This garden in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, at first glance, on arrival, seemed quite well presented yet the space lacked impact, intimacy, and personality. Everything was very grey and lack lustre. Our client, a Pilates instructor wanted us to inject character and interest into the space with a complete redesign to create a beautiful outlook for students to look out onto and a space for our client to find sanctuary and enjoy entertaining friends and family in their leisure time.

Features we decided should be included were a plunge pool, a daybed for lounging, and all the outdoor essential dining and cooking facilities to turn this outdoor area into stunning sanctuary integrated into a cohesive melody with the interior of the home.

The courtyard garden links the house and a garage studio, and while we wanted a flow between the spaces, we also wanted to delineate the different zones. This was done by defining the transition from one space to another by varying the flooring materials.  The timber deck leads you from the house interior into the entertaining area for dining, cooking, and relaxing on the daybed. A round pedestal dining table skirted by smart chairs on one side is nestled on the other side, against a built-in bench seat connected to the BBQ in a singular, polished concrete, sculptural form.

A slight level-change down leads to the next zone defined by colourful hex concrete tiles that link the entertaining, garage studio and pool areas together.  The pool area is delineated by terracotta batten paving with Zellige handmade tiles in the plunge pool continuing uninterrupted up the adjacent feature wall for maximum impact.

The plant palette of low maintenance cacti and succulents is elevated with a mature olive tree planted near the dining setting to add the allure of Mediterranean beauty with a touch of classic elegance.

All seating from the metal dining chairs to the bench seats and daybed were luxuriously upholstered in beautiful outdoor fabrics for comfort and sophistication.  Bronze shaded wall lights are used in repetition throughout the exterior for functional as well as decorative light to bring the garden to life and extend outdoor lifestyle when the sun goes down.