Backyard bliss: Thrive with dedicated garden spaces

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With the summer months upon us, it’s time to start thinking about sprucing up our outdoor spaces. Whether you are considering a refresh or starting from scratch, Calgary designer and celebrity Alykhan Velji says that planning is the key to a successful outcome.

“It’s really important to think about your outdoor spaces as you would think about your indoor spaces,” he says.

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A good guideline is to begin by deciding how the outdoor spaces will be used and who will be using them. Ask yourself some pertinent questions: Do you have children and will they want some play structures in the yard? Do you want to create a separate dining area for entertaining and for family dinners? Or, do you just want to have a place to lounge and read a book?

If you are unsure about which direction to take or how to begin, Velji suggests hiring a landscape designer or architect to assist you with the process, keeping in mind that what really makes a design sing is the juxtaposition between the materials, textures, colours and layers used in the design process.

Velji knows first-hand just how rewarding creating functional and beautiful outdoor spaces can be. He recently completed an extensive renovation on both the inside and the outside of his home, a 1959 bungalow in Kelvin Grove. He and his partner, Jason Krell, love to entertain and wanted to be able fully utilize every inch of both their front yard and backyard during the warmer months. To achieve this goal, they created connected, cohesive vignettes that functioned as separate zones or rooms, but also that worked together seamlessly as a whole. For them, it was important to have a place to lounge, a place to entertain and a place to dine.

“We really wanted something that was both liveable and comfortable,” says Velji, noting that the couple brought on Katherine Kinch from Your Space By Design to draft the landscape design.

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The structure of the outdoor spaces really springboarded from the home’s design and architecture.

“For a lot of people who are renovating, the exterior is really something that is left to the last or it is done in phases, but for us, we really wanted to have the inside and the outside completely done at the same time, so that we could really enjoy it — Calgary’s season is just so short,” says Velji. 

The interior renovation involved a complete transformation of the original mid-century bungalow, while retaining its charm and character. Using the existing footprint, Velji crafted an open-concept design and opened up the attic plate to create a vaulted 14-foot cathedral ceiling. The attached single-car garage was converted into a living area with glassed french doors extending to the backyard and a stunning four-foot-wide circle window at the front, adding an element of architectural interest to the home’s front facade, while pulling lots of light into the interior spaces. This newly fashioned room now has expansive sight lines to the rear garden, a design attribute that inspired the exterior layout.

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The original home had a lovely front lounging area — Velji says they call it “the stoop” where he and Krell now like to entertain and interact with the neighbours. The back garden was to become a more private space that continued the informal and comfortable ambiance of the front garden.

In the rear garden, a new rear attached double-car garage was added to replace the original front-drive garage, an architectural component that created L-shaped structure in the backyard, the perfect framework from which to begin.

“It really carves out a very sheltered and secluded exterior space. We were nervous about how much room the new garage would take up in the backyard, but it worked out so well,” says Velji. To integrate the garage with the home and the with the back garden, Velji clad the new garage’s garden-facing exterior wall in fluted wood composite in a dark walnut colour and added an oversized circular window, mirroring the same look and dimensions of the window  and siding added to the front facade of the home.

Next, the rear garden space was divided into functional areas, using layers of texture, different materials (concrete and composite decking) and by creating a two-tiered deck to differentiate spaces and add interest. Utilizing the sight lines from the interior living area through to the garden, a grand stone fireplace was added to the far wall of the garden. “It really becomes a focal point. You can see it through the french doors and through the kitchen window. It’s just so inviting and comfortable and warm,” says Velji.

As self-professed non-green thumb gardeners, Velji and his partner, Krell, brought on a landscaping company, Aris Landscape Design, to help out with the plantings.

“They took our landscape plan and then worked with us to decide on the best plants to add to the perimeter beds to add softness,” says Velji, noting that the final result is beautiful with an assortment of oak trees, white cherry blossoms and wild grasses.

“It’s all just worked out so well and now we spend so much time outside,” says Velji.

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