Home terrace-garden made glamorous!
In a city like Mumbai, with all
the space scarce, it’s a big boon to have an attached garden to our flats. And
my aunt & uncle precisely have this absolute luxury of an outdoor escapade
right outside their living room. But the outdoor space wasn’t exactly as
beautiful as it ought to be. It always irked me that such a blessed space has
not been done justice to. So luckily they were off for 3 days and the house was
empty. This was the ideal time for us to do justice to the outdoor space that
it deserved. And definitely surprise my aunt & uncle upon their return
(hopefully with delighted notions).
So my wife and I embarked upon
this garden transformation project. We had 3 days to complete it and boy it did
look like quite a task before we started. We had loads to do, but the first
question was - what to do? We definitely wanted this place to be lively and
colorful and all lit-up. So that was our cue.
First we started to de-clutter
that space (approx. 150 sq.ft.). Disposed off the old & worn plants and
pots. Kept the good ones. We cleared out the space so as to get exact idea of
all our design requirements and proceedings. We segregated our project into
smaller units and one by one we started working upon them:
Fish Tank: My aunt & uncle had
this big fish-tank which housed 2 piranhas, and by natural choice we wanted
those 2 deathly beauties to be highlighted. On the wall where the fish tank
lay, we decided to add some decorative element - by covering the wall with a
long, colorful plastic mat. The colorful mat with its bold blue-orange-brown
colors, became our color inspiration for the entire project. From behind the
colorful mat we randomly popped out bulbs of a light streamer. This simple
trick gave a brilliant lit-up starry effect and instantaneously drew our eyes
to the delightful color-light-fish interplay.
Wall Gallery: Right next to the
fish tank, there was still a half-empty wall. This half-wall we decided to
convert into an artifact gallery of sorts. Our idea for this project was to
keep it budget-friendly, yet evoke awesomeness. So we bought these wooden fruit
crates. We stacked 5 of them into a kind of wall unit. Thus, each crate created
a hollow that would hold our ‘gardenified’ artifacts:
11. On the top-most one we created a vignette
using brass pots and decorative wood panels.
22. Next
one we put dried flowers & leaves in a beautiful golden dish, and inclined
it against a stone for better viewing.
33. Then
in the third, we hung this round-rose bouquet. Simple and elegant.
44. On
the right lower crate we kept this over-sized hand painted blue ceramic pot.
Resting against it was a pair of garden tongs, whose handle was painted bright
orange.
55. For
the 5th on we were falling short of ideas. So we simply filled up 3
empty mineral water bottles with mud. Painted its base blue. And skirted them
with orange dotted ribbons. At times the most basic elements create the best
visual effects.
With all these elements we created
our garden wall unit. It had this beautiful rustic-colorful feel to it. Every
element in it screamed for attention.
Sitting Arrangements: Right
opposite the wall gallery and fish tank we needed to have our sitting area. They
already had an old wrought iron seater. We just covered it with a jute panel
and a couple of bold bolsters – and we were sorted. Behind the seater was a
grilled opening to the foyer. So we simply covered that too with another seamed
jute mat. Also made sure to let a few creepers fall in front of the panel, in
order to negate its emptiness. In front of the seater we made a coffee table
from the wood fruit crate itself. Simple!
Plants & Pots: Next was time
to arrange the green bit. We put the large pots on the periphery of the
terrace. Then layered the plants one in front of another as per size &
scale. We also painted a few pots with bright orange and deep blue oil paints.
Made sure that the posterior region was clustered with plants. Putting all
plants together rather than scattered, always gives a more wholesome and more
natural rendering.
Lighting: Here comes the trick to
elevate any space. Light it up! And that’s what we did. The entire periphery of
the area was laced with tubed LED lights. I always prefer the lighting in
yellow-golden hues – they give such richness.
And that’s about it. It took us 3
long & tiring evenings to make sure we complete this project. None the less
it was exhilarating, fun and contending – ‘cause we knew that the end result
looked delightfully extravagant yet comfortable. A definite eye-turner, I say
(so did the neighbors)!
Upon my aunt & uncles return home,
immediately I get a call from them saying how much they loved the space and
with all the complimenting around, we felt extremely proud and happy.
But
the best compliment we got is that everyday my aunt & uncle without fail
sit outside in their garden and enjoy a hot cup of tea to kick start a beautiful
day from a beautiful space.
