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Letter to the editor

Design help turns eyesore into oasis

By Elizabeth Bettendorf Front Porch
Published November 2, 2007

For two years I lived with an ugly concrete courtyard at the entrance to my home. With a little design help, I recently spent the weekend transforming it into a leafy garden sanctuary.

A sculptural ceramic fountain, tropical plants, grapevine wreaths, iron candelabras, stone pots from an artist friend - even patio chairs from my grandmother - transformed a nonfunctional space where I once stored my bikes and running shoes into a sanctuary.

It's not only a respite for meditation, but a blissful spot to enjoy my morning coffee.

Why did it take me so long to turn an eyesore into my favorite room in the house?

My theory is that, like many people, I have a strong visual sensibility, but no design talent. I can look at a space and see its flaws, but not necessarily its possibilities.

Previously, the courtyard greeted visitors with weedy wide gaps between oversized concrete slabs. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what to do about it other than tear it all out and install brick pavers - a costly job that meant spending more money than I could afford.

I wanted to sit in my courtyard and enjoy it but worried that a table and chair would block an important utility closet. I also wanted a fountain but didn't know where to put it.

So I just lived with the ugliness, figuring there were other things that needed my attention around the house.

In the middle of October, my mother came to visit for a week. She is a talented artist and designer, someone who is able to look at a room and see its possibilities rather than its pitfalls. She took one look at the courtyard and offered to help me turn it into a jewel of an outdoor room in just two days by using things I had as well as making a few purchases.

For the centerpiece, she chose a beautifully glazed, sky blue pottery fountain made by artisans in Vietnam. Water bubbles from a large rectangle into a deep basin making a constant, soothing whooshing sound, like rain falling from the roof.

We picked out big, tropical plants - including a colorful Hawaiian ti for luck - and several lush philodendrons that we placed atop the courtyard wall for added privacy from the condo parking lot. We used river stones to fill those unsightly gaps between the concrete slabs.

She also urged me to buy plain, wispy twig wreaths for the utility closet doors. We hung my hand-me-down outdoor candelabras, a ceramic plant holder with more cascades of philodendron and then tucked two, small iron chairs in front of an antique cherub statue from my grandmother's yard in Riverside, Ill.

A pink folk art "lady" by Illinois artist George Colin reclines on the edge of the entrance walkway.

The final touch?

A small tile hung over my doorbell (actually glued with Gorilla Glue) that declares: "Words are the Voice of the Heart."

Growing up, one of my favorite books was The Secret Garden published in 1909 by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The multi-layered story deals in part with the healing power of love and follows two children who coax a long-neglected walled garden back to life.

I am thrilled with the transformation of my own courtyard because its newfound beauty speaks to the possibility of transformation: It reinforces my belief that what is neglected and written off in our lives can be renewed by looking with "new" eyes and seeing the paradise that was really there all along.

While thrift-store shopping recently, I stumbled across a little gem of a book, The Sweet Life: Reflections on Home and Garden by Laura Stoddart. The book is filled with pithy quotes and elegant little illustrations of trees and flowers and ladies sipping tea in their gardens.

One of my favorite quotes in the book says, "The day, water, sun, moon and night - I do not purchase these things with money." (Plautus 254-184 B.C.)

It made me think about the real joy of my new little garden, which I now call my "morning garden" because it's cool and shaded in the first part of the day when my deck is drenched in sun. Although putting it together required an initial investment of time and money, the years of happiness it will bring are priceless.

It's one more place around my home I can go to enjoy the day, water, sun, moon and night - all free, 24-7.

I just brewed a pot of mango/passion fruit tea.

My book is waiting, and my "morning garden" calls.

Elizabeth Bettendorf can be reached at ebettendorf@hotmail.com.

[Last modified November 1, 2007, 06:53:51]