Backyard

Backyard magazine included our Surry Hills courtyard in its June 2017 Small Gardens Guide, a roundup piece drawing tips and photos from several designers on getting the most out of a tight footprint. Our photo ran with a caption crediting Growing Rooms with “employing several techniques, such as the use of dark walls.” It is a fair call: we painted a rear wall in a deep, near-black tone, so a built-in spotted gum hardwood bench and the planting in front of it read as the real feature rather than the wall itself. Integrated planters brimming with succulents sit along the top of the bench, and a round barbecue and low timber table turn the corner into a proper outdoor room.

Elsewhere in the same courtyard we kept the original sandstone boundary wall as a heritage feature, uplighting it after dark, with textured stone paving, a run of polished concrete and a single Japanese maple as the planting’s focal point. As the guide itself points out, deeper tones make a wall recede and stop a small space feeling closed in, exactly the effect we were chasing here. Paired with careful lighting, it shows how a compact, high-walled courtyard can feel generous rather than boxed in.