Happy Tuesday, GPOD! Today we’re heading back to Minneapolis, Minnesota, for another look at Claire’s garden renovation. In June, she shared how she transformed a steep, muddy front garden into a lush space with corten steel retaining walls, a “sipping terrace,” and layered shade plantings. Now she’s sharing another project she’s been working on. Her side yard transformation turned a simple pass-through into a gorgeous space for everyday living, and I have to say, Claire has an eye for garden design.
When I looked at our unused side yard, I didn’t start by thinking about plants. I started by thinking about how I wanted to live. I wanted a place for morning coffee, grilled summer dinners, gathering with friends, and quiet moments outdoors. The design was driven by the experiences I hoped would happen there. The space needed to serve as our outdoor kitchen, dining room, and living room for much of the year.
When we moved into our home, the side patio was fine, I guess. It had a row of mature lilac trees, underplanted with plain green hostas and vinca. But it was essentially an outdoor hallway to get between the front yard and the back yard. Toward the back, there was a neglected screened gazebo that had become little more than a storage shed for garden tools.
It was clear we first needed to expand the usable space in order to make it a destination, not just a place you had to pass through. We had a larger bluestone patio installed with Eden stone retaining walls. (This is the only part of the project we hired out, which is probably why it was completed in weeks, not years.) Then my husband built an extra-long outdoor dining table to accommodate our extended family dinners and tea parties.
Next we turned our attention to renovating the screened gazebo, with the goal of turning it from dark and drab to an inviting outdoor living room.
Unfortunately, what we thought would be a mostly cosmetic refresh quickly turned into an almost total rebuild when we discovered that most of the wood was rotted out and it was structurally hazardous. In the end, we were able to reuse the concrete foundation and the roof and rebuilt everything else ourselves.
The months of hard labor were worth it. The side yard is now anchored by a welcoming gazebo that we use as an outdoor living room almost daily (except in the Minnesota winters).
To my great delight, I was able to convince my husband to vault the ceiling of the gazebo. It was a ton of extra work, but it makes the space feel so much roomier, and the extra height allowed us to reuse the original chandelier from the dining room.
We started out wanting to create a space that would become part of our everyday routine. Today, we cook out there, eat dinner out there, have friends over for drinks, and I’ve spent countless hours curled up in the gazebo with a good book. It gets more use than I ever imagined when we first started sketching ideas on paper.
The side yard became an extension of the house. We don’t just garden there—we live out there.
Thanks for sharing another transformation with us, Claire! I love that this project started with how you wanted to use the space rather than what you wanted to plant. Bringing the old dining room chandelier into the gazebo was such a perfect touch, and it makes the space feel like a true extension of the home. Well done!
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