Our Company Blog
Add An Outdoor Island This Year
2020 can be your best year yet with the best get-togethers, the tastiest food, the greatest music. You can bring your backyard to life and bring value to your property with the addition of a new outdoor island.
IBD Outdoor Islands and Extras
When it’s time to upgrade and update your outdoor space, look no further than IBD Outdoor Rooms for all your islands and extras. We specialize in designing and creating outdoor spaces that are functional and long-lasting. Our products leave much to the imagination, allowing homeowners to customize on a small or large scale. IBD outdoor kitchens are built in a modular fashion to accommodate the simple or a complicated one. Don’t stop with the kitchen alone. Our islands and extras add to any outdoor patio, poolside, garden, or pavilion. Start with IBD Outdoor Rooms to create your outdoor dream space this year.
Outdoor Kitchen Islands
When you work with IBD Outdoor Rooms you’re able to choose between six basic designs for your luxury outdoor island that can mix and match for the perfect shape and function of your outdoor space. Your products are constructed of quality products and can be shipped “unfinished” so that you can customize their completion exactly, partially finished, or completely finished and install-ready. All you will need is a licensed contractor to complete the install according to your municipal code and your specifications.
- Santa Fe Straight – Straight to the point, the Santa Fe Straight is a straight design with two standard cutouts. It can be a standard length or extended for your needs. It can also be customized with more cutouts, dining ledges, electrical boxes, cabinet liners, caveats, and backsplashes.
- Versailles V Shape – Perfect for a small space, this corner piece includes two standard cutouts. Choose from a piece in which the corners extend to the edge or one in which the corners turn back toward the unit. Popular add-ons include backsplash, cabinet liners, and electrical boxes.
- Lexington L Shape – Like the Santa Fe, the Lexington L uses straight lines as an aesthetic. With an L-shaped angle, this kitchen island is perfect for standing and cooking, but you can choose another angle if preferred. There are four standard cutouts, but popular options can include as many cutouts as necessary, dining ledges, electrical boxes, cabinet liners, caveats, and backsplashes.
- Trenton Tri Shape – A popular choice, the Trenton Tri Shape features two angles and six standard cutouts. Customers can customize this design with any accessories and options listed on our website. The best part of this design is that the angle is also customizable and perfect for multiple grills or cook surfaces.
- Ultimate U Shape – Our bestseller, The Ultimate U is a large format island with six standard cutouts and available with any of our IBD options and accessories. The Ultimate U is ideal for a more centralized feel but with open aesthetics. Your island can be placed in an exact U or segmented apart to cover larger spaces and open for more traffic. Install a fireplace or pizza oven to warm your crowd while they’re gathered in your space.
- Concord & Serpentine Curved – Our C-shaped Concord and Serpentine outdoor kitchen islands are custom designs only. Although these designs aren’t listed on our price sheet, they continue to be a popular option due to the accessibility of counter space for beverage spaces, grill and cooking space, and buffet-style dining. In order to order either of these custom designs, you must call and speak with an IBD Outdoor Rooms specialist at 704-960-4530 or by using our online contact form.
Although our company is centralized, we ship ready-to-construct products all over the country and they’ll arrive with detailed instructions for your contracted installer. Check out our photo gallery for inspiration and get started today so that you can have a new and improved outdoor space this spring and summer. Take advantage of these mild winter months to make a change you’ll be happy with for years. Improve curb appeal, raise property value before a sale or refinance, or just create the fantasy-space you’ve always wanted.
Other products that will bring your porch, patio, garden, or poolside to life is an outdoor fireplace, fire pit, or custom fire design. These fire products can be finished to match your outdoor island and complement your home and landscape. Work with our professionals at IBD Outdoor Rooms to find the best layout, extras, and add-ons for what you need, but also what you want.
Before Your Product Arrives
If you’ve already searched online for inspiration (consider this Pinterest board), spoken with one of our design specialists, and placed your order, make sure you’re ready when your product arrives. Make sure you hire a certified contractor for the work. If part of your design is a fire appliance, make sure your contractor is an NFI certified chimney and fireplace technician. It will not only protect your investment, but it’s required by most local code authorities and most homeowners insurance companies.
Start today and get one step closer to adding your outdoor island for 2020.
How to Warm Up Your Outdoor Space This Winter
With Halloween past and Thanksgiving coming quick, it is the season for entertaining. More people travel for Thanksgiving than almost any other time of the year and a fair majority of these people are gathering together with family for holiday festivities. A few fortunate homeowners have enough space for their visitors. A few can head outside to patios when space gets crowded. What do you do when your house is getting cramped, but temperatures are frigid outside? Don’t worry! There are ways to warm up your outdoor space this winter.
Fire Features
The most popular options for outdoor patios, pool-sides, and gardens are fire. Homeowners love fireplaces, and they don’t have to be inside. A fireplace can complement the aesthetic of your home on the inside, an outside fire feature can complement much more. You can choose a fire pit with a stone finish that matches the tones of your house, choose a chimenea that accentuates the shrubbery in your landscape or the curling vines in your garden, or pick a custom fire table that doubles as a table at dinnertime. When you’re looking to add a fire feature to your outdoor space, make sure you work within your city’s laws and codes. You should also choose the best fuel type for your needs. If you have a source for firewood, you may choose a wood fire. If it’s quick and convenient you want, gas is the better option. Whatever you choose, make sure you contact a certified dealer for your appliance and hire a licensed contractor to install it.
Patio Heaters and Lamps
Even if you have a fire feature such as a fireplace, fire pit, or chimenea, you may still need extra heat for your outdoor space. Depending on your budget, there are many possibilities. Portable patio heaters usually burn propane and can be moved as needed, but many homeowners dislike them because they can be unattractive and impossible to hide. There are electric tower heaters that are less ostentatious but have to stay plugged into an outlet. For short periods these may be the best option. However, a more permanent heat source that can remain hidden year-round is a heater that is mounted onto walls or beneath patio roofing. Because of the incredible amount of heat they generate, an outside wall-mount or built-in should only be installed by a certified professional. Infratech is a brand of outdoor heaters that uses infrared energy to create a direct wavelength of light that carries heat with it. The heat from an Infratech patio heater will reach your guests and will not blow away in windy or drafty conditions. You can choose between a heater that emits light or one that emits none at all while still producing the heat your outdoor gathering needs.
Heated Floors and Rugs
Most of the heat that leaves your body goes through the head and the feet. In the same way, your guests will feel warmer when their feet are warmer. You can add warmth to your outdoor space with rugs on stone and concrete patios and even add radiant heating to deck floors. Radiant heat is growing in popularity not just for keeping guests comfortable, but also for melting snow throughout winter months. If you’re interested in heated flooring for your outdoor space, it’s important to do your research and talk with a professional as you plan.
Heated Pools and Spas
Most homeowners opt to clean and give their poolside a rest for the winter months. If you can turn your summer pool into a heated pool for the winter your guests will enjoy it! This may be the most expensive way to add heat to your outside space because there is a lot of water to heat! One way to cut costs is to use solar power to heat your pool by day and still enjoy it by night. On a smaller scale, you can invest in a hot tub for the same effect. They require less maintenance, less water, and less heating costs. Make sure you utilize patio heaters so no one gets too cold on the way back into the house!
Warm Atmosphere
Like putting down a rug or throwing on a light blanket, sometimes it’s the illusion of warmth that can warm your guests. When all else fails, add some light. Warm, yellow lights bathing over your outdoor space will add a warmth that has nothing to do with temperature. It is the type of warmth that is a product of comfort. The same can be accomplished by bringing out blankets, fur throws, cushions, and pillows. Make your guests comfortable and it’ll warm them from the inside out.
You don’t have to freeze out your guests this winter, and you don’t have to cram them all into your house either. Warm-up your outdoor space with fire features, outdoor heaters, heated floors, pools, and spas, and more.
You can also help to create a less windy, drafty space by creating a space with walls and curtains to hold in all the heat. IBD Outdoor Rooms sells high-quality pergolas and pavilions that will bring any outdoor space together with quality and style.
Find out more about turning your outdoor fantasy into reality this season by calling IBD Outdoor Rooms at 704-960-4530.
Outdoor Wood-Burning Fireplaces Are Terrific!
Do you have good memories of sitting around by the campfire as a kid? Does the smell of burning wood take you back to those days? Not only is it nice to be reminded of those times, It can be very relaxing to unwind at the end of the day in front of a wood-burning fire in your backyard. If this sounds good to you, IBD Outdoor Rooms can easily turn this into your reality by installing an outdoor wood-burning estate fireplace by your patio, on your deck or porch, or as a free-standing gathering place in your yard. We would like to tell you more about the benefits of adding this kind of fireplace to your outdoor living space.
THE SENSORY EXPERIENCE
If you love the sounds of crackling wood and the smell of it burning, you already know how much a wood-burning fireplace can improve any atmosphere. For fans of wood-burning fires, a gas fireplace cannot take the place of the sensory experience of burning wood. You might not be happy with an outdoor gas fireplace if you prefer burning wood.
LESS EXPENSIVE TO INSTALL
Adding a wood-burning fireplace to your outdoor living area is much less expensive than adding a gas one, especially if you do not have gas lines. It can be quite costly to install gas lines from your gas main to your outdoor fireplace, according to Do It Yourself. Wood-burning fireplaces are also cheaper to construct, so you will be saving money by adding an outdoor wood fireplace instead of an outdoor gas fireplace.
CHEAPER FUEL
The price of natural gas continues to rise, which can be concerning if you live on a budget. When you do not know how much the cost of gas will be from one month to the next, it makes it hard to set aside an amount of money to pay your gas bill. One of the best things about burning wood is that firewood is relatively inexpensive, and if you have access to it, you can even cut your own firewood for free.
Although a wood-burning outdoor fireplace does require a bit more maintenance such as cleaning up ashes and storing firewood, the benefits can definitely outweigh these drawbacks. If you would like to add a wood-burning fireplace to your outdoor living space, contact us at IBD Outdoor Rooms. Our staff is happy to tell you all about the options we have to give you the outdoor fireplace of your dreams.
Go with Gas for Your Outdoor Fireplace
If you are planning to enhance your backyard with an outdoor fireplace, we at IBD Outdoor Rooms would like to tell you why we recommend installing a gas-fueled fireplace. Although a wood-burning fireplace is less expensive to install, the disadvantages to having one outside can outweigh the initial cost. Wood-burning fireplaces involve a lot of cleaning chores, including removing ashes from the firebox, sweeping up the residue of ashes and embers outside the fireplace, and professional sweeping of the chimney to remove hazardous and combustible creosote deposits. With a gas fireplace, you will not have to spend so much time cleaning. And, if you already have a gas line connected to your home, the installation of a gas fireplace will not be so expensive. Here is why we feel a gas-fueled appliance is the best choice for your outdoor fireplace.
The Convenience of a Gas-Fueled Outdoor Fireplace
As mentioned above, one of the major benefits of a gas fireplace over a wood-burning one is not having a list of cleaning chores before, during, and after a fire. You will not have to waste energy by hauling firewood to the fire to get your flame going because all you will have to do with a gas fireplace is push a button or flip a lever to ignite a fire. With a wood-burning outdoor fireplace, you can spend a lot of time building and trying to light a fire. If you install a gas outdoor fireplace, you will not have to worry about losing time in front of the fire because it is so easy to start, even on a windy day.
The Environmentally-Friendly Nature of a Gas Outdoor Fireplace
In some cities, you cannot even burn a wood fire outdoors because of its pollution-filled smoke. With a gas-fueled fireplace, you will have a clean burning fire with few emissions. Additionally, since a gas fire produces very little smoke, you and your family and friends will not have to deal with breathing in a lot of smoke. If you have ever sat around a wood-burning fire outside, you know how much smoke it produces and how a lot of that smoke can end up blowing towards you. You do not have to worry about your clothes smelling like a campfire when you sit around a gas-fueled outdoor fireplace.
The Easy Maintenance of a Gas Outdoor Fireplace
Since no wood is involved, you will not have to be concerned with large deposits of creosote forming and sticking to the walls of your inner chimney. A highly flammable compound, creosote develops naturally as part of the wood-burning process. With a gas outdoor fireplace, you will not have to worry about scheduling multiple professional chimney cleanings to remove creosote. However, IBD Outdoor Rooms does recommend you have your gas fireplace system inspected and serviced once a year.
The Options of a Gas Outdoor Fireplace
If you do not have a natural gas connection at your home, you do have another option. Propane gas fireplaces are ideal for the outdoors, and according to HGTV, a propane fireplace is more efficient and can be moved to different locations. IBD Outdoor Rooms help you decide if a natural gas or propane fireplace is a better choice for you.
Have questions about installing a gas outdoor fireplace? Contact IBD Outdoor Rooms to find out more about the ease and convenience of a gas-fueled fireplace.
Let’s Talk Pavilions
One of the newest trends in outdoor living, pavilions are popping up in backyards all across the country. A way to add an open outdoor room to your home, a pavilion gives your family a focal point to enjoy the outdoors, and it increases the value of your home. At IBD Outdoor Rooms, we can customize pavilions to be any size or shape to your taste, and we also build pergolas as well, so you have many choices of styles and shapes from which to choose. Increase the value of your house while creating a space for your family and friends to bond outdoors by contacting IBD Outdoor Rooms today to talk to us about building a pavilion or pergola in your yard.
Pavilion or Pergola?
You may be wondering what the difference is between a pavilion and a pergola. A pavilion is usually open (although it can be enclosed with screen or glass), sometimes ornamental, and is used as a place of recreational shelter and entertainment. A pergola generally is a structure made of parallel columns supporting an open and flat roof of cross rafters and girders. Whichever style you choose, IBD Outdoor Rooms can customize the perfect pavilion or pergola to exactly how you would like it to look, using whatever wood you choose. We have both post options, including the standard Douglas fir post, Black Locust Bark posts, Hand Hewn posts, and Milled with Draw Knife finish posts, and rafter and roof options, including convex cove rafter tails, Appalachian rafter tails, bullnose rafter tails, cove rafter tails, German S rafter tails, German cover rafter tails, cross hatch tops, twigs for tops, Spanish moss, thatch roofing, roof decking, and cedar shake shingles.
Pavilion Designs
If you need some design ideas for your pavilion, Better Homes and Gardens has an article, “Pool House and Pavilion Ideas” that will inspire you to create your dream pavilion or pergola. One idea features a pavilion that matches the decor of the home by painting the structure to match the color of the home. A large, airy pavilion, it features latticework screening for privacy and includes a dining set with a large chandelier to be enjoyed at all times. Another idea calls for screening in the roofed pavilion to protect you and your family from insects while you enjoy your time eating and relaxing in your private escape. A third, very large pavilion provides two separate areas: one includes an outdoor fireplace, which can be easily installed by IBD Outdoor Rooms, and the other space is reserved as a dining area. There is even a glass-roofed pavilion that is laminated to filter in sunlight, painted in a light color to reflect the sun to keep the room cool and airy, and features an outdoor grill nestled in the wall that separates it from the patio. As you can see, the sky is the limit when it comes to designing your perfect pavilion.
We at IBD Outdoor Rooms want to build you the pavilion or pergola of your dreams. Contact us today to talk to our qualified staff about planning your customized outdoor structure. We will walk you through the entire process, from planning to building.