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The Great Outdoors: Six Homes for Summer Entertaining

To mark the summer festival season, Luxury Defined tours a collection of exclusive homes with unique outdoor venues

It’s summertime, when festivals and fireworks merge with memorable entertainments at home. To celebrate the season, Luxury Defined showcases an international collection of six spectacular homes with splendid views, superb decks, and sweeping terraces for outdoor revelry and recreation. Each of these homes, in its unique way, invites easy flow from indoors to out, and outdoors to in. Will you barbecue on a Chilean beachfront terrace or lounge by a pool on Biscayne Bay? Dine in a courtyard while watching the lights of Las Vegas or have cocktails on a roof deck overlooking Rio’s Sugarloaf Mountain? Or perhaps, on the morning after, you’ll find a lovely place to savor a quiet cup of coffee. It’s summertime.

Cachagua Beach House
Valparaiso, Chile

This contemporary oceanfront villa overlooks Cachagua beach, a coveted summer resort on Chile’s central coast, two hours northwest of Santiago. The house, designed by Chilean architect Jorge Figueroa, evokes the white stucco villas of the Mediterranean. Throughout are floor-to-ceiling windows facing the sea. The three-level home has a unique open plan, its cool, white interiors flowing to the outdoors, with an exterior staircase leading to the main living areas. There are six bedrooms, five bathrooms, an open kitchen and bar, living room, dining room, and wine cellar. There are two terraces and a lounge terrace on the second-floor roof deck, where a barbecue area and Jacuzzi have 360-degrees views of the beach.

Iron Horse Estate
Whitefish, Montana

This mountain retreat commands three acres in the prestigious Iron Horse golf community, minutes away from Glacier National Park and Whitefish Mountain Resort. The striking log-style residence home is the creation of celebrated designers Lance Fedderly and JA Designs. The 6,500-square-foot interior, with custom wood and stone finishes, vaulted and beamed ceilings, woodburning fireplaces, and oversized windows, offers breathtaking views of the Whitefish Lake and Flathead Valley. There are four bedrooms, an office, theater, wine room, sunken bar, butler’s pantry, steam room, and numerous decks and terraces, including a screened-in barbecue area with a fireplace and water feature.

Ocean-View House in Joá
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

This stunning eight-bedroom, eight-bathroom aerie in Joá, between Rio de Janeiro’s Sao Conrado and Barra da Tijuca, has breathtaking outdoor spaces with panoramic vistas of the Atlantic Ocean and Sugarloaf Mountain. Encompassing more than 15,000 square feet, there is ample space to entertain guests. The living spaces are surrounded by decks or flow out to enchanting tropical terraces. The living room is enveloped by walls of glass that open to a terrace facing the sea. Other unique outside spaces include a courtyard, two swimming pools, and a helipad. There’s also a 24-hour concierge, security, and three parking spaces.

Hollywood Hideaway
Los Angeles, California

Call it an actor’s retreat. This gated and secured modernist compound overlooks the Hollywood Hills on famed Mulholland Drive, with celebrity neighbors and easy access to the studios, Beverly Hills, and Downtown L.A. Inside, walls of glass open to gorgeous terraces, verdant lawns, a huge swimming pool, and scenic views of the Hollywood Hills. All public and private rooms are linked by a dramatic spiral staircase. There are two master suites, four additional bedroom suites, and a large kitchen and dining room opening to a terrace. Additional structures include a media center with its own kitchen, a duplex guest house, a sauna, an aqueduct water feature, and a triple garage with direct access to the house.

Bay House
Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida

Bay House, a modern Palladian masterwork on Miami’s Biscayne Bay, was designed by noted Miami architect Ramon Pacheco for world-class entertaining and art collecting. Among the appointments are smart-home technology, a theater, gym, and master suite with an office. The transition from interior to exterior is provided by walls of glass and numerous balconies and terraces. At the rear, an al fresco dining area with a summer kitchen faces the grand pool terrace with fireplace, lounge areas, and mosaic-tiled infinity pool that seems to merge with the bay. A 71-foot seawall and beautiful cumaro-wood boat dock provide immediate bay access, while the attractions of Coconut Grove are just a stroll away.

Tuscan-Style Villa
Las Vegas, Nevada

This 23,000-square-foot Tuscan-inspired estate home overlooking the fairways of the Southern Highlands Golf Course is the pinnacle of luxury in Las Vegas. The six-bedroom, six-bathroom residence is adorned with marble, granite, and limestone finishes, stone columns, and luxurious appointments, including a fitness center, home theater, billiards room, several wet bars, wine room, elevator, and 10-car garage. With views of the Nevada desert and the occasional fireworks of the Vegas skyline, the home is also an entertainer’s paradise. The upstairs balconies and ground-floor loggias flank a classically designed courtyard with a reflecting pool and grotto enhanced with royal palms, fountains, and fire pits, which captures the spirit of Ancient Rome—or indeed 21st-century Vegas.