Real garden

Turning their garden into a Miami-inspired chillout space was a game changer for Kel and Dan ahead of a staycation summer

Kel and Dan’s Miami-inspired garden was a game changer for their staycation summer

Sometimes timing is everything in renovating. When Kel Harmer and her husband, Dan, decided they needed to tackle their garden, it was with the idea of making something more appealing to look at through their windows than a bland, uninspiring space – and also of capturing some of the buzz of their recent holiday to Miami, with a riot of vibrant colours and chilled lounge seating. But having completed it just as lockdown imprisoned us all in our own homes, it came to mean so much more than they could have imagined – extending their horizons beyond their back door and giving them an outside escape they could enjoy as a family.

Kel takes us through the ideas behind their outdoor living room that saved an extraordinary summer.

Miami nice

‘The style inspiration came from a Florida road trip we took just before lockdown. We went to Miami and Palm Beach and I loved all the Art Deco buildings and the colour; I wanted to bring a little of that home with us. I introduced it into the house with a vibrant palm print across the main wall in the kitchen, which is also where you look out into the garden, so it felt like we were bringing the outdoors in and vice versa. I wanted to continue that Miami feeling right through and out to the garden.’

A better outlook

‘We had reconfigured the whole of the house indoors and had bi-folds and a kitchen window facing the garden, and we really wanted something nicer to look at. The plot is about 10 by 8 metres and it was half grass and half patio slabs. One half is fenced and the rest of it is brick with the garage at the back. We also have the plain wall of an electricity substation jutting into the garden, so we decided to make a feature of it. We started by painting all the masonry brilliant white, which really brightened the space.’

Well timed

‘We started work on the garden at the beginning of lockdown in March and had the furniture delivered and the screen up by May. It was an absolute game changer for us. We spent the whole of the summer out there; eating, working and watching films. It was like having an extra room. When a few of the restrictions were lifted, I invited friends round to watch Dirty Dancing. I think as a family we embraced being home a lot more than we would have done and considered ourselves lucky that during lockdown we had a space outside we could enjoy.’

Home movies

‘I planned a space in the garden that felt like you could live in it – not just somewhere for the children or for when we had a barbecue. We’ve zoned it and have an L-shaped outdoor sofa and fire pit where the sun hits most of the day with awnings above for that living area feeling. I’ve got colourful furniture out by the fireplace, which is somewhere to sit and have coffee, but there’s still somewhere for the children to play with the summerhouse and playhouse. The fireplace wall is also where we’ve set up the cinema. We already had a projector that we were using inside and I pegged a sheet onto the wall to see what the quality was like – it worked perfectly! There was an advert for a drive-in movie out in Miami, but we’d just missed it – so I may have been thinking about that subliminally when I set it up.’

Costs

John Lewis & Partners furniture £1,200

Summerhouse £800

Wayfair furniture £750

Awnings £360

Rugs £250

Screens £240

Paint £100