A Douglas Fir timber frame and black 4-Track Stacking Windows in the Ottawa area. Two honest materials, planned together from the start. The result is a three-season porch that looks like it was always supposed to be there. This project was installed by The Leisure Store – Ottawa.

Project Details

This three-season porch enclosure in the Ottawa area started with a good question: what if the frame and the windows were planned together from the beginning, instead of figuring out the windows at the end?

The answer is this.

The contractor built the structure from Douglas Fir timber. Heavy, honest posts and beams that set the tone for everything that followed. Into that frame, Craft-Bilt 4-Track Stacking Windows were fitted to each bay in Black, running floor-to-ceiling across three walls of the home’s rear corner. Clear vinyl glazing keeps the views open while the grid of black aluminum frames gives the exterior a quiet, graphic quality that works with the architecture rather than competing with it.

From outside, it reads as part of the house. The timber against the black window frames, the composite siding below the sill, the dark cladding on the house itself. Everything is speaking the same language.

From inside, the purpose of the space becomes obvious. The Douglas Fir tongue-and-groove ceiling runs continuously from the interior through to the exterior overhang. A large-format tile floor handles the kind of foot traffic a real outdoor living room gets. A black ceiling fan keeps things comfortable when the panels are open. And they do open, fully, in summer. Ottawa summers are short. The 4-Track windows make the most of every warm day, stacking completely to give the room full screen-porch ventilation when it counts.

When fall starts hinting, the panels close. In Ottawa, you learn to appreciate that flexibility.

The sectional is full-size. The lounge chairs have ottomans. The furniture is arranged like a room because that is what this is. A room that happens to face a wooded backyard and gets better every time the weather changes.