From rotten decking to a monochrome and foliage delight which isn't quite finished, but I'm so pleased I thought I'd share this now with you.
I had a vision for the back garden for a while, as the old wooden decking had seen better days and needed a bit of cleaning up with a pressure hose. However, this left the seating boxes with water-blasted holes.
I wanted something in contrast to what I have now, and I had longed for a black room, but I didn't quite dare to do it in any of my other rooms inside the house... yet.
The garden is quite damp from the water collecting on the drain, and I plan to have some ferns, hostas and other long-lasting green plants to pop off the black background.
It's not the sunniest of spots but when the Sun does hit it it's lovely to sit in. I find myself sitting out in the evenings, hopefully at the same time the bats are flying around!
The project itself was rather difficult from the outset of removing all the rubble; however, I must admit I rather enjoyed ripping the decking up was like being in a DIY rage room.
The cheaper wood came off easily; however, the hardwood planks from the decking had lasted well for the 15 or so years it had been down. I had hoped to repurpose them, but off to the skip they went.
In my naivety, I had looked over a neighbour's wall and observed that they had flat concrete in theres so I assumed underneath my decking would be the same. I was wrong.
Underneath was a mass of cemented down bricks, uneven cement floor mixed in with harcore and a few random stones and it certainly wasn't level.
I had to make a decision to dig down or go up to level. I decided to go up. I was quite surprised at how much height was needed in places. I think I made the right decision but you can decide yourself from the photos.
Once everything was clear, then was a very long process of working out the angles, the grid changes and the water drainage, before the first few slabs could be placed and the holes sliced into the existing concrete for the aco drain.
Now that all the slabs had been laid we started repairing the walls with cement where the old had crumbeled away. Getting it ready for the scary part of painting it black.
I had a slight concern it would be too dark, but I believed in the vision of the garden I had in my head and went for it.
The walls are hard to paint as well different textures, weird angles from the rocks, etc, so it took a good few weeks to cover the whole garden in 2 coats of masonry paint.
In this video I have added in the white pebbles for the edging. I really like this feature and how the texture of the rock, wall and pebbles mesh together. The alternative was to take the grey tiles to the wall.
Next is to buy furniture and plants and give the tiles a good clean but for now this is it looks. For the furniture, I was thinking a hammock seat, with a table chair and patio heater oh and of course, some string lighting for some atmosphere.
But until then.. it's a wonderful dance floor!!
