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Outdoor Back Yard Grass Design Photos and Ideas

The family spends much more time together in the rear yard since the renovation.
The garden is planted with araça, bacupari and aroeira trees, all native varieties.
“Many people said ‘you’re crazy,’ because it’s a circular house,” says homeowner Sergio Goyri. “But in the end, we just love how easy it is to go from one place to the other and how we communicate. Every room is integrated, and that’s what we were looking for for a weekend family house."
Another move that reduces the house's environmental impact is the inclusion of photovoltaic panels on the roof. The panels generate enough energy to offset 95% of the house’s consumption.
Although previous owners built a pool at a lower part of the yard near the piano room, the couple decided to build a new one just off the kitchen. “We thought, it would be amazing to have a pool that was kind of jutting out, with the backdrop of the city,” John says. The patio doubles as entertaining space for summer parties.
Moss-covered rocks and twisted tree trunks give the landscape a fairyland-like quality.
In the backyard, the couple added a pergola, greenhouse, and outdoor dining space for $6,000.
A perfectly groomed backyard lawn with a paver patio.
A healthy budget for landscaping allowed Leah to achieve a natural, wild look with plants. “I wanted to look out and see just lush plants growing wild,” she says. The collage of native vegetation was also used to soften the transitions between surface materials and backyard zones.
Surrounded by oak trees and lush grasslands, Field Cabin features a steeply pitched roof and an expansive glass door and decking on the front facade.
The courtyard brings natural light into the lower level of the home, which has a den/media room, guest suite/workout area, and storage and mechanical.
The side walls have been treated as vertical extension of the horizontal surface of the garden, and are used for growing climbers such as jasmine, grapes, honeysuckle, raspberries, beans, peas, and even a climbing fig. Colorful bird’s houses and bug hotels are also mounted on the walls.
Rear garden
An energy-efficient TPO membrane covers the living room’s zigzag roof.
Twenty-foot-wide doors from Solar Innovations offer easy access to the deck. “Solar Innovations was the only manufacturer at that time that had a pocket multi-slider with a good ADA threshold,” says architect Erick Mikiten. “They almost look like steel, but are thermally broken aluminum.”
The expansive grassy lawns features several ponds, fountains, native greenery, and even a tea house.
Alloi's design solution for the exterior envelope included exterior rigid insulation to reduce solar heat gain, and recycled newspaper blown-in cellulose insulation at interior and exterior walls, creating an energy efficient and peacefully quiet home.
Eisler Landscapes provided plants for the yard.
Perforated steel screens provide shading and privacy to the interior living spaces. The garden extends from the inner courtyard to the rear yard with open, connected spaces.
Another side of the home opens up onto a large lawn.
When Zuzana Kovar and Nicholas Skepper set to work updating an aging Queenslander cottage for a young family in Brisbane, the first challenge was the home’s orientation. “We wanted to connect the interior of the house with its garden—a vital space for the family and their children, and one that the cottage previously turned its back on,” says Kovar. Now, an updated layout sets the kitchen, dining, and living room adjacent to the verdant garden, and sight lines through the house connect the indoor and outdoor areas.
“The pool house was something I always wanted to build,” Robert says. The bar is the main attraction. And next to it, a lime tree is within reach to make fresh gin and tonics.
Fabian plays with Morten in the yard, which features a spacious lawn and a greenhouse.
The multiple double-glazed apertures of the addition situates the kitchen in close connection to the backyard garden.
The deck, fashioned from ipe, was built around one of the property’s many granite outcroppings. An earthen roof was planted with the same varieties of sedum that were added to the front of the cottage.
The homes were designed to maximize the indoor/outdoor experience. “On long weekends, we sit in the garden, invite friends, and make a barbecue. It’s like we’ve gone on holiday without leaving home,” says resident Luca Pagnan.
Melbourne firm Splinter Society’s main goal for the Bungalow 8 renovation and expansion was to create "a more modern, free-flowing series of connected living spaces,
The rundown barn sat on twenty-five acres of countryside in Devon.
The Smiths’ new cabin, designed by Risa Boyer Architecture and completed in 2020, sits in the same spot as their previous home, on five acres on Mount Veeder, in Northern California. Somehow, the red chicken coop, which is constructed of wood, survived the fire with the chickens still alive inside.
Vincent (left) and Jan-Nicolas hang out on the main house’s terrace, where they can watch fishing boats catch lobster, halibut, and other sea creatures depending on the season. “We know where our food comes from,” says Jan-Nicolas with a smile.
The exterior is clad in black standing-seam metal siding, while a terrace with a family-size sectional sits on the roof. Even on a small lot, there’s room for a backyard with a trampoline.
Bordering a six-acre nature preserve, Michael Haverland’s timeless Glass House has a saltwater lap pool, a travertine patio, and a detached 600-square-foot studio.
Two new structures were also built in the backyard, and connected to the main house via the landscape plan by Lilyvilla Gardens. One is a 485-square-foot guest house, and the other is a 375-square-foot workshop for the owner, who’s a bike builder. They have the same exterior siding as the main house: rough-sawn tongue and groove cedar.
Jari and Anna furnished their patio and backyard with pieces from their furniture line, Skargaarden.
Designed by José Guedes Cruz, César Marques, and Marco Marinho of the Portugal-based firm Guedes Cruz Architects, The Wall House is laid out in an open-box plan, and is fitted with plenty of glass windows to enhance the synergy between its interior and exterior spaces.
The U-shaped villas are carefully arranged among the trees and near the lakefront so that nature is the primary focus of the micro resort.
The guesthouse was the first part of the project to be completed, and Mel lived there while the main house was under construction. From his buying the property in 2009 to Sarah completing a roof garden, the entire renovation took roughly 11 years. Around the pool, the lounge chairs are from Restoration Hardware in a Charcoal fabric, and the trailing vine overhead is a California table grape installed by Sarah’s studio. The competition around the Cornilleau 500M Outdoor Crossover ping pong table can be fierce.
The beanbag chairs and outdoor sofa and chairs are from West Elm and the Case Study Museum Bench is from Modernica.
This tiny one-bedroom rental was designed by Cornwall-based architecture firm Studio Arc, with interiors by Jess Clark. Originally a thatched cottage, the space was updated with aged concrete for a modern feel, while wood shingle walls add a sense of nostalgia.
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