Coming in from the garden

Last month I got your creative garden juices flowing with a stunning specimen garden by Eckersley Garden Architecture but all along there was the tease of the house beyond. Now it's time to come in from the garden and enjoy the contemporary garden pavilion that is an addition to the original Edwardian building. Minimalist style at its very best with the border between inside and out all but dissolving. Baffle House by Clare Cousins Architects.

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My raised vegetable and herb garden

Last summer my husband decided to build a garden in our backyard. It was not planned out and in the end I was really not happy with the quick and dirty execution of it. Basically it looked like crap. (No offense husband dearest!) This summer I insisted he destroy the existing garden and WE come up with a plan for something much more aesthetically pleasing. We did a quick google image search one day for raised garden beds and came across a photo very quickly that we both loved. It was essentially a big rectangle with an area cut out in the middle to walk around in. Simple yet a great layout. And let me say right off the bat that if you're thinking of building a garden GO WITH A RAISED GARDEN. Weeding is actually FUN when it's not back-breaking!

We found a super resource of cedar so we went with unplaned cedar to keep the cost down (in the end it cost about $380, and the garden is about 6' wide and 18' long). The wet spot above may or may not be me having just hosed down cat pee. 

We placed it against the side of our garage (that one day in the not so distant future needs replacing). We have grand plans of building a screened in gazebo type shed thingy next to it so we can hang out with the cats and not have to tie them up with leashes/harnesses. 

This garden is fairly large but aside from the gazebo and a larger back porch we don't really need anything else back here. Note the random ferns. They are all over our property. I had no idea they grow like weeds. Best looking weeds out there I'd say! 

The wood on this side of the garage was rotting so husband found something called plytanium. It's an outdoor wood with grooves to look like planks. I decided to hell with it, we would leave it unpainted and I don't care that it doesn't match the rest of the white garage because at least it blends in with the garden. I thought that would make a prettier, more organic backdrop although the plants have grown so big in the few weeks since they were planted that it doesn't show much anyway. 

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Succulent

No not juicy and lip smacking. No, succulent as in the plant. An inner city Melbourne backyard has turned its back on lawn and straggly shrubs instead embracing a cutting edge, or should that be sharp, specimen garden. Urban cool to get your creative garden juices flowing by Eckersley Garden Architecture.

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Streamline Moderne

Interior designer Chad McPhail has lovingly brought this 1930's Art Deco Streamline Moderne home into the new century, refreshing and reinventing but not slavishly restoring. All the Deco details are there but in the hands of Los Angles-based McPhail the home is sophisticated and stylish, modern but not modernised. Beautifully created and curated, inside and out.

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Modern farmhouse

A contemporary family home with a farmhouse feel in Medina, Washington by H2 Design + Build. The house may be new but its contents have been carefully collected over time. Crisp and white but warmed by lovely wooden floors and layers of texture. Pops of colour are used sparingly for impact and personality. I love the pared back simplicity of the exterior, the white contrasting beautifully with the green of the garden.

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