10 April 24, 2022The Sunday Times
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How to create a luxury living space in your garden
for relaxing, eating... and even taking a bath
KATRINA
BURROUGHS
@Kat_Burroughs
THE GREAT
OUTDOORS
S
ummer is coming,
and thoughts are
turning to outdoor
entertaining. Those
lucky enough to have
square footage to spare and a
budget for improvements are
creating luxury living spaces
in their gardens — outdoor
kitchens, dining and sitting
rooms and even bathrooms
with levels of comfort to rival
those found indoors. Let’s say
you have the basics sorted:
the sofa, the bistro table and
chairs. How can you elevate
your outdoor space now? Here
are the opulent features that
will luxe up your garden, from
asado grills to volcanic stone
spas and vintage seats.TIN TUB
The interior designer Jolene
Marshall added a garden
bathroom to her holiday
cottage on the edge of the
Sandringham estate in
Norfolk, using reclaimed
timber, brass lighting and a
freestanding tin tub. “I wanted
to create the element of
escapism and the feeling of
being surrounded by nature,”
she says. The project, carried
out during the first lockdown,
with three children at home,
was not without its challenges
but the end result is a rustic
luxe spa. “The birdsong is
overwhelmingly gorgeous.
In the day and at night you
can lie in the bath and look
up at the moon.” The
freestanding tin bath, from
Indigenous, starts from
£2,880. Marshall’s property is
the Worker’s Cottage.MINI STOVE
Lisa Dawson’s courtyard
dining room, with farmhouse
table and festoon lights, will
be the backdrop to a summer
of socialising. “There’s
definitely a lot of catching up
to do,” she says. “People were
stuck in for so long.” The
courtyard sits between the
kitchen and an outbuilding,
and traps the sun for only half
the day. Having tried the spot
as an outdoor cinema, a
garden sofa area and games
room, Dawson finally created
a dining room with a glass
roof, which she completed at
the end of last year. The
interiors writer and content
creator, based in York,
decorated in her usual
fashion, using recycledAbove:
hanging solar
lanterns, in
Tyvek, £34.95,
sparkle.lighting.
Below:
Riverstone hot
tub, hewn from a
volcanic boulder,
£60,000,
indigenous.co.ukscaffolding boards for shelves,
charity shop and eBay
furniture, books and plants.
Investment items were the
reclaimed terracotta tiles on
the floor, and Pals tiles on the
bench, both from Bert & May,
and an Everhot electric stove
that functions as a heater and
includes a mini oven. “The
stove is really good. It’s like
having a portable radiator in
the room, that you can bake
camembert inside. I love it.”ASADO GRILL
Armchair home improvers
with a passion for cooking will
agree the most covetable
garden kitchen available to
ogle on the iPlayer is at Marcus
Wareing’s 65-acre Sussex
smallholding. Tales from a
Kitchen Garden reveals what a
Michelin-starred chef does
when released from the
24-hour pressure of the
commercial kitchen: he steps
up the food-producing
pressure at his weekend
retreat. It’s not a relaxing
watch for the idlers among us,
but it outdelivers on rural eye
candy. The rare-breed sheep,
pigs and longhorn cattle are
exceptionally good looking.
Most alluring of all is Wareing’s