want to dress up an outdoor wall - ideas please?

hi all,

i have an outdoor concrete wall approx 3mts wide and 5mts high that i want to add a touch of wow to. at the bottom of the wall will be a pond made of bessar blocks (2 high) going across the width of the wall.

although this wall wont be a waterfall, the bottom part of it (2 high bessar block part) will be submerged.

initially i was thinking of cladding the wall in black stack stones but am now thinking that has probably been done to death and might be a boring option.

so im wondering what else i can do with this wall. have you guys seen anything of late that might work?

thanks

b

All we did with ours was run criss-crossed diagonal wires and grow passion fruit on ours. They smell nice, have good white flowers and produce a heap of fruit. At some stage I am thinking about attaching a grand old door to the wall with the passion fruit hedge surrounding it ... so it looks like it goes somewhere. I ahve seen this doen before and it can look really good (you might need a drawbrideg though :) ).

I guess it depends on if you are after a cottage style or a modern style etc.

I'm not a fan of the stacked stones ... a more modern approach might be to run a couple of battens up the wall and attach horizontal hardwood strips to make a sort of screen-like feature?

Paint a mural

Post some pics, pls

thanks guys,

will post some today.

wanting a super contemporary look.

will try and explain a little better with pics

b

Alpsy,

Track down one of your local graffiti kids. Tell him roughly wnat you want. If the kid's any good he will give you a rough sketch up, you OK it then let him to it.

It's different, its conversational, and you'll get it done for a real good price

Colin Howkins
Graceville Qld

It's a bit hard to give you ideas without some help as to what you are trying to achieve. Where in your garden is the wall? What is around it? Do you want to maintain it - ie pruning? Is there soil underneath? Does it get sun / water? What sort of climate do you have? What colours are near by? What style of garden / house do you have / want?

And pics, please....

In early stages as you can see.

Plan is to have polished concrete floors (white concrete with river pebble aggregate). Looking for super contemporary look.

Picture of wall and to be completed pond below

B

Here's something I made for my wall. I used an old rusty trailer floor, drew the picture with chalk and cut the steel with a stick welder cranked up high. You could use an oxy. Wire brush finish with a coat of clear over the top and screwed to the wall. I hope the photo attaches, this is my first time.

Just an idea.
Brian.

How about a random sandstone/bluestone/slate pattern in a central width band, with render on both sides to the edge. Basically divide into 3rd's with the pattern in the middle

I"m a plant lover, so I will always look for a plant to provide the wow factor.

I assume you're going to render the whole wall, so you could paint it a coffee brown colour, then grow a climber up it, star jasmine is good - dark green leaves, white flowers with a beautiful perfume. Or you could just put a decent sized dracena in a pot (not in the water!) in the middle of the pond. Both will stand out against a brown wall.

Since you have a pond, there are plenty of water or marginal plants which would look great - just walk around any decent nursery (even bunnies have a decent selection these days!). The downside of water plants is that you will need to spend a little time each year maintaining them, so you need to be realistic about whether you want to do that.

If you want movement, put a water spout on the wall - a lion head, or whatever takes your fancy.

I'd avoid any more straight lines, as you've already got all the slats around the rest of the walls - any more lines either vertically or horizntally is going to overload your brain!

You said : "super contemporary" does you mean minimalist? black and white? stainless steel? zero planting?

Are you painting the rest of the area, or is it staying the same colour? Do you have a plan to reduce the visual impact of the roller door (eg a pergola with a climber over it)?

What are you putting on the floor?

I'm assuming its an entertaining area, and that there's traffic the other side of the roller door, so a little running water would make it more peaceful, and cooler, even just a little bubbler in the pond, or is it a reflection pond?

thanks for all the feedback richard.

glad you mentioned the slat wall - need to do something about that ... either put blueboard over it and render or do something more creative.

roller door has just gone in and at some stage i hope to soften it a little. area is for carparking and entertaining and has huge visual impact from the house looking out.

plan is to lay a polished concrete slab (white concrete with river pebbles and perhaps white quartz thrown in). slab will have a 150mm gap from walls and i hope to throw large white or black rocks along border illuminated by led lighting.

pond with have 3 -4 spouts bubbling water above surface.

plants will be potted and comprise of yukkas, agaves and the like.

contemporary by my definition will be ultra modern and minimalistic.

a pergolas is out of the question as we want the natural light. we do have a motorised awning that covers a little less than half the area that comes in and out automatically based on level of sunlight.

all suggestions welcome.

regards,

b

OK opinion time , water feature - given you have so much height, i think a cascading water feature makes good use of that height and draws the eye - you cant hide a 5m high wall, so making the most of it is a better option, and there seems to be a shadow line about 3m high, that i would end whatever I did at that height - making sure the lower colour is darker than the upper.

cladding options - behind the water feature you could put a mirror on the existing wall, and bring forward the rear wall around the mirror (so a setback) to even with the engaged block wall, that seems to be about 100mm further out into the space on the left - this might even succesfully hide the downpipe.

Otehr cladding options that you may set out a bit on steel to flow straight off that engaged peer, is copper sheet, or core ten - core ten is steel made to rust so is the orange rust colour - very contemporary. patterned stainless steel can also be done, but you have to make sure direct sun doesnt shine off it into the loung room - can be blinding.

to hide the garage door, I'd consider going to ikea and buying their white shower screen sheer fabric, and hang off stainless steel cable, maybe 3 feet in front of the door - an extremely soft flowing effect, and for night time, you backlight it with either plain or coloured lights - when car is there, it gathers off to both sides, again softening the harsh walls..

Fo the floor, this depends on how much light strikes it, again going light looks great, but if it bounces light into the living areas, you may need sunglasses inside. I like off white cement and white sand mixed and poured as one floor but divide into 1.5m slabs (looks like the biggest slightly rustic tiles you have ever seen)- finished steel float and seal with non slip sealer - otherwise any large beautiful floor tiles (so much classier than pavers)

phew - all outta ideas now

cheers

How about - tiling the wall in large 600 x 900 porcelian tiles. Matte or satin finish.

But I like the sheer waterfall idea too. The mist created would cool the area down.

Doog