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From Suburban Drab to Garden Fab: Garden Transformation Idea

  1. Introduction
  2. The Design Process
    1. Low Maintenance Garden
    2. Family-friendly Garden
    3. Privacy, seclusion, and year-round access
    4. Exploring the client’s other garden remodelling requirements
  3. Picking the perfect materials for the transformation
    1. 20mm Outdoor porcelain tiles
    2. Artificial grass
    3. Pebbles and kerbs
    4. Gravel Pathway
  4. Garden renovation tips from Dave
  5. Garden renovations and the sustainability of your materials
  6. How much does a garden renovation cost in Ireland?
  7. Conclusion
  8. Why Tile Merchant?

Introduction

In the autumn 2023 issue of the much-beloved gardening magazine The Irish Garden, the featured garden before and after renovation was a modern, minimalist, nature-led venture completed by the exceptional designers over at Gardens Forever.

Dave and his team took on a challenging suburban cry for privacy, seclusion, and a family-friendly merging of interior design with exterior space. The results of this garden makeover, as you can see for yourself, were stunning.

Here at Tile Merchant, we are exceptionally proud to have supplied some of the key materials Gardens Forever chose to use in their ambitious design and build.

In this article, we hope to give you a quick tour of the thought process which went into this renovation so that you may come away inspired to transform your own outdoor space. Let’s dive in!

A distinct outdoor space was required by the family to function as an extension of the indoor living area and provide free and unrestricted movement between the interior and the garden.
See below some of the key materials used by Gardens Forever in this garden redesign

The Design Process

When we spoke to Dave over at Gardens Forever, one of the key things he pointed out about any modern garden redesign is marrying the customer’s requirements with the physical space.

This takes a lot of careful consideration to get right, and according to Dave should always factor in the existing natural beauty of the space – be that the trees, sunlight throughout the day, or the angles and lines of the garden boundaries.

In the case of this absolutely gorgeous back garden renovation in Castleknock, Dublin, Dave’s client gave him a few specific requirements:

  • The garden had to be family-friendly
  • The garden had to be fairly low maintenance and accessible year-round
  • The garden had to match the interior design of the home
  • The garden had to feel secluded and private
  • The garden had to feel like a fluid extension of the home interior, whilst simultaneously embracing and elevating the natural aspects often overlooked in urban settings
Garden renovation in Dublin

Some of these requirements Gardens Forever knew how to meet.

Low Maintenance Garden

Low maintenance for this garden transformation meant plants that were easy to care for and an artificial lawn which would never need mowed.

Family-friendly Garden

Family-friendly meant the design of the garden should include a little something for everyone, with recreational space for the kids, pet-safety throughout, and more private, practical spaces for the adults to relax or host parties in.

Privacy, seclusion, and year-round access

Seclusion, privacy, and year-round usability meant blocking the neighbours’ view into the garden whilst providing a warm and dry space for those bad weather days. This garden renovation requirement could also be folded into the desire for a garden which felt like an exterior extension of the interior aesthetics.

Exploring the client’s other garden remodelling requirements

The other specified requirements, however, required greater consideration.

Such as how to overcome the awkward L-shape of the space, how to make a fairly narrow area feel open and expansive, and how to do both whilst adhering to the home’s modern and minimalist interior aesthetic.

To meet these garden redesign demands, the folks at Gardens Forever knew it would all come down to the materials they used

Picking the perfect materials for the transformation

It’s easy to think that the most important part of a garden redesign project lies in the design stage. After all, it’s here that you’ll decide the new look of the garden: how you move through it, which spaces will be used for what purpose, and so on.

And yet, design isn’t everything when it comes to designing your dream garden. In fact, a great deal of the end result rests on which materials are used during the building stage. Materials like tiles, artificial lawns, garden décor, and accessories all contribute hugely to the final look, feel, and practicality of a garden.

Home improvement projects like the one undertaken by Gardens Forever in Castleknock (Dublin) must be accompanied by high-quality products if they are to achieve their full potential.

Let’s take a look at the products Dave and the team used to achieve their garden transformation of an empty and tired Dublin backyard into a luscious, green, secluded family haven.

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20mm Outdoor porcelain tiles

The Gardens Forever turned to who else but Tile Merchant for their tiling needs on this project.

They knew that to match the gorgeous minimalist aesthetic of their client’s interior design, they needed a sleek, crisp, neutral-tone outdoor tile for the new patio. Accordingly, they opted for a light-grey outdoor 20mm porcelain tile from the Tile Merchant outdoor porcelain range.

Specifically, they chose a large format 120x60cm outdoor porcelain tile because they knew that longer lines would trick the eye into feeling like the garden was a bigger, more open space than it actually was.

The Gardens Forever team knew that porcelain is a perfect material for modern, family-friendly garden remodel patios because it is super durable, naturally slip- and frost-resistant, and really easy to maintain: not requiring any sealant or extensive after care.

Moreover, porcelain is a great vehicle for a range of different finishes, including natural stone, marble, and even wood.

Ultimately, the choice of a light-grey outdoor porcelain tile for the Castleknock patio is what really binds this whole interior-exterior modern-minimalist redesign together.

Garden slabs supplied by Tile Merchant in this fantastic garden renovation in Dublin

Artificial grass

Dave’s client wanted their renovation garden to be as low maintenance as possible, whilst recapturing the beauty of the natural world which was absent from their urban setting.

Therefore, as a man with a keen eye for design and years of experience in the game, Dave knew exactly the material for the job: artificial grass.

Safe for families and super easy to keep clean, fresh, and looking just like the real deal, artificial lawns are a no-brainer for any outdoor redesign which demands longevity and easy maintenance.

Astro turf for garden supplied by Tile Merchant Ireland in this fantastic garden renovation in Dublin

Pebbles and kerbs

Now for the finishing touches. One of Dave’s core focuses of the redesign-and-build was to include lots of different, low-maintenance plants and flowers around the boundaries of the garden.

Of course, raised flower beds need something practical and attractive to distinguish and protect them from the rest of the outdoor space.

This is where something as simple as a granite kerb can work wonders.

Similarly grey in hue to the outdoor porcelain tiles Gardens Forever had already used, kerbs like ours can really help to tie all of the other intricate design details of a garden renovation like this together.

Garden designed by Dave in Gardens Forever, image credit www.garden.ie
Garden designed by Dave in Gardens Forever, image credit www.garden.ie

Gravel Pathway

Lastly, Dave and the team wanted to add a twist of variety to the redesign, by building a gravel pathway from the side of the house to the back.

For this, they needed some attractive, practical pebbles or gravel – something that would look great but also add texture and sound to the garden approach; creating a sense of heightened calm and tranquillity when the visitor then stepped silently onto the patio and artificial grass round the back.

Garden renovation tips from Dave

What tips did Dave from Gardens Forever have for marrying a customer's requirements with the physical space in a garden remodel?


According to Dave from Gardens Forever, marrying a customer's requirements with the physical space in a garden redesign takes a lot of careful consideration to get right. Therefore, he emphasized that it should always factor in the existing natural beauty of the space, such as trees, sunlight at certain times of the day, or the angles and lines of the garden boundaries

Garden renovations and the sustainability of your materials

Unsurprisingly, the environmental-friendliness—or sustainability—of a garden renovation is important to many of our customers. When garden remodelling in Ireland, you might want to make sure that the work you carry out and the materials you use don’t damage the environment you’re trying to enjoy.

The good news is that Tile Merchant keeps sustainability in mind when selecting materials to stock—especially in the context of back garden renovation. Let’s take a look at the materials used in this client’s garden remodel to get a better idea of how to stay eco-friendly when redesign your Irish outdoor spaces.

  • Porcelain slabs: Porcelain is a naturally durable material made using sustainable techniques. Its long lifespan helps, combined with eco-friendly manufacturing, combine to help reduce this garden’s carbon footprint.
  • Pebbles and gravel: Locally available and abundant materials like pebbles and gravel save on carbon-intensive international transport, making these materials a no-brainer for designing a sustainable outdoor area.
  • Artificial grass: Whilst it might seem odd to talk about replacing your natural lawn with artificial grass, faux lawns can actually help to reduce your water consumption because they don’t require any additional watering in summer, unlike real lawns. They are also durable and long-lasting, like porcelain.

If sustainability is important to your next garden makeover in Ireland, consider speaking with the Tile Merchant sales team to help you find the best, most eco-friendly garden remodelling materials available.

How much does a garden renovation cost in Ireland?

The renovation garden shown in this blog is undeniably beautiful, practical and transformative—the choices made by the designers helping to meet the homeowner’s needs whilst creating a unique outdoor space for them to enjoy.

But we bet many of you are left wondering, how much does a modern garden renovation like this cost?

These things are naturally challenging to estimate accurately. Depending on the size of your garden, the current state it’s in and the degree of work required, the materials you choose, and your dream vision for the aesthetics of your outdoors, prices can vary quite considerably.

We’ve run the numbers for you, though, and have come up with a rough figure you can use to help you work out a manageable budget for a garden makeover in Ireland.

For a transformative renovation of a large 100m2 garden (meaning maximum overhaul of your existing garden layout, design, and materials), we estimate that you’ll require somewhere in the region of €6,000 - €12,000.

Of course, if you don’t need a complete garden remodel, but instead want to give your Irish garden a facelift with a few key jobs, these costs can be considerably lower. Take a look at our chart below for a few design cost ideas.

Description of the workEstimated cost
Artificial grass DIY installation€100 – €1,000
Laying a new patio€2,000 – €3,000
Installing a garden fence€1,000 – €1,400
Installing decking€1,300 – €4,000

Conclusion

Redesigning your outdoor space doesn’t have to require a massive upheaval.

Simple changes can be made to great effect, such as utilising the long lines of large-format porcelain or removing the stress of garden maintenance with the right artificial lawn.

By taking time to consider how best to transform your particular outdoor space, you too can bring the comfort and style of your indoors into the outdoors.

Just be sure to pay equal attention to the materials you choose to use as you do to your garden’s overall redesign. Huge thanks to the team at Gardens Forever in Dublin for all of their wonderful work!

For more inspiration, dive into our extensive range of outdoor tilespaving slabsartificial grass, and garden accessories online, or pop into one of Tile Merchant's showrooms to discover the potential of Tile Merchant products for yourself. Now go get creative!

Garden Renovation in Dublin

Why Tile Merchant?

We offer extremely competitive pricing on our entire range of tiles and likewise. We stock a huge range of wall and floor tiles and our prices are competitive for retail and trade. Our stock is widely available in our tile stores in Dublin and Ashbourne (Co. Meath) which are open 7 days a week.
Alternatively, if you’d prefer to shop our tiles online, we can supply you with samples delivered for free.


Calum

Article written by Calum

Cal Bannerman is a freelance writer, editor, podcaster and voice actor from the Scottish Borders. He runs the storytelling podcast "Stories from the Hearth" and lives in a wee Glasgow Flat with his partner and their cat".