Modern Family Garden Design in Essex- Room to grow

garden design

Brief

The clients of this house in Brentwood have recently completed a large extension spanning the rear of the house, providing them with a wonderful internal kitchen and breakfast room for the family to enjoy. The garden is considerably lower than the internal floor level. The clients wish to create an exterior space which is sympathetic to the architecture of the house, with a design that’s family friendly, without compromising its aesthetic qualities.

Solution

This family garden design seeks to unify the exit points on the back of the house. A large curved patio with deep terraced steps will span the entire width of the garden adjoining the house. The paving will comprise Ebony Cloud schist paving in a random pattern with black limestone sett edging. Directly outside the main bifold doors will be a large terrace suitable for sun loungers or a small table and chairs to allow the client to enjoy a coffee in the morning sun.

Two curved steps lead down to the a second terrace which wraps around the house to side door. This patio will be large enough to accommodate a dining table and chairs beneath a chunky open pergola constructed on an angle to the house. A simple elegant water feature along the front of this terrace will comprise a shallow curved pool with a stainless steel water blade/weir pouring into a stone dressed sunken sump in a planting bed below. Two more deep curved steps will lead down to the lawn below. A wide straight pathway constructed from black limestone setts will traverse the entire length of the garden, bisecting the lawn and a planting bed towards the back of the space. Two curved decorative pathways constructed from sandstone ‘planks’ will sweep across the lawn between the two side boundaries, laid flush with the lawn to avoid compromising the use of the lawn for ball games. The boundaries will be bordered with raised planting beds constructed from new softwood railway sleepers, with the children’s football goal nestled between the beds on the right hand side.

A line of pleached trees running across the span of the garden at the end of the lawn will demark the entrance to the rear section of the space, tall enough to mask a children’s play area cited in the bottom right of the garden. The trees will frame the garden within a curved bed full of bold planting. The bespoke children’s play centre beyond will be versatile enough to allow for continued enjoyment as the children grow and will benefit from top rope bridge, plus tunnels and slides that terminate in the planting beds to integrate the play within its surroundings.

To accommodate the existing levels, there will be a small step up to the back of the space. A new patio area directly outside existing outbuilding/summerhouse structure at the end of the garden would echo the paving adjoining the house, with the black granite sett pathway continuing to the main door of the structure.

family garden design
family garden design
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