Alfresco Living Tech
Gallery

Gallery

Photographs from Barry's own garden and from the projects that shaped the advice on this site. Select any image to see it larger.

Our own garden

A normal British back garden, built up over a few seasons - decking, a hot tub, a garden room and the lighting that made it usable in the evening.

A newly built timber deck in a back garden with a shed behind it
The deck going in, May 2023
The finished deck with rattan furniture, an awning, a barbecue and a storage box
Finished and furnished, with the storage box that made it work
A hot tub with a garden room and seating behind it
The hot tub and garden room at the end of the garden
A gazebo set up over a hot tub in a garden
A gazebo over the tub - shelter makes it a year-round thing
A cold drink resting on the edge of a hot tub in a garden
The whole point of the exercise
A garden lit with coloured lights at night
Evening lighting in the back garden

Ideas worth stealing

Small gardens, sensibly used - the kind of thing we point people at when they ask what is actually achievable.

A tidy small patio with seating, a rug and built-in storage

Storage along one wall, seating in the middle, nothing on the floor.

Before and after views of small gardens with seating, a hot tub and children playing

The same square metres, used properly.

A patio lit with warm string lights at night

String lights across the shortest span - instant outdoor room.

A bistro table surrounded by dense garden planting

Two chairs and planting beats a six-seat set you cannot walk round.

A summerhouse at the end of a garden

A garden room turns the far end into somewhere you go.

Timber garden pods lined up on gravel

Pods and cabins - storage and shelter in one object.