Our Essex-based clients had a clear and ambitious vision for their outdoor space: a luxurious, functional, and genuinely family-friendly garden that could do several things at once. They wanted somewhere to entertain properly, with a full outdoor kitchen and generous dining area. They wanted a pool and lounge zone for relaxed family afternoons. They needed a dedicated space for their children to play safely. And they wanted a garden room that could flex between a home office, a wellness space, and a quiet retreat depending on the day.
What made this project particularly interesting was its scale. The site was considerably larger than our standard large garden design package covers, so we offered a fully bespoke package from the outset. This allowed us to treat the garden not as a single outdoor space but as a series of carefully connected zones, each designed around how the family actually wanted to live, with a unified design language running through all of them.
The Design Process: Survey, Consultation and Concept
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We began with a thorough site survey. Our senior designer visited the property, took precise measurements, assessed the existing landscape and drainage, and mapped the orientation to understand how light moved across the space throughout the day. This was followed by a full in-person consultation with the clients to establish their priorities, understand how their household used the garden in different seasons, and identify any constraints we needed to work around.
The design process then moved into concept development. Our approach was to create clearly defined zones within the garden, each with a distinct purpose, connected by a consistent materials palette and a planting scheme that provided continuity and structure throughout. The result is a garden that feels expansive and varied but coherent, with no sense that different areas were designed separately and bolted together.
Key Features of the Design
- A bespoke outdoor kitchen and alfresco dining area with pergola
- A luxury swimming pool with dedicated poolside lounge
- A family-friendly children’s play zone with multiple play elements
- A modern timber-clad garden room serving multiple functions
- A layered bespoke planting scheme designed for year-round interest
1. Outdoor Kitchen and Alfresco Dining Area
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At the heart of this garden is a custom-built outdoor kitchen and dining area. Our clients wanted the experience of cooking and entertaining outdoors to feel as considered and high-quality as their interior kitchen, not like an afterthought bolted onto the garden. We designed a fully equipped kitchen unit with a built-in professional-grade barbecue, generous worktop space, integrated storage, and a preparation surface that could serve double duty for drinks and informal dining.
A bespoke pergola defines and covers the dining zone, providing shade during summer afternoons while creating a sense of enclosure that makes the space feel intimate rather than exposed. The dining area features a large hardwood table with weather-resistant upholstered seating, chosen for a look that is contemporary but warm. This space works as well for a quiet weekday breakfast as for a large family gathering in the evening.
The materials throughout this zone, the porcelain paving, the pergola timber, the kitchen unit cladding, were selected to sit in a consistent warm neutral palette that connects visually to the house and flows naturally into the next areas of the garden.
2. Swimming Pool and Poolside Lounge
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The pool was central to the brief from the outset. Rather than treating it simply as a functional water feature, we designed the entire zone around the experience of being at the poolside. A generous lounge area with contemporary timber-framed outdoor furniture and deep, neutral cushions creates a genuinely comfortable space for family afternoons rather than just a place to set down a towel.
The pool surround is finished in a pale, textured porcelain that stays cool underfoot and complements the pool water’s colour without competing with the surrounding planting. The boundary of this zone is framed by evergreen planting borders, ornamental grasses, and carefully positioned specimen trees that provide privacy, a sense of enclosure, and dappled shade at the lounge end of the pool without casting shadow across the water itself.
Lighting was an important consideration throughout this zone. Underwater pool lighting, low-level bollards along the pool surround, and uplighting on the specimen trees create an evening atmosphere that genuinely extends how the family uses this part of the garden.
3. Family Play Zone
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With young children in the household, the play zone was not an optional add-on but a fundamental part of the brief. We positioned it with care, away from hard paved surfaces and at a distance that the children would naturally gravitate towards, but within clear sightlines from both the kitchen and the main seating area so the parents could supervise from wherever they happened to be in the garden.
The zone includes a high-quality timber playset with a slide, climbing frame, and swing, a trampoline set into the ground flush with the surrounding surface to reduce fall height, and a miniature playhouse positioned slightly apart to give a sense of the children having their own separate space within the garden. The surface beneath the play equipment is safety-grade rubber mulch, which provides impact absorption and drains well after rain.
The children’s play area has been planted around its edges with robust, child-safe plants that create a gentle visual boundary without blocking supervision. As the children grow and play needs change, this zone is designed to be adaptable, the footprint can evolve into an additional seating area or planted zone in future years.
4. Garden Room
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The clients wanted a garden room that could flex between different uses depending on the day: a home office during the week, a gym or wellness studio at the weekend, and a quiet retreat whenever the main house felt too busy. The structure we designed is a sleek, timber-clad building positioned at the far end of the garden, slightly removed from the main entertaining zones to give it a sense of separation and calm.
Large sliding glass doors open the full width of the front elevation, creating a seamless visual and physical connection to the garden beyond. When open, the room feels like an extension of the outdoor space; when closed, it is a fully insulated, year-round structure with the character of a considered interior rather than a garden shed. The specification includes underfloor heating, full electrical fit-out, and high-performance glazing designed to manage solar gain in summer without sacrificing the views.
5. Planting Scheme
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A garden of this scale and ambition requires a planting scheme that works as hard as the hard landscaping. We developed a layered approach, using structural evergreens to provide the bones of the scheme, ornamental grasses to soften the transitions between hard and soft areas, and a curated selection of perennials and flowering shrubs to introduce seasonal colour and movement.
Mature specimen trees were positioned strategically throughout the garden, serving multiple purposes: framing views, providing shade over the lounge and pool zone, creating privacy at the garden’s boundaries, and anchoring the overall composition. They also give the garden a sense of maturity and permanence from day one rather than looking freshly planted.
The planting scheme was also designed with biodiversity in mind. Pollinators are supported throughout the season by the selection of flowering perennials, and the structural planting at the boundaries provides nesting and foraging habitat for garden birds. The clients were keen that a garden of this scale should contribute something to the local environment as well as to their household.
The full scheme was developed by our in-house horticulturist as part of the bespoke planting plan service and specified for the site’s specific soil conditions, orientation, and the microclimate created by the surrounding trees and structures.
The Result
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The completed garden delivered everything the brief asked for and more. It functions as a genuine outdoor extension of the house, with spaces for every occasion and every member of the family, connected by a design language that feels coherent and considered throughout.
The clients now use the garden across all three seasons rather than only in high summer. The outdoor kitchen and dining zone sees regular use from April through to October. The pool and lounge area is the heart of the garden through the warmer months. The garden room is in daily use year-round. And the children’s play zone has already absorbed the energetic attention of two young spaniels.
This project is a good example of what becomes possible when scale, ambition, and a clear brief are matched with a bespoke design process from the outset. Explore more projects like this in our garden design portfolio, or find out more about our bespoke garden design service and large garden design package. If you have a project in mind, we would be delighted to discuss it. Book a free consultation with our team to get started.
About the author
Senior Garden Designer
Mirela Bajic is House Designer’s Senior Garden Designer, holding a degree in Garden Design and RHS Level 2 and 3 Diplomas in Horticulture, Garden Planning and Construction. With over seven years of experience, she has been featured in Country Living, House Beautiful, and Homebuilding and Renovating.