The Great Outdoors: 4 Homes Ideal For Indoor-Outdoor Living

In legendary locales from Easthampton to Southern California, these estates were designed to take advantage of summer’s long, lovely days and nights, effortlessly blending indoor comforts and conveniences with easy access to enchanting outdoor spaces.

Pacific Palisades Paradise

This six-bedroom contemporary home in Pacific Palisades has a unique multilevel floor plan designed to make the most of California’s indoor-outdoor lifestyle. The open-concept public spaces open to a wraparound terrace, while the primary suite enjoys its own private balcony. The lower level offers a home theater, a bar, a wine room, and pocket doors leading to an infinity-edge pool, a spa, and an outdoor kitchen with a bar. The enviable roof deck benefits from a second alfresco kitchen and cinematic views.

Modern East Hampton Hideaway

This uncommon six-bedroom East Hampton home, which architect Lynne Breslin designed as her own residence, has a striking streamlined contemporary silhouette and intriguing, inviting spaces that interact dynamically with their surroundings. Outside the main living and entertaining spaces, an ipe deck seems to float on the lawn’s virtual sea of green. The grounds resemble a serene wooded sanctuary accompanying a bluestone terrace and a solar-heated saltwater gunite pool. A refreshing outdoor shower is nestled amid foliage that creates a natural curtain of privacy.

Elegantly Easygoing Napa Gem

On a roughly one-acre site, this four-bedroom gem unites sleek, crisp contemporary lines with classic, rustic forms, and every effort is made to facilitate a life lived outdoors as much as in. The boundaries between interiors and the home’s setting seem to disappear thanks to multiple pocketing glass walls. In the backyard, a series of terraced patios—one with a fire pit, another configured for open-air dining—are centered around a cluster of towering grandfather trees and cascade toward the sun-washed pool, spa, and lush lawn beyond.

Santa Fe Sophistication

In the exclusive community of Las Campanas, just outside Santa Fe, this sophisticated three-bedroom home celebrates the essence of northern New Mexico living with its emphasis on luxurious contemporary style and indoor-outdoor living and entertaining—all with views of two mountain ranges serving as a dramatic backdrop. The chic open-plan great room opens through disappearing glass doors to a traditional covered patio that encourages alfresco relaxation with a gas fire table and a built-in grilling area with bar seating.

This article was originally published in Sotheby’s International Realty Canada Insight The Art of Living Blog in May 2024