CITY & SHORE, January 2002

INSIDE OUT - OUTDOOR ROOMS BREATH FRESH AIR INTO SOUTH FLORIDA LIVING SPACES
By Roberta Klein

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Up North, the cold wind spreads over the earth like an artic blanket. Pedestrians shiver under gray skies, braving the whipping wind as they hurry towards shelter. If they're lucky they can thaw their freezing hands and feet in front of a cozy fireplace.

Here in South Florida, Gulfstream breezes gently caress our shores. People dressed in shirtsleeves play outdoors all year reveling in the brilliant subtropical sun. For us, a fireplace might be patio accessory rather then a heating necessity, and it might be the center of an open-air room.

Outdoor living is so much a part of Florida that people make it an extension of their homes. They often create such "rooms" in the form of pergolas, pavilions, gazebos, thatch-roofed garden enclaves.

Outdoor rooms with three solid walls and high ceilings may be almost self contained, with gourmet kitchens and huge stone fireplaces.

Some of these outdoor rooms are so lavish that they are furnished with elegant carpets, crystal chandeliers and fine art. Others seem ethereal, with stairways descending into lagoon-like swimming pools.


Yet the rooms have one factor in common. They blur the boundaries between inside and out.


When Bachelor Paul Courchene decided to build a home for himself, it was and easy call. As co-owner with his sister, Janet Little, of Courchene Development Corporation in Boca Raton, the contractor had all the resources at his disposal. No surprise, since he's been building luxury homes priced from $1.5 to $10 million since 1985.

Courchene chose a lot in Delray Beach, half a block from the ocean, and he tore down an existing house to make way for his Tuscany-style home. He and Boca Raton architect Henry Franky were sensitive about scale, since the neighborhood still included small cottage homes. "Because the lots is 100-by10square feet, and the house is 4,250 square feet, we really had to create an environment that was very private and yet felt open for outdoor living," Courchene says.

A three-walled room overlooking the pool was the answer.

Courchene, together with Marc Thee, co-CEO of Marc-Michaels Interiors, designed a large cast-stone fireplace for the room to make it feel like it was inside. "Paul's house is one of my personal favorites," says Thee, whose firm has offices in Boca Raton and Winter Park. "The attention to old materials make it even more charming and intimate."

That's old as in old Chicago brick, which covers the patio floor and bands the top of the pool. Old as in planting pots, which Courchene, Thee and senior designer Jeff Strasser collected during a buying trip to California. And old as in the iron zodiac hung over the fire place.

" When I'am out there," Courchene says, "it's just like a resort. I feel as if I'm away from everything."