How to Be the Home Where the Tweens Want to Hang – Peek at a Project

How to Be The Home Where the Tweens Hang Out
A goal for many of our clients is being the home where their kids and their friends want to hang out. And today we are sharing a project that will show you how to be the home where the tweens want to hang.
Why do our clients want to be that home? They get to know their children’s friends in a way that some parents don’t. If everyone is hanging at your house you get to see first-hand how they have fun, support each other and what they are into.
For this client who recently put a pool in their backyard, we designed a pool porch that will be the indoor entertaining space to support the pool. The pool will be a great way to attract kids to their home but to round out the day, you can imagine that a cool porch with a spot to eat or play games makes it a spot to spend the day.
We used a pool and surfing theme to give the porch a fun vibe. We put together a plan that included a dining table, buffet, and art.
For more on outdoor entertaining at home please read this blog.

Start with a Space Place
A great place to start with any design project is a space plan. For this pool adjacent porch we had three goals
-Design a space out of the sun to eat and relax
-Keep a free traffic path to the pool bath and game room
-Seat eight people and include a buffet to load up with goodies
We gave our client two options that did this. We always provide options so our clients can choose the best of the best options.

Find Aesthetic Inspiration
Even though this is a poolside, not a beachside porch, we thought that vintage surfboards would be a fabulous inspiration to create a custom but not themey look for this porch. Youth and sunshine are called to mind when you think of surfing. We found some vintage surf boards and sketched many custom dining table tops inspired by the patterns of 1960s surf boards.
We presented the three best to our clients, and they chose the one they liked best.

Complete the Youthful Look
Thinking of a beachy them we completed the youthful look with rattan dining chairs and a buffet with geometric marquetry that felt fun and young. The maple and terracotta wood will blend beautifully with the graphic look of the surfboard-inspired table made of maple wood.
By creating a youthful look, we are showing how to be the home where the tweens want to hang. And we kept the space sophisticated enough that Moms would love to eat here too.

Custom Table Drawings
While our surfboard-inspired table was fun to sketch, we did working drawings to send to the local maker to ensure the table turned out the way we wanted. Every chair will fit around the table and the scale of the pattern would be just perfect.
Having a great idea is only part of our job. Making sure it is executed well is an important role. We make sure that our clients have the fun but none of the stress of implementing the design.

Artwork Completes the Look 
To go along with our sunshine and youth concept for this porch, we chose a Samantha French print to go over the buffet. The swimming theme is fun and colorful. I imagine one could pretend to be on a beach vacation on this porch once the snow starts flying again in November.