GARDEN MAKE-OVER: BEFORE & AFTER

I’m still furnishing and accessorising our new garden/decking area but I couldn’t resist sharing some before and after pictures. I can’t believe our landscapers are finally finished! It’s always stressful no matter how much planning you do. Especially if you are a perfectionist like me. Well, there’s always few things that I would do differently but I am definitely loving our new outdoor living area. It’s so much more than a garden now. It’s our new favourite place to hangout and socialise and it feels like part of the house.

Here are the before and after pictures!

 

You can see our old extension in the fifth picture. What a change, right? The new extension and the raised decking really make the outdoor space feel like another room in the house. It’s nice the way the oak flooring flows into the garden and how the trees make it feel secluded and private. I love a natural looking garden. Even though I am a fan of contemporary design, a leafy garden brings texture to our house in my opinion. It’s almost like our new extension invites the nature indoors through the glass and the double doors. I can definitely see myself throwing a few barbecue parties here and dining with the family.

We used Plantazia Landscapes to transform our old garden and driveway. The driveway was actually a much bigger job but it made sense to do them at the same time. The timber decking was relatively quick to install. Our landscapers also laid a new lawn and installed railway sleepers on the sides so the garden would feel nice and structured. It definitely took a long time to get rid of the old pavement blocks but once the diggers were gone it was all very straight forward. You can read more about it in my last garden update. The builders pretty much stuck to the agreed schedule but their attention to detail let me down in the end. I had to check the work everyday and ask them to fix things that had gone wrong. I guess this is pretty normal in most building/renovation projects though. I would still recommend Plantazia but you definitely need to be onsite everyday to see the progress. Too many things could have gone wrong if I hadn’t been there!

We have been literally living in our garden for the past few weeks. The weather has gotten warmer and I’ve spent so much time outside that I even managed to catch a cold. I guess the cold winds finally got me. We’ve had quite a few barbeques already and the kids are demanding to have their breakfast outside, on a good day that is.

You might have noticed that the grass and the weeds are getting a bit out of control. We won’t have our gardeners in for another 2 weeks so it will look a bit messy but I’m hoping that this time we can maintain our garden looking nice and neat. The trees need pruning and I also need to find someone to oil/preserve our decking. We realised pretty quickly that it will need to be treated as it absorbs liquids quite easily. I managed to pour some sun lotion on it already but swiftly got it out with a power hose. I might not be so lucky next time though!

So, what do you think? Does our outdoor living area flow with the rest of the house? I’m very excited although there’s still a lot of work to be done. The shed needs to be painted (probably black) but I’m not in a hurry. I think we all just want to take a bit of a break from the renovation works for now and enjoy our new outdoor living space. Let’s hope the warm weather continues!