FALL 2021 ONE ROOM CHALLENGE - WEEK 2: SIDE YARD DESIGN DIRECTION

It’s Week 2 of the One Room Challenge and we are in the rebuilding phase of Grant’s side yard - planting gardens, grading topsoil and spreading grass seed with the hopes that we’ll have some growth before the really cold temperatures arrive.

Last year we completed our backyard living/dining area with brown and cream patio furniture, weathered teak and a creamy white shed. While the side yard is visible from the street it is also visible from our backyard so we needed the spaces to work together. As a result, we’re using the creamy white paint colour we used on the shed to paint the chicken coop, bringing in brown through the steel roof, come copper elements and are currently on the hunt for more teak furniture.

Inspiration

While Room for Tuesday served as major inspiration for our backyard makeover (their backyard and shed makeovers had that same brown and cream scheme that I had in mind), I knew that Boxwood Avenue’s chicken coop would blend in seamlessly in our side yard.

Boxwood Avenue’s Chicken Coop

I loved how Chloe used materials from around her farm, repurposing barnboard as a ramp and old steel for the roof. I knew I would want to try something similar using leftover wood from the work we’ve been doing around the house and whatever we could find at our family farm.

When thinking about plant materials for our side gardens that would compliment our gardens at the front and back, I kept thinking about forsythia and this image by Andraya Frith. I absolutely love this look for the country and thought I could interpret this in a more urban way in our little city by creating a hedgerow in front of a decorative iron fence.

Design Direction

Inspired by these talented designers and their spaces, we’re going to add similar elements but in our own way including:

• 2 chicken coops (fall/winter & spring/summer)

• large symmetrical perennial gardens with evergreen shrubs, forsythia, hydrangeas and LOTS of spring bulbs

• a cedar hedgerow

• silvery weathered teak furniture

• crabapple trees

• ornamental black iron fence

• NEW grass!

We’ve made a lot of progress so far by installing the fence, building and planting the gardens, levelling the ground and planting grass seed and two crabapple trees. We started the framing of our original chicken coop and then decided on a different direction - more to come!

Stay tuned for weekly updates here, more inspiration on my Pinterest and more frequent updates on Instagram.

Carley