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Outdoor Back Yard Raised Planters Design Photos and Ideas

A simple, hardscaped back patio is the site of many summer parties. The steps lead down to the firepit, where one feels increasingly embraced by the forest.
Casa Rumeu was designed by Correa Milá Arquitectes in 1963 for the Rumeu family. While it is within walking distance of the center of Cadaqués, it feels separate, surrounded by olive groves. Part of the remodel entailed creating more garden spaces, "especially within the olive tree plantations, which are an important component of the estate’s overall charm,
FMT Estudio renovated the pool deck with sanded red bricks manufactured in central Mexico.
In the backyard, the couple added a pergola, greenhouse, and outdoor dining space for $6,000.
Rear garden
The home's windows are from Fleetwood Windows & Doors, while the sofa is from Teak Warehouse.
Another side of the home opens up onto a large lawn.
“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.
A section of the facade—a cross between a shoji screen and a barn door—slides open. Planter boxes contain edible varieties that fuel Mary’s culinary explorations.
Avid gardener Graham and his partner, Steve, approached Amos Goldreich Architecture to expand their Victorian mid-terrace house in the Stroud Green Conservation Area of Haringey, North London. “The design revolves around the garden Graham has lovingly labored over for decades,” says the founder of the eponymous firm. The rear extension includes a bright and spacious kitchen with a terrazzo island and beams clad in oak. Glazed sliding doors and a bay window connect the interior to the yard.
“The roof overhang extends the living space,” says Boyer, so the deck becomes a spot to entertain visiting friends and family. The couple have been working to restore the surrounding land, as well.
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.
JJ Joubert
The pool design provides a tranquil spa-like sound of water falling over three negative edges.
The architects embraced the modernist form of the new structure instead of cladding the extension in expensive brick to match the original Victorian’s exterior.
A maple tree grows through an ipe deck in this garden that Mary Barensfeld designed for a family in Berkeley, California. A reflecting pool separates it from a granite patio, which is furnished with a Petal dining table by Richard Schultz and chairs by Mario Bellini. The 1,150-square-foot garden serves as an elegant transition from the couple’s 1964 Japanese-style town house to a small, elevated terrace with views of San Francisco Bay. Filigreed Cor-Ten steel fence screens—perforated with a water-jet cutter to cast dappled shadows on a bench and the ground below—and zigzagging board-formed concrete retaining walls are examples.
Extension & Courtyard Facing Study
Architecture and interior photographer Marc Gerritsen went back to basics when he designed this minimalist concrete house that you can rent through Airbnb.
Requirements for licensed contractors depend on the scope of work and the location of the project.
You don’t need to have a complicated harvesting tank built if you want to conserve water. A simpler way is to place a rain barrel—found at your local home and garden supply store—under the downspout on your roof to collect rainwater for gardening. Invest in a good water filtration or treatment system, and you can even use your rainwater for bathing, laundry, cooking, and drinking.
The steel-framed doors fully open to the courtyard, maximizing indoor/outdoor living space on the small lot.
A concrete walkway connects the living and dining rooms to the exterior, and concrete forms a built-in bench for lounging by the Solo Stove fire pit.
Fittingly named the Courtyard House, the residence features a large outdoor space tucked underneath the cantilevered upper level, providing a quiet and shaded area for Lalita to enjoy her coffee breaks. Rotated masonry blocks extend from the courtyard wall to create succulent planters.
Before tackling the house, the couple converted the garage into a separate work space with a long, linear window that echoes that in the main house.
A small deck and a custom concrete planter complete the seating area off of the main bedroom.
In accordance with the urban plan by studio Space&Matter, all five piers of the community are interconnected, and neighbors get together to make plans for the plantings.
The family’s backyard features a grape arbor and a vegetable garden. “I began gardening so our son could understand where his food comes from,” says Onna.
Clara spent most of her renovation efforts on the backyard, transforming it into her vision of an English countryside.
A protected outdoor space is tucked beneath the new addition. "When you have an opportunity to breathe new life into a typology, which is indicative of a period, that's a good job to have," says Cuddington.
A vintage Malm fireplace is paired with Pebble seats "K" by Atelier Vierkant.
A new metal roof syncs with the addition’s metal siding and knits the changes together.
Raised beds and containers are excellent choices for beginners, as you can avoid remedying your existing soil and ensure your new crops are receiving the appropriate nutrients via new potting soil.
The stone-edged fire pit is a family favorite. "We do s'mores around the fire every time we go, walk the golf course at night, and love watching the sunsets against the pink mountains," she says.
The terrace serves as an extension of the living room. Both are wrapped in plywood, creating a warm contrast with some of the home’s harder materials.
Landscape Design by Land Morphology
External deck frame with brick that contains the exterior space while cascading into the garden. Timber deck grades at ramps to ease access and timber pergola provides valuable shade structure in summer months.
Interior ceiling beams continue externally to give sense of extended living spaces inside to outside. Timber battens to cement sheet add texture to the exterior light weight walls
Add/Subtract House by Matt Fajkus Architecture | Photo by Charles Davis Smith
Add/Subtract House by Matt Fajkus Architecture | Photo by Charles Davis Smith
The homeowners were more than happy to get involved in any way they could, and they did their own landscaping on the weekends.
The couple had spent a lot of time in Palm Springs, as well as at Austin's Hotel San Jose, and they knew they wanted a pool to provide relief from the Texas heat. Ryan Lemmo sketched out the pool location so the couple could enjoy the live oaks and landscaping during their daily summer swims.
Designed to attract young, tech-savvy city dwellers, the Lodges on Vashon uses virtual registration and check-in and is fitted with handcrafted objects by local island-based artisans.
Back garden view of raised deck with arbor feature from the main living area.
The almost 7,500-square-foot lot features a large in-ground swimming pool and a concrete patio. A separate pool house is adjacent to the main home.
Fields of native grasses connect the main residence, situated at the top of the slope, to the new structures scattered below. A pergola extends from the post-and-beam structure that was maintained during the remodel of the midcentury home.
Carlos Somoza “really brought the project home,” says Brillhart. “With our hope of the architecture being connected to landscape, you need a great landscape architect on-board, and we had that in Carlos.”
The couple tapped landscape designer Carlos Somoza to capture the wildness of the site throughout the landscape plan. This grove of old-growth trees was saved, with new Ipe hardscaping wrapping around them.
An outdoor lounge area is tucked into the juncture made where the new kitchen wing joins with the renovated Trip Russell house.
A view of the new kitchen wing. “We weren’t trying to mimic Russell’s architecture, but we were trying to be sympathetic to the structure and the materiality in our additions and renovations,” says Brillhart.
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