3 Enticing Side Yards That Encourage Outdoor Lingering
The often-overlooked space gets the designer treatment in these three projects
The side yard often gets overlooked in landscape design, and for good reason. It can be a narrow, shady and inhospitable space. But the side yard sometimes can be made into a jewel box, an intimate outdoor retreat.
In the following three side yard designs we’ll see how designers created a lush contemporary garden in the middle of the city, gave a midcentury modern home a colorful new outdoor space and used every inch of a postage stamp-size property.
In the following three side yard designs we’ll see how designers created a lush contemporary garden in the middle of the city, gave a midcentury modern home a colorful new outdoor space and used every inch of a postage stamp-size property.
In designing and furnishing the side yard, “it needed to read as a furnished room and function as part of that space,” Ritchey says. Carefully arranged furniture fits into the narrow outdoor area, borrowing space from the sliding glass doors. The existing cedar fence features a darker, more modern stain that also makes the space read more like a walled room.
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In addition to the side yard, the designer also created an intimate gravel seating area at the rear of the property. Though the backyard is surrounded by neighbors on all sides, the lush layers of plantings create the feeling of being in a secluded garden sanctuary. Lounge chairs and concrete stools circle around a gas fire bowl, providing the couple with an outdoor space to savor a morning cup of coffee or warm up on one of San Francisco’s many foggy days.
Crushed basalt gravel covers the ground in the backyard. Its angular, decorative appearance makes it useful for paths and patios. Ritchey added a thin layer of the basalt over a few inches of base rock. Where the plants grow he added a thin layer of gravel for aesthetic effect.
A hedge of shrubby yew pine (Podocarpus macrophyllus var. maki) will eventually fill in and create a living privacy screen. A ginkgo tree (Ginkgo biloba ‘Jade Butterflies’) anchors the corner next to the hedge, adding more leaf shape, color and texture to the backyard space. Atlas fescue (Festuca mairei) frames the outdoor lounge chair, creating a loose green screen between the back stoop.
Foundation plants, including a yellow-flowering maple (Abutilon x hybridum ‘Moonchimes’), yarrow (Achillea ‘Coronation Gold’) and a dwarf olive (Olea europaea ‘Montra’) encircle the seating area with greenery.
Concrete fire bowl: Miso, Paloform
Read more about this San Francisco side yard
Crushed basalt gravel covers the ground in the backyard. Its angular, decorative appearance makes it useful for paths and patios. Ritchey added a thin layer of the basalt over a few inches of base rock. Where the plants grow he added a thin layer of gravel for aesthetic effect.
A hedge of shrubby yew pine (Podocarpus macrophyllus var. maki) will eventually fill in and create a living privacy screen. A ginkgo tree (Ginkgo biloba ‘Jade Butterflies’) anchors the corner next to the hedge, adding more leaf shape, color and texture to the backyard space. Atlas fescue (Festuca mairei) frames the outdoor lounge chair, creating a loose green screen between the back stoop.
Foundation plants, including a yellow-flowering maple (Abutilon x hybridum ‘Moonchimes’), yarrow (Achillea ‘Coronation Gold’) and a dwarf olive (Olea europaea ‘Montra’) encircle the seating area with greenery.
Concrete fire bowl: Miso, Paloform
Read more about this San Francisco side yard
2. Midcentury Modern Deck
Designer: exactly.
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Size: 462 square feet (43 square meters); 14 by 33 feet
In Ann Arbor, Michigan, interior designer Elin Walters and her husband transformed their side yard into an outdoor lounge after a new addition behind their midcentury modern house ate up a lot of their backyard space. The side yard now features a new deck, which the couple uses for lounging around a freestanding fire pit, gathering with neighbors and eating outside.
Overhead, galvanized plumbing pipes supported by two-by-fours extend from the addition, referencing the home’s midcentury modern style and giving the space a feeling of enclosure that still feels open. The pipes also conveniently support a string of cafe lights.
Colorful outdoor furniture, including vintage and collected pieces, create a welcoming and inviting space that nods to the home’s history. “I find the more vintage items I put in a space, the more character and soul it has,” Walters says.
Designer: exactly.
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
Size: 462 square feet (43 square meters); 14 by 33 feet
In Ann Arbor, Michigan, interior designer Elin Walters and her husband transformed their side yard into an outdoor lounge after a new addition behind their midcentury modern house ate up a lot of their backyard space. The side yard now features a new deck, which the couple uses for lounging around a freestanding fire pit, gathering with neighbors and eating outside.
Overhead, galvanized plumbing pipes supported by two-by-fours extend from the addition, referencing the home’s midcentury modern style and giving the space a feeling of enclosure that still feels open. The pipes also conveniently support a string of cafe lights.
Colorful outdoor furniture, including vintage and collected pieces, create a welcoming and inviting space that nods to the home’s history. “I find the more vintage items I put in a space, the more character and soul it has,” Walters says.
The side yard is nestled between the addition and the freestanding garage. Walters mounted planters on the garage wall (shown here) to dress up the space. “The finish on the fire pit inspired us to have the metalworker make them out of Cor-Ten steel,” she says. The planters sit on galvanized plumbing pipes that coordinate with the trellis structure opposite.
Turquoise Bertoia chairs add even more color to the outdoor space and pair well with the vibrant container plantings and weathered steel planters.
Turquoise Bertoia chairs add even more color to the outdoor space and pair well with the vibrant container plantings and weathered steel planters.
The home’s renovated entry features elements that tie in with the side yard, including the plumbing pipe porch railings and overhang. The use of color, particularly for the front door and vintage patio chairs, also coordinates with the side yard. “They are mint green right now, but we like to paint them every year,” Walters says of the chairs, “Maybe they’ll be orange next — I love orange!” she says.”
Read more about this Ann Arbor side yard
Read more about this Ann Arbor side yard
3. Edible Side Yard
Designer: BaDesign
Location: Palo Alto, California
Size: 3,000-square-foot lot (279 square meters)
This home in Palo Alto, California, sits on a 3,000-square-foot lot. To make the most of the compact property, Branden Adams and Jennifer Ivanovich, of BaDesign, completed an outdoor space overall, including the narrow side yard.
A cedar deck fills most of the yard’s width, with a built-in bench nestling into the edge of the yard. Planters filled with herbs and edible plants surround the bench and are easily accessible from the kitchen just inside.
The space connects the front yard and backyard, so it needed to remain mostly open. Yellow stools can be pulled up as impromptu footstools or tables. Additionally, an outdoor table and chairs can accommodate a full-on al fresco meal.
A Cor-Ten steel gate at the far end of the yard separates the private portion of the side yard from the public portion of the yard.
Designer: BaDesign
Location: Palo Alto, California
Size: 3,000-square-foot lot (279 square meters)
This home in Palo Alto, California, sits on a 3,000-square-foot lot. To make the most of the compact property, Branden Adams and Jennifer Ivanovich, of BaDesign, completed an outdoor space overall, including the narrow side yard.
A cedar deck fills most of the yard’s width, with a built-in bench nestling into the edge of the yard. Planters filled with herbs and edible plants surround the bench and are easily accessible from the kitchen just inside.
The space connects the front yard and backyard, so it needed to remain mostly open. Yellow stools can be pulled up as impromptu footstools or tables. Additionally, an outdoor table and chairs can accommodate a full-on al fresco meal.
A Cor-Ten steel gate at the far end of the yard separates the private portion of the side yard from the public portion of the yard.
On the other side of the gate you can see the portions of the front and side yards that face the street.
Two weathering steel planter boxes (2 feet tall and 2½ feet wide) filled with edible plants sit at the front of the property. The material adds earthy color and texture to the garden and also takes up a much smaller footprint than it would take for stone or wood. The planters’ thin steel walls sit directly on the ground, allowing roots to grow into the soil below.
A decomposed granite (DG) path runs along the side yard to the steel gate and concealed trash enclosure. A living fence of fruit trees delineates the property line. The fruit trees grow along weathering steel trellises.
Two weathering steel planter boxes (2 feet tall and 2½ feet wide) filled with edible plants sit at the front of the property. The material adds earthy color and texture to the garden and also takes up a much smaller footprint than it would take for stone or wood. The planters’ thin steel walls sit directly on the ground, allowing roots to grow into the soil below.
A decomposed granite (DG) path runs along the side yard to the steel gate and concealed trash enclosure. A living fence of fruit trees delineates the property line. The fruit trees grow along weathering steel trellises.
Here we see one of the homeowners harvesting fresh veggies from the raised beds with her two daughters.
Watch now: Learn more about this garden and using Cor-Ten steel
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Watch now: Learn more about this garden and using Cor-Ten steel
More on Houzz
Browse more landscape design ideas
Work with a landscape designer near you
Shop for products for your outdoor space
Designer: Seed Studio Landscape Design
Location: San Francisco
Size: Total exterior space is 700 square feet (65 square meters)
In San Francisco, as in many urban areas, any outdoor space is prized. For this project in the Corona Heights neighborhood, a paved side patio next to the kitchen and dining area offered two homeowners more valuable living space. Folding glass doors and slate pavers (which predate the design) at finished floor height make the transition from the home outside nearly seamless.
Landscape designer Steve Ritchey, who oversaw the redesign, topped an existing perimeter fence with new planter boxes, creating an even more attractive view from the many rooms that overlook the patio. Blue chalk sticks (Senecio mandraliscae), native island alumroot (Heuchera maxima) and western sword fern (Polystichum munitum) grow in the planters.
Overhead are new wood crossbeams, “creating a sense of an outdoor room instead of the existing slot canyon feeling,” Ritchey says of the three-story-tall walled space. “My goal was to bring down the ceiling to something approximating a more typical room height, which feels more comfortable and inviting.” The wood ceiling and eventual maple tree canopy, he adds, help keep the eyes down and within the space.
Mounted heaters: Infratech Comfort Heaters