Backyard bliss

Two Denver homeowners turn urban spaces into cool oases

Betsy Lehndorff, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 24, 2006 at midnight

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This time of year, many backyards feel about as inviting as Death Valley.

The grass is the color and consistency of hay, and after a long day of work, the last thing you feel like doing is feeding, seeding, watering and praying for it to green up. And if you succeed, who feels like spending weekends out back mowing?

But two Denver homeowners have found a way to remodel this hot spot into a cool gathering place for themselves and friends.

"I just love to have people come and join me back here," says Erika Schafer, who lives in a small, one-story home blocks from the Cherry Creek shopping center. "They are always amazed at how good it feels in this space."

A few years ago, the retired Realtor pulled up all the grass in her backyard and had a cedar pergola constructed over a new concrete patio edged with brick.

The result was instant shade and plenty of ambience.

"This is a small house, and I wanted to have more outdoor living space that I would actually use," the 66-year-old says.

On nearby Capitol Hill, Jennifer Bater owns a 1910 Denver square where summer conditions are even worse. Her steamy backyard is hemmed in by apartment buildings, dripping air conditioners and the roar of downtown traffic.

"Between the brick garage and the brick house, it is like a kiln out there," the business consultant says.

To make something out of the space, she hired her interior designer to create a retreat inspired by a palace in Spain, complete with marble basins gently overflowing with water. It, too, provides badly needed shade as well as allure.

"When you sit out there in the gazebo, you are of the garden, not in the garden," the 50-year-old says. "It's cool."

Here are their backyard makeover stories:

Schafer residence

• Where: One-story 1923 brick home in North Country Club

• Makeover started: 2001, after Schafer completed an interior remodel of the home she has owned since 1985.

• Cost: The arbor and pergola were $10,000. The colored concrete patio was $6,000. An additional $2,000 was spent on accessories such as a table and chairs for seating areas and a grill.

• Team: Contractor Clayton Bernard and gardener Toc Utsumi

• Challenges: "I wanted to have a connection from the house to the garage, and I wanted to get rid of the grass, because of maintenance. I felt putting in hard surfaces would give me much more usable space for entertaining."

• Result: Schafer's remodeled garden is full of life. Birds and squirrels flock to her yard because it's loaded with feeders, birdbaths and dense vegetation where they can hide.

Schafer sits outdoors and watches their antics, before weeding or watering colorful flowers in groups of pots everywhere. Side gardens provide plenty of places for plants, including trees, shrubs, irises and roses.

Utsumi plants the container gardens in the spring and handles other heavy chores; Schafer does the rest of the work herself.

"I was surprised that I totally fell in love with gardening," Schafer says. "It's such a joy to see things grow, especially when you find a plant that really loves where you put it."

The walkway from the patio to the garage is shaded by a high-ceilinged arbor that is slowly being covered by white grapes. This choice eliminates unsightly stains from falling fruit later on, she says.

In the evening, when the sun is hitting the west side of the house, the backyard becomes a cool oasis, the fountain bubbling away. In a few moments, Schafer sets the table with hand-painted china from Italy, lights the grill and is ready to cook for family and friends, while music plays over the outdoor stereo system.

"It's just like I lose track of time when I'm back here," she says, "because it's so peaceful."

Bater residence

• Where: Denver square on Capitol Hill

• Makeover started: Design began April 2004; construction was finished by Christmas 2004, with landscaping the following spring.

• Cost: The same project would cost around $100,000 today, Bater says, and includes landscaping on all sides of the house, a front gate and entryway, back deck, stairway leading down to the gazebo, walkway to the alley and underground utility lines.

• Team: Interior designer Joseph Moore; Lookout Renovation; gardener Pam Horino; and A Perfect Landscape

• Challenges: Bater's classic Denver square needed a lot of remodeling after years of neglect. The 3,000-square- foot home, designed in 1910 by Fisher & Fisher, was loaded with period details that needed restoration. The garden was equally uninviting, marred by overhead power lines, a beige brick garage and a skyline of apartment houses.

• Result: When Bater was done with the interior remodel, she asked Moore to tackle the backyard. At first they thought of a free-standing teahouse, but realized it would look crowded in the small yard.

So Bater proposed a design inspired by the Alhambra, a Moorish palace in Grenada, Spain. With a strong theme in hand, Moore created a five-sided gazebo and fountain attached to the back of the garage, so that all urban distractions could be masked out. He also created a deck and stairway from the back of the house down to the garden, as well as a see-through front gate that permits passers-by a peek at the backyard retreat.

All the new architecture echoes details of the house, and the overhead power lines have been buried underground to open up the sky.

Inside the gazebo, two custom-made marble basins are framed by a niche of colorful tile.

For comfort, the gazebo provides enough room for two outdoor easy chairs and an ottoman, as well as a weatherproof ceiling fan to stir the air from time to time.

"I love the sound of the water as it drips from one of the basins to the other," Bater says.

The rest of the garden is devoted to perennials. The gazebo is surrounded by beds of fragrant roses, while borders and walkways are edged with a variety of decorative grasses, foliage plants and blossoms from early spring to late fall.

Paths are carefully threaded through the lot.

"I didn't want to sacrifice a lot of the planting beds that could be gardens," Bater says. "So some walkways are little square pads of brick, with moss growing in them."

Whether she is surrounded by friends or flowers, Bater is happy with her remodeled backyard, especially since the expensive project went smoothly.

"Hire good people and trust them and value their expertise," she says. "Good people lead to good people."

Adding ambience

Soften the lights and turn on the music, because ambience is the finishing touch that will make your outdoor haven perfect, says interior designer Carol Mathers, of Carol Mathers Interiors in Cherry Hills Village. "Ambience is the character of a setting. It is always a kind of magnet that draws you in and makes you want to stay a while."

Here are some of her suggestions:

• Make everything effortless, so when you go outside you don't have to do a lot to make yourself comfortable. Choose maintenance-free furnishings and fabrics that are easy to clean. Make sure the grill is near your kitchen door so you don't have to hike all the way to the back of your yard to cook a steak.

• Create a comfortable climate. Install an oscillating ceiling fan and misters for summer use and a fire pit or fireplace for a little warmth when you sit outdoors in the winter.

• Splash color against neutrals much the way Mother Nature sets colorful flowers against a background of foliage. Choose neutral colors for your awnings, upholstery and floor coverings. Add colorful pillows, throws, pots of annuals or dinnerware for accents.

• Soften the lighting. Add shade during the day by putting up a retractable awning or umbrellas. Use candles and strings of light for illumination at night. If you have a naked overhead light, put it on a dimmer or conceal it with a shade.

• Add sound such as a trickling fountain to block out traffic noise. Or install outdoor speakers with surround sound for state-of-the- art acoustics.

• Plant fragrant flowers nearby so you can enjoy their scent and they will attract butterflies.

• Attract birds by putting out feeders and birdbaths. "We have a Western tanager that comes to our yard every May," Mathers says. "It's nice to know our yard is inviting enough that it wants to come back."

lehndorffb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2792

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