Project of the Month: October 2021
October 27, 2021 Project of the MonthClick here to discover details about this beautifully completed modern outdoor living project.
Click here to discover details about this beautifully completed modern outdoor living project.
Customizing your patio isn’t just a great way to enjoy your outdoor space, it’s also a terrific way to showcase your style. The three owners of Houston-based Texas Custom Patios, husband and wife Rob and Katherine Douglass and Steven Schell, have learned an array of techniques for maximizing any outdoor space. They’ve discovered that the best patio designs are a blend of a home’s architecture and the owners’ personal style.
Creating the market. In 2004, Rob Douglass saw an opportunity. Working for the YMCA and living in Fort Bend County, he noticed “a lot of rooftops going up,” he says. “Although the new homes were on decent-sized lots, the new backyards had a 10-by-10 slab and not much else.” Douglass realized he could create a specialized service designing and building outdoor living spaces, dining areas and kitchens. He brought his wife, Katherine, on as partner and then enlisted the help of YMCA co-worker Schell.
Your new favorite room. In the ensuing 15 years, the company has grown to include offices in Houston and now Dallas. The team has created an array of outdoor living rooms, customized kitchen spaces, dining and living rooms with outdoor entertainment centers, as well as customized pool houses. “We’ve learned from all the mistakes,” says Schell, who has a background in architectural drafting as well as his on-the-job experience. “We spend a lot of time designing and building each job and have gotten pretty good at it. We can give our customers a good assessment on how and what they should do.”
Ready to fully customize your patio?
1. Extend Your Home’s Architecture
“A typical outdoor project gives people 500 square feet of shade and adds a dining space and a lounging space,” Douglass says. “We can also add kitchens and fire features, but our main goal is to match those outdoor rooms to the home’s original style.”
The patio of this Houston brick traditional home was created by extending the home’s wide overhanging roof line and then matching the trim detail of the original structure. The team added Craftsman-style columns and coffered ceilings with oversize beams to the roof’s interior. Two new French doors provide easier access to the outdoor space from inside. “The owners really liked the mix of the brick and the white wood,” Douglass says.
2. Make It Your Own
Designing a patio provides a great opportunity to design and build a new favorite room. “Most people really enjoy the opportunity to customize the space to reflect their style,” Schell says. This Houston pool house was originally designed to be an open porch with a contemporary flair. “It was partially enclosed,” Schell says. “However, the owners wanted both a fireplace and custom kitchen.”
Schell designed a waterfall island wrapped in white oak for the kitchen, then used large terrazzo tiles as a backsplash. He finished the floor with Pennsylvania bluestone. In the sitting area, a contemporary gas fireplace features ceramic fire balls. The owners liked the resulting space so much, they decided to transform it into a full pool house that could be used all year. Schell added glass windows and accordion-style glass doors.
3. Take Up Some Space
For comfort’s sake, don’t skimp on space. “In the initial planning stage, we ask in-depth questions,” Douglass says. “It’s important to consider exactly how someone plans to use a space.” By getting into the nitty-gritty of how many people will sit at a dining table, for example, or whether a family entertains a lot, the team can plan for the appropriate amount of square footage. “If you want an outdoor kitchen, you’ll need enough space to move around,” Douglass says. “You don’t want to be backing into the grill, for example.”
This 850-square-foot patio in Houston is ideal for entertaining. The natural stone work area includes a grill and a power burner for crawfish. Both the lounge and dining table can accommodate up to 10 guests. The white brick walls and tile floor are offset by a dark wood tongue-and-groove ceiling.
For more information or examples of Texas Custom Patios’ work, visit the Houzz profile.
This story was written by the Houzz Sponsored Content team.
Click here to discover details about this contemporary project in Houston, Texas.
Texas Custom Patios is a family-owned and operated business located in Houston, Texas and Irving, Texas, but our service area covers most of the greater Houston area and parts of the Dallas – Fort Worth area. We have completed more than 2,000 outdoor living projects since we opened our doors in 2004.
At Texas Custom Patios, we’re confident in our work – and we want you to feel confident, too.
That’s why we offer a two-year warranty for materials and workmanship, and a five-year warranty for structural components of your home improvement project.
We also have $1 million in liability insurance to protect against accidents and injury.
At Texas Custom Patios, we offer personalized service and flexible payment terms, and when you choose to work with us, you’ll work with your project team every step of the way. Along with the Project Developer that assisted in the preliminary design stage, you will also have a dedicated Project Manager that will assist throughout the project completion and clean-up.
We specialize in providing turnkey design solutions for outdoor living, including patio covers; outdoor kitchens; screened porches and patios; room additions; pergolas and decks; outdoor fireplaces; and more. View our portfolio.
When you schedule a consultation with one of our experienced project developers, you’ll receive more than just a ballpark figure. We’ll tell you exactly how much your outdoor living project will cost – down to the penny.
But that’s not all. At Texas Custom Patios, every estimate includes a detailed drawing with specifications and dimensions, plus rendered views and elevations – so you can see a preview of your completed project.
Click here to discover details about this beautiful project in Plano, Texas.
Texas Custom patios of Houston and DFW has won a “Best Of Houzz” award for “Design and Customer Service” on Houzz®, the leading platform for home renovation and design. The custom outdoor living design builder was chosen by the millions of homeowners that comprise the Houzz community from among more than 2.5 million active home building, remodeling and design industry professionals.
The Best Of Houzz badge is awarded annually, in three categories: Design, Customer Service and Photography. Design awards honor professionals whose work was the most popular among the Houzz community. Customer Service honors are based on several factors, including a pro’s overall rating on Houzz and client reviews submitted in 2020. Architecture and interior design photographers whose images were most popular are recognized with the Photography award.
A “Best Of Houzz 2021” badge will appear on winners’ profiles as a sign of their commitment to excellence. These badges help homeowners identify popular and top-rated home professionals in every metro area on Houzz.
“We at Texas Custom Patios are thrilled to be named as a Best of Houzz winner. We take pride in our projects and are so pleased our designs have caught the eyes of so many Houzzers. And we always strive to treat our homeowners with respect and work diligently to provide great service,” said Katherine Douglass, co-owner for the custom builder.
“The Best Of Houzz awards are an emblem of trust and credibility for home professionals across the U.S. and around the world, and we are excited to celebrate this year’s winners,” said Liza Hausman, vice president of Industry Marketing for Houzz. “The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical need for people to feel comfortable before inviting pros into and around their homes, and the Best Of Houzz badge is a powerful way for pros to communicate the trust that homeowners have in their business. It’s just one of many tools on the Houzz platform that help pros to communicate their unique expertise, and homeowners to find the right professionals for their projects.”
You can see more of Texas Custom Patio’s work on Houzz!
Click here to discover details about this beautiful transitional project in Houston, Texas!
Click here to discover styles for several different fire features.
Click here to discover details about this featured project in Frisco, Texas.
Texas Custom Patios is currently featured in Hearth & Home magazine, we are among several gorgeous projects built across the country. So many different styles and prices, but we have one thing in common… the appreciation for design and a quality build.
When consumers were asked for their outdoor living feature wish list, these were the top contenders:
So as you can see with four of the six items, outdoor kitchens continue to be a hot item! No matter the space you have, creating an outdoor oasis is doable and can increase the value of your home substantially. The foreseeable future forecasts “staycations” as a hot commodity, so the time is now to improve your home!
Our experienced personal project developers will work one-on-one with you to create a custom-designed outdoor kitchen that blends seamlessly with your home’s exterior.
You can choose stone, brick, or stucco finishes; and granite, tile, or concrete counters; but we’ll always use a high-quality framework underneath. We build all outdoor kitchens with tubular steel framing and fiber-cement sheathing to give you a durable, non-expansive, and heat-proof foundation.
For a look at some of our beautiful outdoor kitchens, click here.
Two of our projects were featured in Hearth & Home, both beautiful but very different! The first one beams with wow factor!
The second featured project in the magazine is cozy, quaint, but still says, “wow!” This project is 450 square feet of beautiful outdoor living space in Houston, Texas.
For a more in depth look at our monthly featured projects, click here!
We couldn’t be more pleased with Texas Custom Patios and Steven. We have completed two projects with them. We are enjoying our extended patio and our fireplace that they rebuilt. The service and quality of their work was the best we have seen. We could always count on Steven to answer all our questions, return our phone calls, and show up on time. The finished results are more than we expected. We would recommend Texas Custom Patios and we will use them again for our next project.
We will get back to soon!