural light, a known stress reducer and mood booster, interior courtyard setups also provide a natural source of ventilation and circulation, reducing your carbon footprint and making it easier to heat and cool your office space. Centrally located, interior courtyards are prime real estate to congregate. Unique to other outdoor setups, they provide the outdoor experience, while still remaining contained – ideal for ensuring office security. And there are tons of ways to customize: Go lush with lots of greenery, low-care with containers, or reduce irrigation and maintenance duties with the right pairing of rocks, pebbles, and succulents.

Decks & Balconies
 
Decks make for an ideal meeting space – a setting that promotes relaxation and positive energy. However, shelter is key to keeping employees from getting burned when the expected meeting excess leads to sun excess. Easily added to offices with prime deck real estate and outdoor air rights, Arcadia adjustable pergolas make for the perfect fit. Lightweight and aluminum, they can be installed in nearly any location, providing flexible shelter for any season of the year with 170-degree and pivoting flexibility. Dial-in just the right amount of sun, shade, or shelter on demand, keeping rain from ruining your monthly review.  

Rooftop Gardens

If green office space is in short supply – raise your expectations – to the rooftop! Adding a rooftop garden can really payoff and is a great way to capitalize and improve existing real estate. Like deck and balcony additions, shelter is likewise a necessity in rooftop environs. More than a productivity-boosting outdoor oasis for staff, rooftop gardens offer a host of benefits beyond boosting worker morale, helping control heating and cooling costs and control water runoff, and bringing an amazing return-on-investment via energy savings, rebates and incentives. How hard is it to pull off a rooftop garden? From easy containers and raised bed additions, to more intensive and ecologically-diverse green roofs, there are options to add green to your rooftop space at a variety of levels. Learn how.

Living Walls

Let’s face it, some office spaces, such as those halfway up a high-rise, don’t have the luxury of outdoor or rooftop real estate. But that doesn’t mean you can’t bring some of the outdoors in. Living walls  are an easy way to improve the office ambiance and provide a faux outdoor setting, especially when combined with LED lighting options in daylight/sunlight hues. Made of polystyrene and other materials, living walls are typically mounted on the interior or exterior walls of buildings, providing a wall or frame you can plug plants into to create a lush, green space nearly anywhere. Hiring a knowledgeable installer ensures plant compatibility and low-maintenance care.  

Does your office pack an outdoor productivity punch? Capitalize on your office space and boost your bottom line with the help of Denver Pergola Systems today.

This post was originally published at http://www.denverpergolas.com/the-why-how-of-outdoor-office-workspace-additions/

Stress Busters: 10 Ways to Add Some Chill to Your Backyard

Stressed out and yearning for a space where you can finally put your feet up and relax? Give stress the boot, grabbing a cold, frosty beverage and dipping your toes into one of these 10 outdoor chill zones for your deck, patio, or yard…

1. Have a Glass on Your Private Bistro.
   Grab a glass of wine or enjoy a quiet dinner al fresco, rain or shine, adjusting to changing weather on-demand with the quick, remote control or iLouver app adjustment of your Arcadia adjustable aluminum pergola.
   
2. Take a Nap.
   Create an outdoor living space surrounding a cushy outdoor daybed or sofa, adding curtains or motorized screens to your adjustable aluminum pergola to block the glare of the sun and add a touch of privacy.
3. Hang Out.
   Kick back and relax in a classic hammock, taking a winter nap with the louvers open to bask in the warmth of the sun, or closing them for shade on a warm summer’s day.
4. Sway Your Worries Away.
   Indulge your inner child, swinging your worries away on a hanging chair with a stand beneath the shelter of your pergola.
   
5. Indulge in a Good Book.
   Curl up in your private reading nook, tucked away in the corner of your private patio or garden space.
6. Take on a Tropical Getaway.
   Hideaway in the tropics without ever leaving your backyard, creating a resort-like oasis with large, lush tropical foliage carefully selected for your climate. Pair with a relaxing water feature to drown out city noises, kicking back on a hammock, chaise, or swing.
7. Elevate Yourself.
   Even city dwellers need an escape. Turn your balcony or rooftop space into a terrific retreat, incorporating lush, green living walls and container planters for privacy and noise control, around a cute café table set or blanket-covered outdoor futon for lounging.
8. Escape to Your Secret Garden.
   Create a secret space just for you, tucked away in a private corner of your yard. Surround with native grasses and lush, flowering bushes for privacy, adding motorized curtains or screens for the times when you simply must fly solo.
9. Let the Bubbles Take You Away.
   Take in the warmth of the sun or indulge in the cool summer breeze, sipping your favorite beverage in your outdoor bath.
10. Lounge Poolside.
    Put the lime in the coconut and lounge poolside, opening louvers wide to indulge in the sun, or closing louvers to relax in the shade beneath the fan of your remote control Arcadia aluminum pergola. 

Need to get away? Look no farther than your backyard. Create a space that’s a true escape with the help of Denver Pergola Systems today.

This post was originally published at http://www.denverpergolas.com/kick-stress-to-the-curb-turn-your-backyard-into-the-ultimate-chill-zone/