Some time back we took a peek at the groovy lounge-like cellar where this bachelor homeowner entertains during winter weather ; now that it is spring, we’ll have a peek at where he amuses outdoors. With help from architect John Conroy of Princeton Design Collaborative, he has transformed his backyard into a multipurpose space with storage, defined outside rooms, circulation and an edible garden, where architecture and planted form blend in harmony. Please join us for a wander through this shady suburban oasis.
Constructed at a Glance
Who lives here: A mentor who enjoys working on his house
Location: Lawrenceville, New Jersey
Size: About 1/8 acre
Princeton Design Collaborative
“Often people want to reduce everything down and start over, but we enjoyed the scale of the trees and tucked the outdoor rooms into the existing landscape,” Conroy says. Just 1 tree was removed for the project; the rest provide so much shade to the house that the homeowner rarely works on the air conditioning inside during the summer. “The trees also serve as a ceiling for the entire backyard,” the architect says.
The principal part of the yard is a grass rectangle with a beautiful transitional brick and hosta border, with backyard rooms tucked about it. A potage for growing vegetables and other edibles is at the end. Closest to the home are patio dining and relaxing spaces, which can be great spots where guests may collect near the pub for drinks and food before splintering off into smaller groups around the yard.
Princeton Design Collaborative
A long arbor serves as a hallway, connecting the front yard to the backyard with architecture along with a gravel trail. From the front, the arrangement gives guests a hint of the surprises they’ll see in the backyard and direct them back without their having to go through the home. Out back, the arbor creates an architectural boundary at the rear of the property.
The gravel is a mix of half-inch bits and fines (crushed stone). The fines compact the path for walking, along with the combo of the two stays put and doesn’t migrate onto the lawn. The stones into the right came out of a friend’s parents who were eliminating them; they help specify the path’s edge.
Princeton Design Collaborative
A bench provides an opinion back into the home and a shadowed place for contemplation or a private conversation.
Princeton Design Collaborative
The arbor has a contemporary look thanks to its crisp arrangement crafted of cedar, copper plumbing pieces and stainless steel screws. “We bought everything we had at Home Depot,” Conroy says.
Princeton Design Collaborative
Sweet Autumn clematis and male kiwi soften the arrangement. “Male kiwi does not produce fruit, and its leaves provide colours from green to pink to white,” Conroy says.
Princeton Design Collaborative
Constructed planted and work forms combine; they planned the arbor around a large present Japanese walnut.
Princeton Design Collaborative
Conroy tucked a contemporary storage pavilion at a corner of the yard to home the lawn mower and other landscaping supplies. The drop is visible from the home and adjacent to the arbor. Its form gives a sculptural component, and its own cedar siding, metal roof and accents and copper plumbing provide continuity with the arbor through substances.
Princeton Design Collaborative
Shadows play with this contemporary interpretation of a bay window. The windows on the construction are reused architectural samples.
Princeton Design Collaborative
The homeowner parents were perplexed when he asked if they enjoyed the obelisk he took out of their yard, as they had never possessed an obelisk. “My customer is a really handy man,” Conroy says. He took aside a dilapidated redwood picnic bench out of his parents’ house, remilled it and transformed it into a different sculptural component that balances the drop with its own height.
Princeton Design Collaborative
Among the outside rooms includes this tranquil koi pond, tucked along the arbor behind the obelisk. In the back one of the arbor’s posts comprises a spout. Water travels down from the spout into the upper pond, then pours into the lower pond from the trough before being pumped back up into the post. Conroy also extended the beam off this post for a hanging plant.
Bluestone — the same material used on the home’s rear terrace — encompasses the fountain, and the edging around the top pond doubles as seat chairs.
Conroy enjoys to find uses for architectural samples that could otherwise go to waste. The bricks are all rejected samples from a really large project his company designed.
Princeton Design Collaborative
On the lounging terrace, Chandigarh the kitty illustrates how simple backyard lifestyle is.
Princeton Design Collaborative
This wide view will help you understand how the bits fit together. The master plan was set in place over several years, 1 bit at a time.
The homeowner’s next two projects are the exterior of the home and the front yard, so stay tuned.
More: View this home’s stunning new cellar couch