Large family garden, Seer Green
Large family garden with spaces for play and fun as well as grown up entertaining.
The clients had spent considerable time renovating and updating the interiors of this expansive property on a hillside in Seer Green, near Beaconsfield, and now it’s time to focus on the outside. Their key consideration was to add fun elements for their two boys to enjoy, drawing them outside and away from computer games to get some fresh air and adventure. There were also structural elements that they wished their garden designer to work with rather than erase and start from scratch, as they were part of the elegance that attracted them to the property in the first place. So our brief is to enhance and work with original features where possible, updating materials and adding a sense of overall cohesion to the look and feel of the garden.
At the front, we have given the driveway area a sense of playful fun by incorporating a basketball court into the layout, increased the sense of spaciousness, and updated and refreshed the steps and planting area on the bank up to the front door. A seating area and water feature outside the client’s home office have been added to cater for impromptu ‘escapes’ during the working day, to enjoy expansive views across the wooded hillsides in a private, peaceful spot.
The tricky side garden slopes steeply up to the rear terrace and the client didn’t want steps, so we have created an elegant ramped solution here.
A fully equipped outdoor kitchen is envisaged under the bio-climatic pergola on the wrap-around roof terrace, with relaxed seating, herbs in planters and subtle, elegant lighting effects incorporated into this key evening entertaining space.
The main terrace is to be updated with fresh elegant paving, subtly zoned with changes in texture delineating dining and seating areas. More texture is added in the cladding of the retaining walls and built in planters, which, together with a zingy palette of planting, bring to mind the clients’ love of holidays in Italy. Play is incorporated here for the boys in the form of a table tennis table, and there’s plenty of room on the lawn for football and other garden games.
Softly lit steps lead up to the upper lawn area, where a fire pit area nestles into the space where views across the wooded hills open out. At the end of the garden, a pebble seat draws the clients to sit and watch the horses in the field beyond, accompanied by playful deer sculptures.