The Glass House: Bringing Indoor Comforts to Outdoor Living
Interior Design - Portland, Oregon
The Vision
It all started with a simple vision: slow mornings, coffee in hand, and the peace of sitting outside on comfortable furniture. Living in Portland, Oregon, where the weather can be unpredictable, that dream quickly turned into the desire for a covered outdoor space.
At Alana Spears Home, the philosophy has always been to bring the sunshine indoors. Yes literally, by creating spaces that are light and bright but also in the sense of making your home your happy place. The glass house turned that philosophy on its head, flipping the script from bringing sunshine indoors to bringing the comfort out.
That’s how the idea of the glass house was born: an outdoor living space that feels like a natural extension of the home.
The Design
The design was always about bringing the comforts of indoors outside. The challenge was that there wasn’t a traditional way to create a covered back deck that felt both functional and beautiful. What we did have, though, was space. The most obvious spot was right outside our back door, where the garden had been.
Since both the garden and the deck needed to be reimagined, it became the logical location for the glass house. By modifying the existing deck, we could add stairs that led directly into the structure, keep it close to the house for easy access on rainy days, and solve a problem area that was already in need of repair.
The Execution
The hunt for the perfect glass house came with challenges. Every option I found seemed to mix glass with plastic, which simply would not hold up in Oregon’s climate.
After much research, I discovered beautifully crafted glass houses custom made and imported from France. It is exactly what I had been searching for: customizable, durable, and built to last.
The installation itself was straightforward. The kit arrived directly to the driveway. To prepare the site, we dug out some dirt, layered different types of gravel, and set pavers in place. Precision is key, the pavers must be completely level, so I worked with a contractor trained in France for this specific product. Because we placed the structure next to our home, running electricity into the glass house was simple and seamless.
Interested in having a glass house? Check out our
Glass House Addition service page for more details.