THINK DESIGN TIPS

Making room reservations at the Four Seasons Hotel in Maui is fairly easy, reserving a pool side cabana however, is another story. 

Unable to score a coveted poolside cabana during high summer season, my husband convinced us that we were better off lounging under a sunbrella stuck on the Wailea sand and call it a day. I may have been deprived of a cabana that humid day in July but that didn’t stop me from wanting one. Cabana, which means a hut in Spanish, has always been associated with Hollywood glam. Despite its lightweight structure surrounded with cloth panels, having a cabana or a pool house or a guest house at your residential property is really about having the luxury of an extra outdoor room. Although a pool house and guest house are in the same premise, I just prefer the word cabana and I might as well throw in the word cabana boy while I am at it. But in all seriousness, if an outdoor room is on your wish list (and who doesn’t want one?) and you already have a back or a side yard, it is very possible nowadays to have that addition without the long wait and the annoying permit. Welcome to the wonderful and eco-friendly world of modern prefab.

Imagine an outside room to meditate, lounge, work, play or isolate yourself or your guest all within steps from your home. This is definitely not your garden shed variety of 10 years ago or the tough shed as seen on TV. This is a modern, clean and green architecture Joseph Eichler or even Richard Neutra would approve of.There are several design houses that make or carry this outdoor room among them is Design within Reach or DWR which exclusively has the kithaus k3, designed by Tom Sandonato and Martin Wehmann.

The kithause is a 9′ x 13′ preassembled room that can be tucked into any outdoor area without the need of a foundation or heavy equipment. This structure is made of lightweight and anodized aluminum that has a unique clamping system for easy assembly making this outdoor room almost waste-free. With prices ranging from 29K - 44K, this modern unit equipped with a deck, canopies and louvers can be your quick outdoor getaway. If a one stop shop is really what you want, add another 7-19k and the kithaus k3 can be packaged with DWR furnitures to customized your kithaus as a workspace, a guest room, a sleep pad or a pool pavillion.
Another company, metroshed.com, is a website based in Seattle, Washington that also offers an extensive choice of modern pre-assembled units such as the standard metro shed for the garden, metro play, a metro cabin for the true outdoors and a metro ship for the modern nautical, a luxury condo on water - their antithesis to the rv’s of the seas. Metroshed offers ‘style, space and value for one day’ and no building experience required.

A variety of prefab units can also be found at Modern-Shed.com by Grey Design.

This company, like metroshed offers the basic 6′x8′ unit to the garden and studio shed to the fun play shed for the modern tots but puts one up by offering the biggest dwelling of all, a whopping 1260 square feet that has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a living room, kitchen and optional deck. Who says a shed has to be small? Modern shed also offers the most eco-options such as a denim wall insulation, cork or linoleum floor tile, trex decking and green roof - a modular grid roof system that allows you to plant the entire roof with vegetation i.e. grass, to help cool the structure and help manage rainwater run off. With the many options this company offers, they make it somewhat easier by tossing in free shipping in all of their sheds.

One design house that puts to good use my favorite word for outdoor room is from the San Francisco based company, Modern Cabana. Designed and pre-made by contractor, Nick Damner and designer,Casper Mork-Ulness, modern cabana is ‘designed created, contractor built.’ 

Their cabanas are affordable and easy to install and like the kithaus, depending on the environment, does not need a foundation. Modern Cabanas offer several sizes and options from a standard cabana to an upgraded one ranging in prices from 11-30k, all insulated and wired. A couple of years ago, upon learning of this company’s name, concept and local location, I couldn’t resist contacting them for more information. But because I couldn’t at the moment afford one, I ended up passing this opportunity to my mom and dad who ended up purchasing 3 units and made them into one! So, even if I cannot enjoy one at my property yet, I can at least secure reservations for a cabana at my parents house, guaranteed.

Basically and fortunately, these modern design houses have the same philosophy which is offering an eco-friendly, affordable, modern and tasteful outdoor retreat. They all believe that their shed or cabana not only look fabulous and chic but is easy to install plus it makes a great addition to one’s home that increases the property’s value and space. If you have the need, the funds, the space, I say go for it. My brother once said to me when I moved to my home that ‘space is gold.’ I couldn’t agree more but this time space is better green.

Author’s Bio:  I work for a pan-asian resaurant in the peninsula and I am a wife and mother of 2 girls plus a pug. I love design and style and have a Bachelor of fine arts degree but I equally love writing. Nothing like thoughts put into words. Email:vivsanchez@aol.com