Garden Tour: Justine's Venice Backyard Transformation

ATLA reader Justine of Venice sent us a six pack of photos of her lovely backyard garden for ATLA's Outdoor Home Month, which she converted from a drab driveway into a lush and stylish backyard getaway, complete with elevated deck built by her handy and helpful father. Looks like a an ideal private hideaway for stylish cocktail and al fresco dinner parties, doesn't it? More photos and details about Justine's backyard under the cut.

"For the garden itself, I did a bunch of research (luckily I live in an area with great garden tours each year, and home to many landscape designers including Jay Griffith) and hired a landscape designer to help me achieve my goal. I wanted to divide the back yard into rooms. I have an arbor that covers a built in bench and a large table that my father built. For the table, I bought a mosaic coffee table top off eBay and then my Dad surrounded that with slate. The chairs are IKEA. We created a pattern in the concrete by adding aggregate to vertical bands. I have a gas fire pit that is great on cool nights - the chairs are vintage from Craigslist that I had restring."

"Continuing back, there is a grass area for my dog that accents the existing tree. The lamps hanging in the tree were collected from flea markets over the years. There are two raised planters, and the one in the back by the fish pond extends into a bench. The pond has goldfish in it - good tip: goldfish can be bought on the cheap and in a large garden pond will grow to at least 8 inches long, much cheaper than koi! The butterfly chairs are also vintage - bought in Palm Springs. The covers are from Circa50.com."

Cocktails and dinner at what time?? I'll be there! ;-> Justine, it's absolutely beautiful. Love the lamps hanging in the trees.

posted by oceandreamer56 on June 12th 2007 at 10:19am
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holy smokes. so, so lovely!

posted by heather on June 12th 2007 at 10:59am
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Something tells me you'll be hearing from Mr Griffith and company about putting your place on next years garden tour!

posted by spinsLPs on June 12th 2007 at 1:19pm
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Justine, would you mind divulging the name and contact for your landscape designer?

posted by olliefar on June 12th 2007 at 2:30pm
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Wow. I'm so jealous!

posted by Laura on June 12th 2007 at 2:35pm
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Looks fantastic!

posted by Enrique on June 12th 2007 at 2:38pm
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Thanks, glad you all like it. Landscape Designer was Gabor & Allen: http://www.psallen.com. Great guys who live and work just around the corner from me.

posted by justinegibson on June 12th 2007 at 2:59pm
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Great backyard..thank you for sharing!

posted by Turquoise on June 13th 2007 at 6:29am
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Well, I was going to submit my entry but why bother. This one wins hands down. I need your address so I can stop by for drinks. I promise to bring the wine!

posted by anne on June 19th 2007 at 8:56am
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This is very nice! What's the round thing hanging on the wall in the 2nd photo?

posted by charlenemcbride on June 19th 2007 at 3:31pm
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Hi there - the round thing hanging on the wall is from Pier 1: http://tinyurl.com/px6t7

I have two hanging side by side.

posted by justinegibson on June 19th 2007 at 5:28pm
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Curious as to where you got your wood fence? Do you buy the pieces & have them assembled on site or is this a unit that can be bought in sections. Thanks for your time & efforts-- beautiful work!

posted by artdoggie on June 19th 2007 at 5:29pm
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Please answer the question about the fence. I've been searching for this kind of fence. Now I think that I'll have to make it, but I don't know where to start, how thick the would should be, and how to assemble it. If you could give some details about this it would be very helpful
thanks

posted by itsthehouseshow on June 20th 2007 at 5:22am
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Happy to answer questions about the fence. I did alot of wandering the streets of venice trying to figure out what type of fence I wanted and saw a few variations on this, but mostly made of expensive woods like Ipe.

I chose B Grade Redwood and being the picky person I am, went and selected it myself in order to get mostly knot free pieces. The widths are 7 1/4" and 3 1/2" planks and the gap is 1/4". The posts are also redwood. The fence is 8' rather than 6' wich makes a huge difference in terms of privacy. The stain is Cabots SPF Deck & Fence finish in Cocoa Shell, which has lasted really well.

posted by justinegibson on June 20th 2007 at 11:45am
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it's a summer party waiting to happen!

posted by emilyn on June 3rd 2008 at 1:15pm
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Hi Justine - I'd like to license one of your backyard photographs for the NBC television show I work on (today is1/7/09). Can you please email me at kamookie@aol.com to discuss? Thanks very much.

posted by kamookie on January 7th 2009 at 5:17pm
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