Design Details: The Outdoor Spaces
Part 6 of a midweek series where I plan to go through every room in my home to work out why the space works and explain what I've done.
This week, we are heading outdoors to to talk about the outdoor space, my favourite part of the garden and one that we have transformed since we have lived here. Although admittedly, it is absolutely pouring it down today (it seems to have been pouring it down for DAYS) and it’s not, in reality, looking particularly appealing but it’s a good space and worth talking about.
When we moved in, it was a rather barren area, as you can see below. This is the Estate Agents brochure photo - the house had been modernised by a developer who had done the bare minimum, really, outside. The half rendered section on the right here is a renovated outbuilding, not the main house. The white door leads into what we use as a gym and to the right of this wall is another door that leads into the courtyard space. The brick walls are all original to the house and one of the features that made us fall in love with it; behind the big wall are the old barns from when it was a farm that have been updated into sympathetically designed homes. There are two patios, as you can see - the top one is raised decking and the bottom one (which we use as dining space) is paved with York Stone. The back garden leads on from the decking (so the bottom of the photograph) which we use as a seating space.
Okay, so now you have the whole (longwinded) picture, let’s explain what we did. First of all, we added pergolas to both. It’s a rare occasion in this country when you are able to be outside without some fear of rain, so it seemed sensible to created two covered spaces, one over each, so that they would work year round. I found a local landscape gardener called Simon who designed and built two covered spaces. Here’s what he drew: