Contemporary barn conversion garden
BRIEF
We were delighted to be invited to create this contemporary garden design for a beautiful barn conversion, set in rolling Oxfordshire countryside with a fantastic view of the Chiltern Hills. We worked closely with our client who had a keen appreciation for good design, based on their work as property developers and interior designers – to agree a garden design brief that included:
- A contemporary aesthetic that complimented the stylish barn conversion, built by Stuart Barr
- Greater interest and division of the garden into separate spaces that come together as a coherent whole
- Screening of a bothy within their garden that was rented as an airBNB property. We wanted to create some screening and feeling of privacy within the rest of their garden whilst they had guests, without making the bothy feel completely separate from the rest of the property
- A dining area and outdoor kitchen to the side of the property that created a sense of ‘containment’ and feeling of an ‘outdoor room’
- Some height variation and an area that captured the evening sun
- A contemporary water feature
- A greenhouse and kitchen garden
- A meadow area with space for a beehive
- Maintaining and enhancing the view to the Chiltern Hills
DESIGN SOLUTION
A great deal of thought was given to how we could fully achieve all elements of the brief without compromising any of them. We screened the bothy with a combination of short hedging units and arch structures that obscured the view from the AirBnB property to the main garden whilst integrating it into the rest of the garden by repeating these hedging units elsewhere. Natural stone walls were also used in the main garden area to divide the space into ‘rooms’ and an additional feeling of privacy and seclusion. Corten steel detailing and ‘windows’ were added to the walls to create glimpses of other areas. A water canal bisected areas of the garden, running at 90 degrees to the main axis of the garden, creating drama and intrigue as it cut through one of the stone walls and one of the hedges. As this was a flat site, creating level changes was challenging, but we achieved this by creating a raised, lawned sun bathing area. A water cascade ran from this raised area into the main water canal which formed the focal point from the new seating/dining area and outdoor kitchen. The outdoor kitchen was a bespoke design, incorporating natural stone walls and a retractable hood – so that the family could enjoy dining in all weathers. Beyond these social areas a long tree lined avenue was added which added to the sense of journey through the garden and addressed the practicalities of needing a route to move the mower from one part of the garden to another. A courtyard garden outside the ground floor bedrooms provided a beautiful aspect from this part of the house and included raised beds that merged naturally into the potager and productive garden. Beyond the greenhouse, the angular, clean lines that were used throughout most of the garden design, gave way to more flowing curved paths and a naturalistic meadow and orchard, together with a beehive. It was a joy to work on this garden design Oxfordshire. The clients were delighted with their garden design that complimented the architecture and internal styling of the house and really hit their brief. They told us we had ‘nailed it’! We design gardens across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, London and the rest of the UK. This garden design Buckinghshire was another comtemporary garden design, based in similar principles.
