DIY team Roisin and Zac transformed a cramped and neglected outdoor space into a chic Capri-inspired courtyard.
Photography: Mark Zeidler, Coast Park Creative / Words Casey Hutton
As they renovated their Brisbane home (dubbed @geebungalow on Instagram) Roisin and Zac initially overlooked their backyard – an awkward space accessed via a rickety ramp from the laundry door.
“It had patchy dead grass, an old clothesline and a rotting back deck that was honestly a safety hazard!” Rosin recalls. “But the longer we lived there, the more we realised that the backyard actually got some beautiful light throughout the year, which made us want to make use of the space.”
“It had patchy dead grass, an old clothesline and a rotting back deck that was honestly a safety hazard!”
Roisin and Zac are self-taught DIY enthusiasts, relying on YouTube (particularly Bunnings tutorials), Pinterest and blogs for guidance. They both work full time and renovate in between; the backyard makeover took up all their weekends for around four months.
The objective was to create a private space for year-round entertaining. Both Zac and Roisin have big families, and it was difficult to seat everyone inside the house. “We wanted to be able to host up to 16 people,” Roisin explains.
They levelled the area by pouring a concrete slab – “by far the most expensive part of the backyard and something we under-budgeted for!” – and built a bench seat and raised garden beds out of rendered cinder blocks. “To ensure the render didn’t crack and bubble, we waterproofed the garden beds, added gravel to the bottom for drainage and a drainage pipe to get rid of any excess water,” Roisin says.
A Mediterranean planting scheme and terrazzo crazy paving completed the look, giving the courtyard a breezy European vibe.
“We have our coffee out there most mornings and eat dinner there all the time! An outdoor gas heater has made it such a nice space to entertain in the evenings.”
Crazy paving
Inspired by Sophie Bell (Instagram’s @peppahart), the couple smashed up outdoor tiles from TileCloud and designed a crazy-pave floor. They used Davco Ultraflex adhesive to glue the tiles down, then grouted with Ardex WJ50 wide joint grout in off-white. “It only took us 10 hours to do the whole space, split over two days to allow the glue and grout to dry.”
