Cozy Deck Brings the Inside Out

Brazenly borrowed idioms of Americana from past architectural epochs have been influencing home design for the last two decades. Bygone eras have had less of an impact on garden design--at least here in the West--but the romanticized past played a big part in the design of the deck at the Huntington Beach home of Claudia Schmutzler and partner Jeanie Werner.

Inspired by the homey, enclosed porches of old New England, the couple adapted the East Coast model to a wooden deck, creating the ambience of a cozy room without walls. It’s a fresh look for a California deck, and a very comfortable one at that.

Classic New England porches look and feel more like rooms than patios or decks because they are roofed over and screened in--as protection from fickle weather and biting insects such as black flies and “no-see-ums” that can make unshielded summers miserable. To make the most of their all-too-brief warm weather, Easterners spend a lot of time on the porch and often furnish them as another room in the house.

“California’s weather is so much better, and there are no bugs. We can live outdoors nearly all the time, so why don’t we?” said former New Englander Schmutzler, who fondly remembers time spent on a traditional porch. Perhaps our outdoor living spaces, despite the recent trend toward elaborate outdoor kitchens, simply aren’t comfortable enough. Schmutzler and Werner have been designing gardens under the name of Beverly Glen Design since 1995, but nothing is quite as challenging as designing your own. After a lot of thought, Schmutzler decided on a wooden deck that could be built level with the interior floor of the house. Wood reminded her more of traditional porches, which, like decks, are typically elevated. (Patios are usually at ground level.) Schmutzler admits the wooden deck requires more care--it must be re-stained every three years--but she says it’s worth it.

Because summer rains are seldom a problem here but hot sun is, the designers added a grape-covered trellis above the deck, inspired by an Italian trattoria Schmutzler remembers from childhood. (Some of her family lives in Italy, around Milan and Genoa.)

Though the deck does not have a solid roof and is not screened, it still has all the creature comforts and warmth of a screened porch, with a similar sense of enclosure.

The deck is so much like a room that it even has windows. Though they are mostly for ornament, the windows do add considerably to the sense of enclosure and help a little with the privacy.

“They were actually a goof that we turned into a nifty design idea,” Schmutzler said. She said they were ordered for the house but were the wrong size, so they hung them at one end of the deck, instead of simply throwing them out or storing them away. They even added a fabric valance over the windows.

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For true living-room comfort, there are two inviting wicker chairs for reading or relaxing, and a nearby chaise. Wicker was the favored furniture on Victorian porches. An indoor-style reading lamp with glass shade sits on a wicker table, and a mirror on the wall completes this cozy setting.

Indoor lamps with fabric shades also hang from the posts that support the trellis overhead, casting their warm glow at night. In fact, this outdoor deck is amazingly cozy and well lit at night. Said Schmutzler, “We made sure there were plenty of electrical outlets!”

Schmutzler, 39, grew up in rural New Hampshire, and one of her sisters still lives in Roxbury. On visits back, she noted how the table in the screened porch was always set with napkins and salt and pepper shakers.

That inspired her to bring amenities normally found indoors into the great outdoors of the deck. Now there is a rustic Mexican sideboard (which used to be in the house) next to the outdoor dining table. There’s even an indoor-style lamp with a fabric shade on the sideboard. There are fabric tablecloths, place mats and napkins, and the requisite salt and pepper shaker. And, of course, a bottle of virgin olive oil.

She and Werner, 44, dine outside all the time and entertain a lot, so the table is usually set, and there are built-in benches as well as chairs for lots of seating.

The deck is kept outfitted this way for most of the year, but during the rainy season, the rustic wood sideboard, the wicker furniture, the fabric valance and all the cushions come indoors. The pieces each have a second home inside the house. The fabric lampshades also come indoors, and the light fixtures get covered with plastic bags so they do not get wet. Most of the light fixtures are not rated for outdoor use.

The deck was so important to Schmutzler and Werner’s outdoor lifestyle that they built it before they did anything to the inside, or outside, of the house. The deck, a lawn and other plantings replaced a yard that some previous owner had filled with crushed white rock.

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“There was nothing in the backyard but white rock,” Schmutzler said. They also topped a block wall with trellis and covered it with vines so the wall would be taller and the yard more private.

The deck was finished--but not furnished as it is today--four years before a remodel that changed the look of the ‘50s stucco house. The deck actually inspired the remodel. They updated windows--but chose wood for the frames--added French doors and shingled the exterior, which helped the house blend better with the deck.

The deck “has been a work in progress,” said Schmutzler, who says that only in the last year has she felt it has finally achieved the comfort level of an old-fashioned screened porch.

Write to Robert Smaus, SoCal Living, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90053; fax to (213) 237-4712; or e-mail robert.smaus@latimes.com.