A Porch for Living
When there is already a splendid setting it isn’t hard to complete the canvas by adding a few elements. This was our job, to give a fine architectonic entrance something more, to create a living space for the end of the working day.
We set out with a purely practical purpose, however, thanks to the design elements carrying out their functions well, we obtained an aesthetically pleasing result.
Few elements to make the porch pleasing by giving it new life; where before there was only a passage, now there is a space for living, somewhere to relax after a long day’s work, for an aperitif or simply to spend a few moments collecting yourself in absolute peace.
The project
REQUEST:Everyone is different, and this couple’s main requirement was for a pleasant space to be together after a long day’s work, an outside space, where they could enjoy a cigarette in each other’s company.
WHAT WE DID: Besides proposing comfortable outdoor furniture, with good design and needing low maintenance (given the couple’s busy lives), we improved the space with designer planters containing plants in dialogue with the beds near the planned external sitting room. We enriched the existing flowerbeds with ground cover, adding value to the existing vegetation. We brought in furniture, such as seats, an occasional table and an outdoor rug to define the exterior sitting area.
We brought in furniture, such as seats, an occasional table and an outdoor rug to define the exterior sitting area. Then, to enrich the space and make it more welcoming, we added pots with Ilex crenata and Camelia japonica, plants that worked with the types already in nearby beds. The client’s desire “not to see the earth” was satisfied by planting Convallaria nana, ground cover known as Japanese dwarf grass.
Furthermore, at the end of a long path, created by the necessity to distance the building from the edge of the plot, we made an eye-catching feature with a planter containing Rhododendron and Asparagus densiflorus.
So that the space could be used in the evenings as well, we added diffuse lighting with a versatile designer floor lamp.
To give more prominence to our ideas, besides 2D design, we created examples for possible plants to be included in the project. After our intervention, the entrance way had acquired a pleasing aesthetic and functional value thanks to the space for relaxation, but was also suitable to welcome the odd friend and sit down for a chat.
