Backyard

“We’re always throwing events,” says Paul, so the indoor/outdoor style was a great fit for them.

With its sprawling layout and unique design, the couple knew the renovation would be a challenge. But the couple felt that they had to take on the project and "not put our stamp on it, it’s a work of art,” says Paul.

In the backyard, the couple added a pergola, greenhouse, and outdoor dining space for $6,000.

Previously, a screened porch at the front left had been enclosed for additional living space, but wasn’t very usable, so Jobe and Corral converted it back to its original purpose. Now, it serves as a mudroom and a transition space before entering the living room. The preserved board and batten siding is painted Benjamin Moore ‘Kendall Charcoal’ and the ceiling fans are from Schoolhouse. Board-formed concrete replaced the brick, and new steps are formed by limestone slabs taken from the tops of quarries so that the top surface is natural.

Landscape studio Moody Graham collaborated on the garden design, planting mostly edibles and a riot of flowers. The steel trellis crowns the built-in limestone bench and lavender-filled planters.

The Jerusalem limestone extends from the inside out, creating continuity between the great room and terrace.

The little house has a firepit surrounded by a steel bench that McWhirter designed, and the couple grow vegetables in raised beds. They “sped up the process a little bit,” McWhirter says, on the corrugated steel fence’s patina by using hydrogen peroxide, vinegar, and salt.

After reading about landscape designer Ryan McWhirter’s firm in a local paper, architect Karin Scott reached out about working on a San Antonio, Texas, lot where she and her husband were building their new home.

Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP used 87 translucent bricks to reframe a family’s connection to nature and the city.

Kenyan designer Naeem Biviji, cofounder of Studio Propolis with his wife, Bethan Rayner, added a 250-square-foot extension to their Nairobi home. The new living room has sliding doors made of recycled wood that open onto a trellis-topped terrace filled with plants grown from clippings harvested from Naeem’s mother’s garden.