- [Erick] Ta-da! [Julie gasping]
- Oh my God.
I wanna cry, oh my God.
- Aw!
- This is so beautiful, Erick.
[upbeat music]
- Hi, I'm Erick Garcia.
I'm an interior designer and this is my client, Julie.
- Hi AD, this is Julia Sariñana.
You might know me as @sincerelyjules
and welcome to my backyard.
[upbeat music]
- Tell me what you like and what you don't like,
what you wanna redo, update...
- So I feel like,
I don't like that we don't have enough seating,
it's literally just this.
- [Erick] Uh huh.
- And I have a big family, with a lot of nieces and nephews.
We don't fit here.
I wish we had other spaces around the backyard,
for us to live out those moments.
- Right. - But we don't, so.
- Creating moments, right? - Yeah.
- Like I feel like that's what we wanna do here,
- Exactly. - create beautiful moments,
- so that when everyone comes over,
they're not even expecting it.
- Yeah.
- Anything else that you were like, definitely don't like.
- The landscape,
- it has to be redone. - Yeah.
- [Julie] It was already here when we bought the house,
and it's not really like,
- Your thing, yeah. - our aesthetic.
- Adding some more of our kind of plants that we like,
- Right. - would be awesome.
- Do something, I trust your vision,
so I'm like super excited to see what you're gonna whip out.
- Your guests, like, you have to train them
the way that you want them to use this space,
because they don't know, like, this is not their house.
So, if you don't tell them like,
"Hey, I want you to come sit over here,"
then how are they gonna know
- to do that? - Exactly.
- Let's say you're coming out of the door, right?
Like, what is the first thing that we wanna see here?
- I feel like there should be more seating,
'cause I feel like when you come in,
this is the only thing you focus on.
It would be nicer that your eye can kind of go
towards the rest
- Yeah. - Of the backyard.
- [Julie] 'Cause it's so big.
- In my head I'm thinking this becomes a seating area,
because we have so much usable space over there.
You know, the one thing that I'm looking at,
that maybe we need some sort of shade here.
- Yes.
- [Erick] Because instead of an umbrella,
- some sort of a awning. - That would be great.
- Like, I feel like that would be cool.
Vibe, what are you thinking?
- A mix of California cool,
with some like European kind of like, aesthetic.
- The house is Spanish style,
so I think we should play
- off of that. - Okay.
- So that it doesn't feel so disconnected.
Why don't we create moments of like,
beautiful California style mixed in with, like you said,
like a little more European.
And then it just becomes like
a little bit more pop of color, Jules 2.0.
- Yeah. - Like elevated.
- Can we not do a bench please?
- No.
- Just 'cause I feel like benches, like ugh.
- It's always like, - It's very difficult right?
- It sucks, 'cause every time somebody's sitting,
let's pretend I'm sitting here, right?
And someone wants to get out,
- [Julie] Yeah.
- everyone always
- has to do this. - It is annoying.
- And then get out.
And for me it's so annoying that everyone has to do that,
that I'd rather do individual seating,
if you're okay with that?
- No, I'm totally fine.
- Cool.
And then as we move down,
like, what are you thinking down here?
- [Julie] Although I love the grass, I feel like...
- Gophers. - Gophers!
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- So we have a bunch of them. - Oh!
- So, they just, like, have all these holes.
- You can play like...
You should just get
- a little thing... - Poor things, poor things!
[Erick laughing]
- I know.
No, don't do that, but that would be funny.
Like, see, this is such cool space here,
that I feel like if we put a big dining table here
and I mean like...
- [Julie] Big.
- Huge.
One, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12,
- that's huge. - That's huge, yeah.
- Like we can totally fit that in.
- I'm noticing a lot of holes. - I told you!
- [Julie] I was not playing.
- [Erick] Should I be scared
that my foot's gonna get ripped out?
- By one of the gophers? - Maybe he's gonna come up
- [Julie] and say "Hi" to you.
- We rip out the grass
and then we do a little bit of like DG,
- like decomposed granite, - Yeah.
- which is gonna obviously solve the issue
of the gophers coming up,
because they can't dig through that
and the DG will also be really easy to maintain.
Let's talk about this area up here,
'cause I feel like this is a huge missed opportunity
- I know! - that we're not taking
- advantage of, like what are you seeing here?
- [Julie] When we bought this house,
the first thing I thought I was like,
"Oh my God, we have to do like a fire pit,
- Oh, cool! - like thing".
- [Erick] Oh, I love that.
- 'Cause I think it's so, like cozy in there.
Oh look at, she's right there.
- [Erick] What is it?
- [Julie] It's a little...
They're fighting!
- Oh no, whatever, they're little squirrels.
- Obviously there's a lot of things I don't like,
like the cement and like that railing up there,
- I don't like it. - Right.
- So, for the steps, do you wanna keep them,
- do you wanna remove them? [Julie screaming]
- [Julie] Oh my God, he fell!
- Oh, my God, you scared the...
[Erick laughing] - Did you see?
- I love them, I think if anything,
just maybe staining them, or adding some color to them.
My dream scenario would be like, a seating area here
- Okay. - with like cushions.
- Okay.
We maybe raise this up a little bit higher
to about like five feet, so that it holds all that in place.
- I hate this, like cement.
- We can totally redo this
and do some like Spanish tile, or brick,
something that feels really cool.
I love the grill.
- So, you wanna keep it?
- Yeah, I think I wanna keep it, I think it's gonna be cool.
We'll have the seating area here.
- I love that.
- Right?
And then if you see up there,
you see a lot of negative space.
What if we did a beautiful old pot,
like right in that corner, like giant pot
and then we have a bougainvillea coming out
that takes over the entire wall
- Oh my God, - and it's a beautiful pop
- of color. - I love it!
- I'm gonna look over and be like,
"Oh my God, that is beautiful! - Like, "What's that?"
- I wanna go over there!". - I wanna go over there, yes!
- So, I think talking about lighting
is gonna be really important too,
because see how you have all this negative space
and that beautiful olive tree,
that if we put some spotlights,
when you're sitting at the dining area, you'll look over
and then it's gonna look so beautiful at night.
The final thing that I think we should definitely do,
remember when we went to Berber
and they have those beautiful old limestone,
kind of trough-looking big water feature?
Why don't we do that here?
And then we'll put some rosemary around it
- So pretty! - and then it'll just
- be like such a nice sound
when you're sitting up there having drinks.
It'll kind of play with all of your senses,
like the smell with the rosemary and sage
and then you have the sound of the water and then the food
and I feel like
- that'll be such a - I can already visualize it,
- So pretty! - Oh, I'm exited!
- [Julie] I'm excited!
[upbeat music]
- You know my sketches, they're not the best,
- but I feel like - I'm gonna make fun of you.
- Do not, I will get mad, [Julie laughing]
- but let's work our way from the top
all the way back to where we're sitting at now,
so we can kind of see the story develop.
The mezzanine is gonna be the seating area,
where you will create a nice little flagstone pathway
that goes up to the deck.
On the deck we'll have two armchairs
and then we'll have a nice loveseat here,
dining table over here.
So, I think it's also important,
like, you know how we say,
like people should still feel close to each other
in certain areas, like nothing should feel so disconnected.
- Right. - Why don't we put another
small little seating area here with the,
I'm thinking a beautiful umbrella here,
- That's a great idea. - right?
- I'm thinking we face it towards the mezzanine back area,
- sort of- - These people
- can talk to these people, - Exactly.
- 'cause it's not that far away, but-
- [Erick] Then everything starts having a nice little flow.
- Yeah, so different from what I have now,
just 'cause no flow of anything-
- And that's I think the word we should continue to use,
a "flow" and a good experience.
- Yeah.
- This is the perfect backdrop for your...
- My work. - Your work.
- God! - Can I get a million dollars
- to do it though?
- Whatever you need, I'll give it to you.
I just want the backyard to be
- photogenic... - I just want
- a million dollars.
So, I'm thinking anywhere between 50 to 60K?
- Okay. - If you're...
- I was, yeah.
I was thinking like 60, 70.
- Oh, amazing.
I mean it's not the million that I wanted, but-
- How long do you think it's gonna take?
- We have to move quick,
so that you can enjoy it for summer.
I know I can make it happen in like three, four weeks.
So end of June.
- That's amazing!
- Actually have to leave now, so I can start...
[Erick laughing] - Okay, buy!
- I'm excited.
- [Julie] Me too!
- We are at Berber selecting planters.
I brought Jules down so that she can see all of it.
Jules, do you love this place?
- [Julie] It's so hard to pick!
- You guys, I'm here checking in on the project
and it's looking so good.
We had a little bit of a hiccup with some of the tile
that we couldn't get on time.
You guys, this crew literally pulled this together
in less than a month, it's crazy.
[upbeat music]
At least the squirrels aren't here.
We are back.
It's been about a month that we were running around
trying to get everything done
and some of the major components that we changed
were taking out the grass and adding DG.
The deck, the awning, the mezzanine
and then added a lot of beautiful landscaping to this space.
We have to put all the furniture into place,
style everything,
make sure all the landscaping is looking good.
And then just really start making the space come alive.
I can't wait to show Jules the final space,
I think she's gonna love it
and I think she's gonna really enjoy
the space with her family.
[relaxing music]
So, in this area we wanted to update the deck,
since the other one felt a little too modern for the space.
So, we added this composite deck that is super durable.
We didn't go with wood,
wood rots over time and you have to maintain it.
The deck was completely exposed to the sun.
So, we really wanted to create a lot of shade here,
as you can see, I'm sweating like crazy.
[Erick laughing]
So, we added this beautiful retractable awning,
that really just adds another layer of protection.
We are gonna start adding some beautiful furniture
to create a nice outdoor living area.
Put that, let's angle it
so it softens it up a little bit.
Yeah, that's perfect.
These two armchairs really ground the space
and make this space feel cohesive.
The reason I love this piece so much from CB2,
is because it really has that open back.
I'm not a huge fan again of closed backs
for any furniture piece,
because unless you wanna create a really,
really intimate moment,
but because we wanna be able
to still connect to other areas of the backyard.
For example, if I was sitting in this chair here
and I wanted to talk to somebody over at the dining area,
because this back is very open,
it still allows for the communication to travel through
and it really still maintains an openness to everything.
When you walk out from the kitchen door,
you automatically see that there's a really nice comfy sofa
and you wanna just come in and lay down
and just put your feet up and hang out.
So, we still have all this furniture here
that we have to place around the space.
It's kind of a mess right now, but it'll all come together.
Pull it in a little bit more.
Right, perfect!
That's good.
As important as aesthetics is to me,
functionality has to also be there.
I'm thinking of the way that Jules and Kevin
are gonna use this space.
It's creating little moments for her.
Let's do the dining chairs.
So, same with dining chairs, I like keeping them spaced out.
Usually people like to pack up their dining table
and you find it that when you're sitting and eating,
you're bumping to each other with your elbows
and you don't have enough space.
So, having bigger dining tables outside, I love.
Even if it feels a little too big,
it's still, I'd rather have the space to spread around
and have a lot of food, than to feel like you're closed in
and you can't really even enjoy your meal.
We found this beautiful base at Berber Imports.
Brandon went to the slab yard
and found this amazing stone top.
We wanted it to feel kind of old and antique
and I think it served the purpose.
And these pieces from Hay bring it back
to a California casual and a little bit more modern,
so it throws off the design a little bit.
We went with stone for the material,
because it's super durable, so you easily wipe it.
You can even take the water hose after you're done eating,
just water hose it down and then it's all clean and done.
With the seating area back here on the deck,
it's still close enough,
like I said, where you're not yelling.
Anytime you have to project your voice too much,
for me the space is too far.
So, for the landscaping,
we really wanted to keep to the Mediterranean feel.
We added a lot of, rosemaries, agave,
a lot of beautiful olive trees.
So, when you water it,
you just get that beautiful smell
going through the entire backyard.
I love just really thinking about all the senses,
it really just drives that experience even further.
We love designing for LA,
especially because we do get a lot of sun and heat,
so all of these plants, like I said, they are Mediterranean,
so they're used to sun,
they're used to not having a lot of water.
And then the pebble added a really nice again,
Mediterranean feel, to it.
We added these beautiful spotlights to every tree.
They have such beautiful palm trees,
that we wanted to highlight that at night.
It creates such a good ambient lighting.
I'm a huge fan of warm tone lighting, not cool tone.
So, anything that's under like 3 000 to 4 000 Kelvin,
it just makes the space feel a little bit more sexier
and it just really plays nice
with all of the greenery going around.
So, the string lights that they previously had were,
I didn't like the placement,
they were, they felt a little too perfect.
We introduced new smaller bulbs
and then we were strategic in the way that we place them.
So, every area that we kind of wanted to highlight
was getting lit from above.
So, that really just then informs the space of like,
"Okay, this is where I should be going
and how I should be experiencing that area".
[relaxing music]
Let's do up here.
So, this was the area
that I really was excited to see transform
as before it was just kind of dead
and they weren't really using it for anything.
So, we created this beautiful built-in seating area.
Yeah, let's keep that one there.
Perfect.
And then let's start throwing some print on this, too.
They had a barbecue area on this side.
I kept asking them like,
"Do you really, really use the barbecue,
or are you using it once a month?",
whereas they're gonna use this every day.
Cool.
We added this travertine tile on the floor and we wanted to
stay true to the Spanish, modern architecture of the home.
So, this just kind of felt like an extension of that.
Can we just put this one over here,
just to soften up that wall?
Yeah I like that a lot.
There was a lot of negative space
and because it is black and white,
we really wanted to add a pop of color
and bougainvillea tends to grow giant and crazy
and it really starts taking over the space, which I love.
We want to be strategic of where we're placing everything.
And then last but not least,
let's connect this water feature.
[water bubbling]
Just the sound, again we've started talking about
playing with all the senses.
At night, when you're hearing this sound,
it's just so peaceful.
It just really ties in everything together
and it just gives you calmness.
It's important for areas not to feel flat,
so we wanted to introduce things
that kind of felt higher and lower
and play with balance and scale.
And again, when you start scanning the room, you're like,
"Oh, what's that?
Oh, what's that?".
Your curiosity will hit
and then you wanna just go and explore.
So, it's all about telling a story
and making that eye travel throughout.
There was supposed to be a little bistro table here
and then we realized like,
"Ah, it's gonna block off the space too much
and there's already a table there",
so because she does have a large family,
I think with the kids running around
that would have blocked up the space,
that didn't make it into the cut.
So, we got a lot of great pieces from CB2,
like all these beautiful cups.
As soon as people are coming into the space,
they know to gravitate here
and grab what they're gonna need
before they sit in the dining area.
Especially when you're going to a new place,
you feel a little intimidated.
So, I feel like if you lay it out for people
and it's really easy for them to know like,
"Okay, well the cups are here, the water's there,
I can go up and grab it myself",
as opposed to waiting for somebody to do something for you.
There's a saying in Spanish, like my Casa is your Casa
and like that literally is it for me.
Like, "My house is your house, grab whatever you want,
experience it the way you want it,
but let me create that experience and help you get there".
[relaxing music]
Are you ready Jules?
- [Julie] I'm like, so nervous.
Oh, my God.
- One, two, three, ta-da!
- Oh, my God!
[relaxing music]
You literally transformed my whole backyard.
I feel like I'm, I wanna cry, oh my God.
- Aw.
- This is so beautiful, Erick.
Can I give you a hug?
There's like so many moments here
that I'm just like obsessed with that,
I just, I'm literally speechless.
- Do you wanna see the seating area?
- Everything, I wanna see everything.
- And you just did exactly what we were thinking,
like we were talking about how,
like you gravitated right to the sofa-
- Yeah.
- These pieces from CB2, I think came out
- Oh, my God, - so outright, like-
- [Julie] they're from CB2?
- They're CB2's. - I love CB2!
- We are obsessed with them.
So, it's all just kind of starting to tell a story
as we kind of move around.
- Move on through the backyard,
- yeah. - Yeah.
- I wanna go - So-
- from pre drinks to dinner. - Exactly, exactly.
- Oh, my good, my good?
[Erick and Julie laughing]
I'm feeling that excited, I can't even speak.
- Ta-da!
- [Julie] Oh wow!
This is absolutely stunning!
- Because it is so wide,
you can put all the food in the center
and everyone can just kind of sit around and start-
- Share in everything. - Exactly.
- [Julie] And I love this little setup
to like grab the plate.
- Exactly.
Remember we were talking about the benches,
how I didn't want to do a bench,
- Yeah. - because it was-
- And I'm so glad we didn't do that.
- Yeah, isn't that cool now?
Because then we can introduce different chairs,
give it a little bit more character,
like do something a little bit more unique.
- [Julie] Just feels elevated.
- Exactly.
It's natural stone, so it's just super easy to clean.
- King table, - Love it.
- slash dinner table,
- Slash everything. - slash everybody.
[Erick and Julie laughing]
- I love it.
Oh my God, these pots are beautiful.
- And also the - Wait...
- the landscaping, right? - These are the ones
- from Berber?
- Yeah.
- That we picked out? - Yeah.
- [Erick] And The Plant Daddies did such an amazing job
with all the landscaping,
that I feel like they really understood your vision.
- [Julie] Yeah, they really did.
- I was so... - It was so different, right?
- It was so dim here, like gloomy
and now it's so much more brighter.
- [Erick] When we started designing it, like,
I really kept in mind, like,
everything in the backyard just had to have a moment,
- Yeah. - so that you could have
- [Erick] multiple uses.
- [Julie] And this floor, I love that.
- [Erick] Ah I know, Eco Outdoors,
the company that makes them,
- So pretty! - they're so good, right.
- [Erick] And then we did
- the herringbone - Herringbone.
- just to give it a little bit more depth.
And then we added these little drink tables.
So like, let's say we're having a drink
and we're sitting back here,
you can put your drink here and just-
- So cute! - Or, I know,
- [Erick] we were gonna maybe at some point,
put the barbecue here.
We ended up taking it out.
- It looks bigger, cause I feel like if we had it,
I would have felt a little off with that
and then this going on.
So now, it just looks a little bit more cleaner.
- I like taking you to a certain,
- like point - Right.
- and then after that it's like,
- "It's your home". - Yeah.
- I like that.
- Oh, are the squirrel's back?
- Oh my God, is another one falling?
[Erick laughing]
- [Erick] Oh, we transformed so much, right?
- [Julie] I can't even tell you the difference you made.
- You see it on paper, but then when you're standing up here
and you're looking down, you're like,
"Oh, it all came to life".
- [Julie] You're like, "Wow!".
- All the detail, the design,
but then about all of our senses being at play,
- like with the smell - Yeah!
- [Erick] and hearing the water feature
- when you're back here - The rosemary.
- and the final one
- is the visual, - I can't even tell-
- like you see it all,
you take it all in and it's like, "Wow!".
- [Julie] I'm like obsessed with our backyard now.
- [Erick] Oh, that makes me happy.
I mean, at the end of the day, like when you're,
you're happy with something and you love something,
- It'll will just - It will show, right?
- [Erick] It shows.
- Now, I can literally - Oh.
- entertain everyone. - You can have a show
- back here!
[Erick and Julie laughing]
- Seriously, I can't wait to have
all my friends and family over.
You killed it.
Like honestly, thank you so much
for making my backyard dreams come true.
Thank you so much!
- Oh, it was so much fun!
- [Julie] I love you!
Close your eyes!
Okay, open!
[crowd cheering]
Do you love it?
- [Little Girl] Yeah.
This is so cool!
- It looks really light and airy.
[crowd cheering] [relaxing music]