Thread: want to dress up an outdoor wall - ideas please?

Originally Posted by alpsy

hiya pharmaboy,

dont fully understand this though it sounds very good ... could you please explain further? like the idea of covering the pipe, though it will make area look a little smaller not understanding how i will see the mirror if its behind the false wall? will the water be flowing down the mirror?

thanks

b

OK, on the LHS of the first pic, the block engaged pier wall looks to be 800 wide and probably 200 deep - so continuing that block work (can be blueboard just set out to flush) to the house wall. Now within that wall you construct a window frame - say 1.5m high, 1m wide for example - on the existing wall, that is now set back from the new fake wall you place a mirror that is now framed by the new wall and set back from its face by 200mm or 100mm depending on how deep that blockwork is.

Essentially you are providing the illusion of depth into the wall, as if being able to look through it to somewhere else - the water feature can do whatever you want it to do - could cascade off the new wall and therefore in front of the mirror, could be a fountain in front of the mirror (will seem like 2), OR down the mirror.

Another idea is to again build a false wall to bring out to flush with the blockwork, but stop about 200mm above the pond you have built, so it sort of hangs there - then have a cascading waterfall thats running over a surface (tiles, stainless steel, pebbles glued to fibre board, micro ribbed gal sheet etc), then when it gets to the bottom, it drips down into the pond.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/WATER-FEATURE...QQcmdZViewItem

that water feature above can be used without the pond base and simply screwed to the wall (must be level), with the pump in your pond you are building, and pipe going up to the top, so the water cascades down the ss, then comes off the bottom for a say 200mm fall into the water - would make a relaxing noise. lights obviously from inside the pond upwards.

You could do any of the above just leaving the wall as is, but I think that jutting out actually makes the space seem smaller not bigger . and covering the gas thingy is a must. For areally mod option, think about using shadowclad texture - its a rough sawn ply product with a monolithic appearance, that you can paint in whatever colour, but very different to the usual solution of blueboard.

ok,

here is where im at now

stackstone style design to go on rendered wall - won't be having water running down it but pond will have 3 - 5 spouts along length bubbling water up to give what i hope will be a nice effect.

pond with have stackstone on external faces with black limestone capping on top. internals of pond will be painted black with waterproof membrane. will probably line base with large white stones.

stairs (which you can't see but directly beyond bifolds and flooring (currently the sand part) will be done in polished concrete. there will be a 150mm border between walls and concrete and i'll line it with large white or black (or perhaps even a combination) stones with LED lights spread evenly creating a border around all walls, pond and stairs.

colourbond cover over roller door with return to cover roller part.

there is a shot in this thread that shows the hot water system exposed. i will encase this in blueboard and render to match house.

now i'd like some suggestions as to what to do with the slat wall on either side as i hate it. one option is to blueboard it and give it a rendered look or can you guys suggest something more creative?

will appreciate any suggestions you have regarding all aspects of what im planning. best to hear it now rather that after i've done it only to find that ive botched it

thanks again

b

Hey Alpsey

Well, you certainly have heaps of great ideas of your own, some quite costly. We did it very cheaply - had a carport which we couldn't use as our car was too big so we just used blueboard on a frame to close it in, then painted it with stone-finish paint in a Chilli Red colour which is very Mexican, put a water feature in front of it with some plants in colourful Aztec pots and hung some artwork. Was a great finish but very cheap.
Good luck with the rest of it - I hope you post photos of the finished product!

Go and have a look at the water feature / feature walls at Plantation Homes - they have display homes out at Springfield Lakes. They have some really good ideas for outdoor alfresco feature walls on their display homes as most of their homes are designed for flat blocks, facing on to somone else fence. I took photos of them when I was out there, as I too was looking for ideas to dress up the wall (don't have the pics any more).

There was a program on vertical gardens recently that was pretty interesting

http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2058317.htm

A vertical garden combined with water feature and lighting would look great

Hi all

I saw a programe on the ABC or SBS can't remember one of theose.

They had a wall in a patio to decorate. they had some cane in pots. So they painted the wall in a green I think and then drew a muriel of cane on the wall in chalk would you believe - you could paint it on, it looked really good, it was simple and modern. I am thinking of something similiar in my current reno.

have a look around their web sites it was about 4-6weeks ago

Celeste