Photo by Marshall Evan Photography
For many, a home renovation can appear to be a daunting and arduous process. That wasn’t the case for the Williams family.
The additions of a garage and breezeway to the Williams family home were decisions made out of both necessity and desire. Homeowner Brian Williams, who started the project in 2020 with The Cleary Company, wanted a garage to provide more space for guests and his own hobbies.
“I wanted a workshop to do some woodworking and because I have a collector car and I want to maybe add some more as I get older,” Williams says. “We also have a pool behind where the garage is now and we wanted a place where people could change, where they could use the restroom and have snacks and things like that.”
For the breezeway, however, Williams had a different purpose in mind.
“It didn't seem to make sense to just have a garage sitting there, separated from the house,” says Williams. “We wanted an architectural detail that led you into the backyard so that we could landscape through there.”
Photo by Marshall Evan Photography
Williams credits inspiration for the breezeway’s architectural design to Pinterest and encouragement from his daughter.
“My daughter got me involved and said, ‘You’ve been looking at a bunch of stuff that you want to do for this garage, why don’t you get on Pinterest?’” he says. “I found the design for the breezeway on Pinterest and gave it to The Cleary Company.”
The site helped to determine much of the architectural concept. It’s where he found initial
inspiration for adding dramatic Palladian arches to the concept. The design of the breezeway is consistent with the interior of the house, which also features matching Palladian windows in the family room and front of the house.
Since completing the new renovations, the Williams family has taken full advantage of their new outdoor extensions. The breezeway, decked out with cozy lounge chairs, opens up into a welcoming, airy space that leads into the backyard. It’s an ideal area for the Williams family to relax and admire nature during the summer months.
“The wind hits the back of the house in the back of the garage and falls its way through that breezeway, so it’s a nice little spot to sit in the summer,” Williams says. “The name says it: it’s truly a breezeway.”
The garage has also proved to be exactly what the family needed to better access the backyard and the pool, for both guests and family members.
“The door comes off the back of the garage and comes right out onto the pool,” Williams says. “It’s made it a lot easier for everybody to park, come and use the pool. (It) is so much more functional now that we have easy access to it.”
Photo by Marshall Evan Photography
Sophia Englehart is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
