HOME OFFICE HAVEN

An architect with a talent for blending old with new transforms an unused garage into a home office with a charming garden.

An architect with a talent for blending old with new transforms an unused garage into a home office with a charming garden outside Washington, D.C.

When you have an opportunity to turn a space into something completely new, it’s not a project to pass up. Seth Ballard of Ballard + Mensua Architecture received a call from longtime friend and landscape architect Kathryn Everett one afternoon.“I have some good news and some bad news,”she said.“The bad news is that I want to put an office in my garden, because I have this garage that we just don’t use. The good news is that I’m going to hire you to design it.”Although Seth had been angling to share an office space with Kathryn, this was one opportunity he couldn’t pass up.

(top) Kathryn Everett of Everett, Conroy and Landis Garden Design sits on the stoop of her newly converted garageturned-home-office. The garage door was replaced with double French doors as an ode to the romantic nature of Kathryn’s lush backyard.