Decorative Screens Out-Door Room

There a range of compressed hardwood decorative screens on the Market and they are cool. Decorative Screens do four things:

1) They reduce the impact of rain water entering your outdoor space and also reduce the effect of strong winds entering the outdoor room
2) Provide shade and or filter the light in a cool way
3) Provide a sense of enclosure and privacy
4) they look great

We installed these screen do all 4 things and they look great. It's still like "open" but "not" and the effect is breathtaking.

The Sreen sizes are typically 600 x 1200 mm but the challenge was to frame or mount them in such as was as not the have a heavy cumbersome frame thats look bulky and ugly and needs maintenance.
The solution was Anodised Aluminium square tubing using quick lock nylon connectors. Using self drilling SS metal screws and a lot of measuring to get it right making a 1800 x 1200 3 panel section or 600x 1800 side panel effect.
These screen frames were mounted in Merbau half hight walls lined on each side that matched the hight of the outdoor kitchen bench top. The outdoor room has three exit points which will remain open.

The cost of the panels can be a shock the the system, Chippy's in Ringwood stock "OutDeco" brand panels a charge a whopping $85 each for the "bungalow" patten design - its a rip off but they look great (they were used on Channel 9's The Block last year), so far I've used these on the front and side gates (see previous posts) and now in the new Outdoor Room. Bunnings had another design called "Beijing" that were on sale for $15.00 each... yes only $15, so I decided to use these at the other end of the outdoor room and they also look great, They are far enough away as to not look out of keeping with the overall effect of the new "enclosure" Combined with the Merbau half hight walls the effect is very pleasing.

The overall effect is that the Outdoor room is looking brilliant and a great place to be to have a kitchen, outdoor barbie and the solar powered LED TV to escape to. It brings the outside in and the inside out.

here are some snaps...

Roomification

Well it was time to recycle the huge amount of Merbau left over from the old outdoor room from the old house. The outdoor room had been lined with cedar and the O.D. kitchen used a fair bit of the recycled merbau, but the outdoor room needed "roomification" and rooms need things like walls but should be in keeping with what an "outdoor" room should be. So with merbau on hand we went to work on building defining walls arround the existing brick pillars and steps. Whalla...here's the result...



Act as a wind break and have really set the room as a room.

Bitchin Outdoor Kitchen

2 days of hard labour and whalla, we have an outdoor kitchen! Used ikea stainless steel soft close cupboards / drawers from the old house plus the stainless steel bar fridge that was collating dust in the storeroom. I recycled the Merbau decking from the old house that was used as backing, kick boards etc, so all in all the exercise only set us back around $300, which converts to something like a $2,000 exercise without my labour of course. We picked up a $99 hard wood bench for only $50 as it was the last one and after some intense Chinese negotiation.. respect!

Great to have this done and dusted ready for the fly season. Again the Bosch professional cordless nail gun was a godsend. So it's tools down and ready for room reveal.

The Metricon Adventure: Solar Eclipse

The Metricon Adventure: Solar Eclipse: Now the the Outdoor room / roof is well... completed, it was time to look up to the sky. The solar / storage system that lived on the old ho...

Solar Eclipse

Now the the Outdoor room / roof is well... completed, it was time to look up to the sky. The solar / storage system that lived on the old house was in need of recycling. The system uses 6 x 100 watt panels linked to two massive 220 amp gel batteries / regulator and a 1,500w pure sine wave inverter. So 440 amps packs a punch and I upgraded the system by one panel and mounted them on this fantastic rack system from Sunlock (solid as a rock) mounted on the outdoor room's colour bond roof. System was from a great little outfit in northcote...



The system is not on grid, but powers a number of outdoor room led's and strip lighting and flood lights. it will also power a led TV which is soon to be installed and off course almost anything aside from an iron or a washing machine. The beauty of the "off grid" / battery system is you get power at night, either 12v or 240v. Here's some picks of the install....

Cederlicious

Well, just in time for christmas the roofers came back and installed to colourbond roof, phew, It was a great relief to have a lid on the room. And then it was time to line the ceiling, much lamenting ridiculous quotes, plastering, panelling mmm hard choices. The winner was rich cedar tongue and groove timber. But being such a bitch to install, I had to get technology on my side. Alas Mr Bosch came to the rescue with the brilliant professional cordless nail gun! Its a serious piece of kit and made a evil do-it-yourself job much easier. 9 x 12V lead lighting were installed along the way and points for solar and TV aerial pre-wired. In addition a stainless steel fan set off a fantastic , if not exotic space. Christmas day saw 15 of us munching down pork and other dead animals with the subtle aroma of ceder adding to the ambience.

Here is a snapshot of the process..

Roofalicious

Trusses are in, guttering, downpipes and Metal facia's installed on the outdoor room and roof goes on tomorrow! Mountings for ceiling fans, pre wiring for LED's and strip lighting plus solar power and in. Waiting for tomorrow's colour bond install.

Here's a pre-roof late night photoshoot