Plants & Yard Ideas

I love being outdoors, and I love long showers, so to me, the combination of those two things = pure bliss. Now all I need, besides an endless summer, is a backyard with a little more, er, privacy. TOP ROW:1. An outdoor tub under a citrus tree is just about perfect. From Alexandra Eliot’s 1890’s Farmhouse (click to see full tour). 2.

Watson, my French bulldog, approves of the new front balcony furniture and window boxes filled with herbs. I have a notorious black thumb, so the plants were my biggest hesitation, as I hate the idea of making the investment in something that I have been known to kill in a matter of weeks. So I consulted my friends who love to garden and they recommended the heartiest of herbs, which include thyme and rosemary (also a few of my favorites when cooking).

We love a good lap pool. They take up a fraction of the space of a traditional pool, and their elongated shape is so elegant and modern. There’s room to exercise, to splash around and have a drink on a hot day (because isn’t that the whole reason to have a pool?), and you can still have a backyard.While an ideal size for swimming laps is 6 feet in width by 60-75 feet in length, you can still fit a pool that accommodates exercise in as little as 30 feet.

Bonnie’s porch was a great space with a lot of potential — it just hadn’t quite lived up to it yet. See what she did to transform this screened back porch into a party-ready indoor/outdoor room.  Bonnie’s porch is now a bright, cheery, vacation-like space filled with candy-colored accents offset by natural tones. The only thing that makes me a little nervous here is the firepit, but maybe it’s there just for looks and not use.

I love a good porch. Maybe that’s because I don’t have one (and am dreaming of the day), but this one really caught my eye! At first, not terrible, but definitely not dazzling. And now for the after: check out that gorgeous, bright yellow door! The simplest touches, like the paint colors, brand new bench and pretty flower planter, jazz this space up and gave it a whole new outlook. Click on over to The Rooster and the Hen for more details on this before and after!

Rebecca and Staffan have been hard at work building an extraordinary terraced garden in Sweden since 2007. In such a short time they have carved out six terraces and built an unimaginable series of walls to hold it all in place. And then there is this one (comparatively) small piece — an outdoor kitchen with an extraordinary view.And then the glorious after – if I had this kitchen I think I would want to brave the Swedish winters to cook out all year long.

I love this true and honest account of using wood cuts for path making. As a professional I’ve never had the guts to try it because, if what happened on Jen’s first run happened in a client’s garden, well, clearly I would deserve to be fired. So I am grateful that Jen shared the ups and downs of her path project, and am curious as she comes in the the spring how the latest version faired.

This type of corner is so common in so many backyards. Unruly, untouched and unloved, it is just not very friendly. This transformation is satisfyingly sensitive to the tree that shades the area and provides structure and turns something quite unappealing into something that is very sophisticated. See the step-by-step transformation below.1) Paint fence and the wall white – this cleans up messiness and brightens the whole space. It also unifies the disparate vertical surfaces.

Erin lives in a row house with a brick façade that she and her husband found underwhelming. The brick was not the best quality and had mismatched mortar spots, and the bottom line was, they wanted to give their home some stand-out personality.After testing out 12 shades of gray paint samples, Erin of 110 + 2 settled on Sherwin Williams’ Classic French Gray for the house and their Citrus for the front and back doors. The gray is classic, and the punchy yellow is fun and modern.

It started with a splinter. We’d long neglected the worn, ugly deck off our master bedroom. It contained two chaise lounges, a plant, and a sand table for our toddler, but was still bare and underutilized. Then I got a nasty splinter from it — my third in as many days — and I realized we couldn’t ignore it any longer.It wasn’t a rash decision, so much as an acknowledgment that the deck needed repair.

Cindy and her husband loved the outdoor possibilities offered by their large patio, but didn’t love the boring grey expanse of concrete. With this shady spot offering a respite from soaring temperatures, Cindy knew she had to turn it into a more colorful, welcoming space for her family.After using a power washer to clean the patio furniture, she painted the metal chairs with brown spray paint to create some needed contrast.

When Elizabeth and her husband bought their house six years ago, the inspector told them the deck stairs should be replaced within the year. Every year they would add the deck stairs to their to-do list, and every year they somehow failed to get to that project. Until this year that is- after watching the deck stairs shudder when the family pet ran down them, Elizabeth decided the time had come to reclaim their outside space.

Name: Jane and JustinLocation: Oakland, California – Oakmore Neighborhood When we bought our house in 2006, it wasn’t because of the back garden. Picture a mess of tangled weeds, a steep hill upwards, broken red concrete patio chunks everywhere, and fence holes so big our 90 lb. dog sailed right through them.We were no strangers to DIY garden remodels and took the project on enthusiastically, but this — this was nothing we’d seen before.

One of the lovely things about spring is the opportunity to use gorgeous, fragrant branches as decor in the home. Here are five tips to help keep yours fresh as long as possible, because spring is already too short as it is.1 Make an inch long slit in the bottom of each branch and then tap the ends of the branches with a hammer. This allows water to be absorbed more easily and will extend the life of your branches.

Concrete slabs. Many an outdoor space has them, installed by a previous owner whose original intentions for the space are lost to time. It is easy to view them with disdain, a harsh element forced into a natural setting. Many people get rid of them, to be replaced by bluestone, brick pavers, or maybe even a water feature.

With a long weekend ahead and a summer full of travel and fun in the past, I think it is high time I finally wrap up a few of those projects that I meant to finish earlier in the season. There is still time, and I am taking inspiration from these four outdoor furniture makeover projects…First up, old and tired becomes new again with a little TLC and some new accessories.

Did you know that “if you build it they will come” applies to fairies? Well we haven’t proven it, but we’re pretty sure. Crystal had an unused plot of earth at her house and decided to turn it into a hospitable home for homeless fairies.Charming isn’t it? We’re sure some fairies will be moving in soon. See more photos and read a bit about what Crystal used to make it on her blog, The Weekend Homemaker.

Apartment Therapy readers truly are changing the world, one room garden at a time! Today, Edgaroso shares his story: In 2003, two years after witnessing the fall of the World Trade towers from our Brooklyn rooftop, my partner and I decided to leave the big city and head to a quieter part of the country.

If asked to design the perfect world, many would eliminate the presence of the mosquito. We’re sure they serve some purpose on the food chain, but right now, they’re just pissing us off. Every time we turn around we have a new bite! To beat the bite, try a basic bar of soap for quick relief instead of pricey over the counter products.

You may think the only thing required for summer bubble fun is buying a few bottles and small plastic wands at the drugstore. While these certainly work, there’s a whole world of bubble recipes that can create longer lasting, bigger, and better bubbles–and often require ingredients you already have in your home. These sturdier formulas can even allow you to DIY wands out of string for truly giant bubbles that will even impress jaded adults.

We’re no professionals when it comes to flower-arranging, but here a few more tips on choosing the best grocery store blooms to bring your arrangements to life. I’ll deconstruct the arrangement above, which is sitting on my dining room table this week. This was a slightly more expensive splurge on my part, since the roses were a bit more pricey than the flowers I usually buy.