Advice Needed - Overwhelmed !
Rachael
7 years ago
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Rachael
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Need landscape advice, north facing garden
Comments (9)Start with ripping out the clothes line and side path, then have another look. Maybe sell the shed, or bury it in passionfruit, or diplodenia, or solea. Maybe even excavate the lawn, and think about a sunken garden with winding paths, where you may step down into your little piece of magic. Everything depends what you want (exclusively native [low maintenance], all exotics, or a judicious mix?), and where you are climate-wise - so best to get advice from local nurseries, especially if you feel like planting natives. Sketch out rough designs that take into account functional aspects as well as aesthetics...perhaps seek inspiration from garden magazines or online pics, perhaps purchase a couple of native/exotic plant compendiums and pore over them. A well-planned garden can be a joy eternal so don't hold back at this stage. Once your basic structure is sketched out and planted up, the rest is relatively inexpensive and gradual. My rule of thumb is to eliminate whatever you can first (and be ruthless), and then look at the space again and again. Then work to your simple design in stages, beginning with advanced trees and layout of paths and larger shrubs (e.g., westringias are beautiful and very hardy natives). Start with the sun-loving specimens first, then use them as canopy for planting the rest. You've got a good start with your 'borrowed vista' of trees and shrubbery in the corner along the north side, and you have room for an advanced specimen feature tree - perhaps your only big buck investment - in the centre or towards the opposite corner (perhaps a magnolia or a crabapple, or whatever is your favourite). Then you could pop a bench under it for pina coladas and other slack pursuits. Space and available sun also suggest possibilities for a shade garden - or dappled sections, especially in a shady corner. You might install a pergola extending from the side wall to soften the bare brick; or you could plant a hedge of sun-loving 'prostanthera ovalifolia' or a tea tree variety down the side of the house instead of a path (do you really need it? why not a winding path through the centre of your garden to your door!). You have sunshine that roses love, so maybe some fragrant old roses, or one or two David Austins, could be beautiful against a sunny wall, or beside the steps. I'd go for little paved pathways and circular beds, lushly planted with native shrubs and ground covers that tolerate both sun and semi-shade. Natives from the local region are usually always a success and grow quickly. Kangaroo paws love sun, and make a fabulously dramatic addition to a sunny garden if clumped. Other native grasses can also be used as features to add design and formality, yet still retain a kind of 'wild' look, requiring trimming every couple of years for luxuriant growth. I seriously would hesitate to repeat the lawn, they are high maintenance and for what? Reduce lawn to a small section if you wish/need to retain it. There are native grasses that can be mowed (less frequently than exotics, such as microlaena stipoides), which would create a softer look if you felt like placing a little formal lawn somewhere, once all your designing and planting is done. In any event, from a basic design, you can fill it all in in stages, as inspiration strikes. Mass planting to a formal design (say clumps of lomandra, or fast-growing shrubs in key positions, or lots of native violets for ground cover (hederacea; there are two types, which will take off and propagate themselves in the warm weather) will save lots of indecision about what to plant; heavily mulch empty zones until you decide on what to plant, or pot things up for planting later; you can always dig up ground covers, move shrubs and replant later (after replacing lost nutrients to the soil!). Best of luck and may the joys of gardening be with you!...See MoreNeed advice for building a container home!
Comments (19)Even though I love the look of a container and they have a lot going for them, the dollar's just didn't add up for them to be a cost effective solution when compared to standard building practice's. They are just a bit to narrow which is where the main issue stemmed from. Joining two together work's but again paying a metal shop to do it bumped up the cost's with structural steelwork, engineering detailing/shop drawing's, etc. I used to be a boilermaker welder many year's ago so know what was needed....... Shame they didn't work out cost wise as I can see the attraction. Nevertheless, I would investigate both option's of using a container as the starting point, then compare it to if you used standard building processes of timber frame and cladding with the same dimension's.........See MoreHi advice needed for an L shaped room in need of a make over
Comments (14)Its your rug, not gonna lie that's exactly what's wrong. Everything else can be worked with except that rug. I would rather look at floorboards than that rug. Go to a fabric shop and glue a pretty piece of fabric over the top of the rug if money is tight. Make sure fabric has that curtain plastic backing so glue doesn't show through. Also nothing in there has the same colour scheme, character, it comes from different era's, theme's, not sure how to explain it but... Cane chairs look like part of an outdoor setting, Wood chairs look like they are from a dining table, there is different wooden furniture with different stains all piled at one end of the room looking odd together. Then the chairs are too far apart to have a decent sit down and chat. The art is really random as well and not good Centre the small table in the window and put a big fern on it to give it width. It looks like a plant table. Split the room into two sections, use the skinnier end as like a card game area to play bridge or rummy. Use the larger section as your living\ talking area. Hang the TV on the wall. Use the tv unit as makeshift coffee table until you get something better. Put the two cane chairs closer together on the other end of the couch facing the window. Paint over your art pieces, even in white only, just texture the paint to make it look like something. All this is using pieces you already have. Now sit down and decide what look your going for in that room. Modern, Industrial, Farm house because your on a farm and just buy accordingly. Reuse your couch for now and just buy a white cover or cream and colour everything else. Buy some actual arm chairs that look inviting and cozy, throw rugs for everyone but pack them in a basket and don't do what magazines do by haphazardly throwing it on the couch. Like these baskets Extra or out of season cushions in one and blankets in the other. To intertwine modern and old they have to have a common ground? I don't know if that's the word but either the wood stain from modern and old should be similar/same or they have to have something in common besides function for them to mesh well together....See MoreBathroom layout advice - what needs to shrink, what needs to grow
Comments (18)Forget that comment. I see siriuskey has already changed it to avoid that happening. In my bathroom reno at previous house, I had the mirrored storage cabinets above the vanity and toilet and they were so useful. Highgrove bathrooms has some lovely ones IMO. Make sure you buy an off the rack one and then get the wall frame/studs designed to hold it. It works out so much more expensive, getting a customer made mirrored cabinet to fit into a wall cavity. Because the mirrored overhead cabinets were put in the wall cavity, there was no issue with banging your head when you leant over to brush teeth, wash face etc. If the mirrored cabinets went across the whole section of toilet and vanity, you would hold a lot of things in it and it wouldn't matter how small the vanity was because you will be able to store so much in the overhead cabinets. Just be sure that it is deep enough to hold toilet rolls etc. I also got a wall socket fitted into the cabinet so that I could charge things like toothbrush etc whilst they were in the cupboard. It gets more complicated when you are trying to fit powerboards into drawers (well it was for me, so I didnt end up doing it)....See MoreGioenne Rapisarda
7 years agoasquithoatley
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7 years ago
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