This new terrace next to a property’s carriage home is filled with exceptional personality; features include a classic stone grill, a custom made trellis and a dining table crafted by a salvaged balcony railing. Starting from a blank slate, landscape designer Susan Cohan made an inviting, bright terrace that only calls out for enjoying a cold drink, a chat and also a full summer meal. Here’s a closer look at the way she’s pulled it all together.
Susan Cohan, APLD
When Cohan arrived on the scene, there was nothing here but the 1920s wood-burning granite grill, which was in such disrepair that a tree had grown through it. A big believer in reclaiming and reusing, Cohan had the uncommon piece completely cleaned out as well as refurbished. The doors are covered in a metal paint which matches that of their new trellis, and she added an additional salvaged bit, a classic radiator grateinto a hole situated up the center of this chimney.
Susan Cohan, APLD
A iron balcony railing in a local salvage yard became the foundation for an outdoor serving table. “I really like to discover an architectural attribute and use it the following way,” Cohan says. “Using something like iron is a way to add patina to a job that may be brand new; it provides it some warmth and history you can’t just locate in new materials.” The tabletop is a custom-cut slab of bluestone. It now acts as a spot for a buffet or bar, and may also serve as a potting bench.
Cohan had the artisans in Recycling the Past build it out, adding new legs to the railing to balance and support the heavy top. The dining table base, for instance, new legs, and labour was $400. The custom-cut bluestone top was 200.
Susan Cohan, APLD
Hayrack window planters draw the eye upward from the terrace. “The colour up there will help tie the space together; people frequently neglect to utilize vertical space in the backyard,” Cohan says.
Patio furniture: Lloyd Flanders
Susan Cohan, APLD
The terrace is about 10 inches off the ground on this side. Hypertufa baskets comprising sempervirens, sedums and thyme sit atop a new Pennsylvania fieldstone wall.
The terrace is full-range bluestone in an ashlar pattern using a thermal end. Cohan was also able to incorporate some bluestone flagstone found onsite; if you squint you may spot the pieces surrounding the grill.
Susan Cohan, APLD
Susan Cohan, APLD
Cohan fit a circle inside the square of their terrace to gain some garden space immediately around the terrace. A crabapple tree offers spring blooms; a low-growing boxwood, Buxus microphylla‘Franklin’s gem’, grows beneath it.
A cedar trellis by Scott A. Patkochis provides a feeling of enclosure around two sides of the terrace. The open side faces the remainder of the farm meadows and the main home.
Lattice opaque stain: Yorktowne Green, Benjamin Moore
Susan Cohan, APLD
The curved border gave her the chance to fit in more gardens from the corner of the trellis. Sedum, dianthus and iris add colour and texture, while more of this low-growing boxwood lends a constant feel from 1 side of the terrace to another.
Traditional grey Belgian block strengthens the edge just marginally above patio grade.
Susan Cohan, APLD
Espaliered apple trees develop the trellis.
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