Toowong Residence, Brisbane

Designing and constructing a garden for an outdoor, active family of five is one that always brings such joy- especially when its currently filled with overgrown shrubs, trees and an array of Frangipanis, Jacarandas and Palms and screaming out for a makeover.

This projects briefs biggest priority was to create a space that would let the kids hop, skip and jump, while still giving the family a quiet space to gather and draw visitors out from the house to explore and use the whole space.

In this project we designed, supplied and installed the pool, retaining walls, fencing, softscaping, deck and custom made brick bench seat.

In a large rectangular space like this the challenge will always be how best to create “destinations” throughout to engage and attract you to make the most of what is made available. By introducing layered planting on both the top and lower gardens we were able to make the retaining walls softer and overall more appealing. Having a large lawn area always has its benefits, especially when it directly connects with the indoors and outdoors of the house and you have a dog + three young children.

The Conversation corner was always going to need to be a feature in order to pull you away from the house in order to enjoy the sun soaked afternoons and view out towards Mt Cootha. Using the feature brick ‘San Selmo’ in Limewash we were able to install a curved bench seat perfectly nestled in-front of some dense, lush, green planting and under the canopy of an existing Frangipani to give it that overall feeling of cosiness we were after.

Lighting played a big part throughout this space as it allowed us to highlight all of the elements right from dusk. Whether the garden and pool were in use or not with the flick of button it was a paradise to look out onto from the kitchen window.

This garden is one that will be able to grow with the family, be used to entertain themselves or others all within the privacy and comfort of their own home.