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A living room with floor-to-ceiling, pocketing multi-slide doors open wide to the backyard patio.

Reverse Trend

California home turns indoor-outdoor living upside down.

Sometimes, the best view is upside down. Nestled between bungalow-style homes overlooking the rolling surf of oceanside Encinitas, California, one two-story contemporary home takes indoor-outdoor living to a new level with an inverted floor plan and moving walls of glass.

Categories

  • Residential
  • Classic Line
  • 90-degree
  • Pivot door
  • Windows
  • Sliding doors
  • Multi-slide door

Location

  • California
  • Encinitas
A view of the balcony with a large glass wall that opens to the patio.
The balcony deck boasts massive glass and an additional 2,219 square feet of space.
Architect Lindsay Brown of The Brown Studio designed two living areas – one for each level – and put the kitchen upstairs to maximize views while preserving privacy. “Our approach was to privatize the house from its neighbors without sacrificing the sense of indoor-outdoor living, capturing the ocean views from every possible vantage point,” Brown says. From the outside, the home looks somewhat unassuming on its long and narrow one-acre lot. Charred cedar wood siding gives the home a quaint look. But step through the dramatic pivot door entrance, and everything is bright and open.
“Western Window Systems’ selection of doors and windows allowed us to open the space to epic ocean views.”
- Lindsay Brown,
architect, The Brown Studio
A bedroom with clerestory windows above the bed and hinged windows in the corners.

Every room in the house is outfitted with glass, including bedrooms with hinged windows that let in the natural morning light.

From the outside, the home looks somewhat unassuming on its long and narrow one-acre lot. Charred cedar wood siding gives the home a quaint look. But step through the dramatic pivot door entrance, and everything is bright and open.

Every room is outfitted with big glass, including the bathrooms, which feature hinged windows that swing open to let in fresh air and natural light. Even the home office has sliding patio doors that provide access to the outside. The home’s largest openings face south and west, with large louvered doors and cantilevers providing shaded areas.

Upstairs, a 90-degree configuration of multi-slide doors creates a flawless transition to the outdoor deck and provides unobscured ocean views. The boxy balcony deck, perched on an overhang above the vanishing-edge pool downstairs, boasts an additional 2,219 square feet of space. When the 90-degree multi-slide doors are all the way open, it creates a stunning flow of space with seemingly infinite views, Brown says. “We love opening the pocket doors all the way and watching as our guests’ jaws drop to the floor!”
A wall-to-ceiling sliding patio door in the home office provide access to the outdoors.

A sliding patio door in the home office provide access to the outdoors.

“Western Window Systems doors allow us to expand the sense of indoor living space onto the decks outside – elevating the sense of space in the home.”

- Lindsay Brown,
architect, The Brown Studio
The dining area was placed upstairs to maximize views through floor-to-ceiling windows while preserving privacy from neighbors.

The dining area was placed upstairs to maximize views through floor-to-ceiling windows while preserving privacy from neighbors.

“We love opening the pocket doors all the way and watching as our guests’ jaws drop to the floor!”

- Lindsay Brown,
architect, The Brown Studio
Western Window System

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Western Window System

What Makes Them Great

Designed for indoor-outdoor living.

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How They’re Made

Built and tested to last.

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