Patio of the Week: Multiuse Yard Extends Family Living Outside

Photos by Leonid Furmansky

Yard at a Glance
Who lives here: A couple and their two kids
Location: Austin, Texas
Size: 3,000 square feet (279 square meters)
Designer: Brian Baughman of Double B Design

Baughman pushed an existing patio much deeper into the backyard, moving the spot where it met a sloping hillside. “The goal was to create multiple spaces for multiple activities, to make it look open and inviting, to soften up the environment to make it comfortable, to design it for day and night and to make it feel secure and warm,” he says.

Baughman worked in concert with the style of the home’s freshened-up exterior so that the yard feels like a natural continuation of the architecture. He repeated materials and the black-and-white color palette. Long bands of concrete with turf in between break up the patio, energizing and softening the hardscape. “These clean lines draw the eye across the site and add depth to it,” Baughman says.

The sliding doors seen here lead to the primary bedroom, and the door to the right of the outdoor kitchen opens from the living-kitchen area. Baughman also created circulation to gates on either side of the house. A path runs behind the pavilion to the side yard gate on the left, and another runs to the gate on the right beyond the umbrella. The new trees on the right side are Monterrey oaks (Quercus polymorpha, USDA zones 7 to 10; find your zone).

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Before: This photo shows most of the existing patio. The umbrella in the previous photo now sits approximately where the hot tub was. (They had to remove some trees in order to push the patio farther into the yard, but they saved the trees in areas where they didn’t do any grading.)

“There was no life or meaning to the site,” Baughman says. “It had a covered hot tub and zero interest or engagement. We knew we could make much better use of this space.”

The family wanted to host bigger events like parties and school functions, as well as gatherings to watch football games. “It needed to serve kids and adults,” Baughman says. “They wanted it to work for family parties, for parties that were just for adults and, of course, for just the four of them.”

After: These two outdoor rockers create a cozy seating area directly off the bedroom where the homeowners can enjoy the view of their backyard.

Baughman had the long bands of concrete scored as a way to imply that they are composed of 3-by-3-foot pavers. The grass between the bands is a convincing artificial turf that’s very low-maintenance. “Putting in these strips of turf broke up the ground plane and made the yard more engaging,” Baughman says. “Scoring the concrete bands was a cost-effective way to break up these long bands and give [the yard] a personal sense of scale. We also wanted it to be barefoot-friendly and heel-friendly.”

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“The house has an updated transitional-modern farmhouse style with more traditional materials. We wanted this pavilion to feel like a natural extension of the house,” Baughman says. They used the same color palette and roof shingles and added vertical board-and-batten siding to connect the new structure to the house.

The wife is the owner of design firm KVM Designs. “The pavilion was a collaboration with her — she selected the countertops and the tile, and we both kept a sense of the simplicity of black and white in mind,” Baughman says. He also planned spaces to work with the black, white and natural teak furniture the family brought from its previous home. The geometric black-and-white tile works beautifully with the modern outdoor furniture. And the bar is the perfect perch for catching those games on TV.

The outdoor kitchen is well appointed with ample countertop space, a grill, ice maker, fridge and stainless steel storage and warming drawers. Baughman added LED tape lights beneath the counters to provide a nice glow at night.

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While Baughman’s design considered the parties and school functions that would require space for big groups, he was sure to provide more intimate spaces within the layout for smaller groups to gather. The sitting area off the primary bedroom, the outdoor lounge area, the bar, the dining table and the outdoor fire pit provide inviting spaces for this.

This photo also shows how Baughman handled the cutting and filling of the dirt on the site. He used steel planters to create part of the retaining walls between the flat patio and the hillside toward the back of the yard. The design keeps the option open for a pool, something the homeowners might want to add later. Their property extends beyond the back fence, so there’s plenty of room to add one beyond the patio in the future.

Stairs visible on the left side of the photo next to the fence navigate the grade change up the terraces. There needed to be a 3-foot-wide landing for every 30 inches of height gain, and Baughman cleverly used the steel planters and retaining walls to achieve that. This solution also eliminated the need for additional railings.

Before: This photo shows the home before Baughman’s clients bought it. The new sliding doors off the primary bedroom now stand where the row of windows is.

After: This photo shows the area beyond where those existing retaining walls used to be. In the back corner of the new patio, Baughman designed a J-shaped built-in bench around the fire pit. The planters and the grasses in them provide privacy in this area, while the fire pit provides warmth and a cozy glow at night.

One of the homeowners (left) and Baughman (right) enjoy the new bench and fire pit.

Baughman also recessed LED tape lights under the bench. “The glow wraps under the bench and all around that space,” he says.

To keep the lines of the bench clean, the landscape architect floated it from a steel structure hidden within the steel planters and hid the joint fasteners. “This keeps the eye moving through the space,” Baughman says. There are no little visual distractions.

Baughman placed the al fresco eating area off the other edge of the bench, a spot convenient to the outdoor kitchen.

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This photo illustrates the clever way Baughman used the long steel planter to create one of two terraces that hold back the hillside. He matched the black-painted steel of the planter on the upper retaining wall.

Dwarf fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’, zones 4 to 11) softens the bench and rustles in the wind. The silvery plants that hang down from the planters are silver ponyfoot (Dichondra argentea, zones 9 to 11). Baughman kept water-conscious plants in mind throughout the yard and used zoysia grass for the lawn. (The warm-season grass requires less water and fertilization than most other traditional turfgrasses.)

Note: Species of Pennisetum can self-seed and spread, depending on where you live and your garden’s conditions. Check with your local nursery regarding different hybrids of Pennisetum before planting, as this varies by region.

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Here we see the yard ready to welcome friends for a nighttime party, enhanced by the cozy glow from string lights, LED tape lights under the pavilion counters and bench, and the fire pit.

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