- Welcome back to Houzz TV live,
I'm Rick Spence and joining me today
is Wendy Glaister from Modesto, California,
doing amazing interior design there.
And Wendy, you're gonna share with us
your beautiful backyard oasis at your own home.
All the elements back there, you've got water,
you've got fire, you've got greenery, you've got hardscape.
What do you we wanna start with?
- Well when we moved in, Rick, there was nothing here
because it was a foreclosure and it was really ugly.
And I was raised by a family of hobbyist gardeners.
My grandfather, my parents, everyone loves gardening
and plants and so it was like a desert wasteland
and it looked so hopeless, it was horrible.
And we had nothing when we first got married,
so we started off, I think we got some calla lilies
for the half-moon bay nursery
and I split them, 'cause you can divide them,
and I planted them all along this long, long walkway.
And it looked so spindly and sad
and now it's totally filled in and I was able
to give calla lilies to all my neighbors
for like a month and a half.
- [Rick] Those are beautiful plants.
So, all right, so you're going down the side yard
and you have this beautiful destination
with your seating area and the fire pit,
tell me how that works.
- Well, it's hot here.
(laughs)
No, I--
- So, you don't use the fire features
is what you're telling me?
You don't need it, it's just for looks.
- In the evening, it's great.
But I like the shade for the daytime.
So, I wanted it to feel like there were
little destination points,
because it is kind of an oddly-shaped yard.
You kinda have to bring people through a space
just like you do a house, that's really how
I approached the outside, just like I would do an interior.
So there are little resting points,
there's this little herb garden.
We have a very shallow backyard, so we have larger
side yards and a narrow backyard.
- Got it. - So, that's where we also
put the outdoor kitchen there because it just needed it
to feel a little more intentional,
not like you're walking out and bam, you hit a fence.
So, what we did was we made the frame out of steel,
we clad the whole thing in glass
and then trimmed it out in storefront
because Mark says glass in storefront,
so it looks very tidy, it has that clean,
sort of a brushed, stainless look on the trim.
And it accommodates the Traeger, the grill,
charcoal, char-broil barbecue.
I know everybody has their own camps.
Some people are Green Egg people.
- [Rick] Yeah.
- This is not about, like, no judgment.
- We're not gonna go, that's a whole 'nother episode
on that whole thing. - Yeah.
- The Egg versus the Traeger versus the barbecue
versus the gas versus the, yeah.
There's no winners in that argument, yeah.
- And there's a sink, right, right.
There's a sink there, stainless sink
and a beverage refrigerator and storage as well.
So, it's great and it's so sleek.
So you know, all the dudes, 'cause now Jacob's almost 20,
all his friends come over and they like to hang out
and they listen to their music and they talk about girls
and they (laughs).
- [Rick] No.
- And I just try to block it out but,
that's their spot, that's like their cool hangout area.
It's just really practical and I'm really glad
that we decided to do that.
- And you have enough seating there
to accommodate a lot of people,
the dining, you've got the bar area.
Was that something that evolved over time?
Like how much seating and where you put it
and like, did you move those spaces around a little bit?
- I mean, I'm always moving things around,
it's just my nature.
But, I knew I wanted to be able to seat
a lot of people around that outdoor kitchen.
Another six at the end of the yard,
under that big pergola.
Two on the lounge chairs that I'll never sit in.
And then, there's also a fire pit seating area
over on the other far end of the pool.
And you can sit probably four more people there.
All of this was knowing that I wanted
my son and his friends to want to be here.
And I thought, if I can, over the years,
you know, add another seating group
or add more umbrellas or add this kitchen,
they're gonna wanna be at the Glaister Resort, right?
And even over a number of years,
you don't have to do everything at once.
You know, that's just not realistic.
Especially now.
So, you know, as long as you can make a little plan
and you just kinda add on as you go,
it will evolve, probably better than you may have expected,
even if you just did it all, you know,
off the bat the first time.
'Cause you're living there and you start to learn
how people use the space and you can sort of adapt
to meet those needs and I think that's fun.
- Let's break down some of the spaces a little bit more.
So on the side, the one side yard that leads up
to the outdoor fire feature, tell me about that,
how you kinda married the grass
with the pathway with the beautiful roses.
- Well, I had this friend years and years ago
when I first graduated college, who allowed me to work
in her nursery as her marketing person.
Her name was Fran Noons and she owned Westurf.
And she had this moonlight garden
that was so amazing, I'd never seen an all-white garden
'cause my parents like a lot of color
and it's just, it's a lot.
(laughs)
But I have a busy life and the interior designer knows，
we have to manage so many things at once
and so，I like it to feel a little bit more calm.
And so, I kind of employed the tactics
that my friend Fran taught me.
So, almost all of the plantings are white.
So I have white iceberg roses,
I have white crepe myrtle trees,
the white calla lilies, a sweet William that's white.
Some people call it dianthus.
I do have a red-leafed white begonia
but that's kind of a fun textural difference,
because the sweet Williams's sort of fluffy
and the red leaf bergonia's a little more compact
and tidy, so the juxtaposition of the colors is fun.
And I like that path because we went to go
on just a fun little family overnight to Carmel,
Carmel-by-the-Sea, and I like to walk up and down
and kinda scope out all the yards
and see what ideas I can bring home.
- Oh yeah, that's definitely-- - Just like everybody else.
- [Rick] Good yard watching in Carmel, for sure.
- Oh yeah.
And they had these beautiful flagstone hearts,
little path stones, and I thought they were so pretty
and I know it's kitschy, Jacob's sort of embarrassed.
He's like, "Mom, come on."
But I love it because it just sort of reminds me of Mark
and putting this house together with him,
so we did that little path.
And so on the fence, we have roses that have color
and a lot of fragrance, but that's pretty much
the only place we have a lot of color,
other than glazed pots that I kinda
strategically placed around the yard.
- What was your, you know, strategy about placing the pots
and how large they were and where you put 'em
and how do you think about that?
- Well, I like things to make sense to me visually.
And so, scale and proportion have a lot to do with that
and those huge, beautiful glazed pots,
they kind of serve as anchor points through the yard.
So you see them around the pool,
you see them down by the pergola,
you see them in the little herb garden.
And then there's little baby glazed pots
that kinda match, that go through the whole thing.
A home can look a certain way, you know, furnished.
But then if you bring in large pots
and a fiddle leaf fig or a palm
or a really pretty pot with an orchid,
and it just kind of speaks to the colors in the space
and it brings in a little life and punch and zip,
it's the same thing outside.
So you have stuff in the ground,
you can think of that as like furniture
to your outdoor space,
but then accessories become the pots
and where you place them and how do you enliven this space
with something with a little bit larger scale
or like that lime green of those cute little trees
that I have around the pool.
Juniper.
Right?
(laughs)
My friend Monica Perrone in the landscape park,
she's gonna say, "I can't believe you missed that!"
But anyway, it's a little structure,
it's a little pop, it's a little cheer
that you just kind of sprinkle around
the same way you would in a house.
Like I would never style a house
without a live plant in a pot.
It just looks so flat.
So same thing outside, just sprinkle it
all over and enjoy it.
Don't overthink it, don't feel like you have to make
an English garden out of every pot.
It's really a lot to take care of
and then it gets overgrown and you're constantly,
you know, trying to maintain that.
So, keeping it simple makes it easier
and I think more restful visually, too.
- Well, thank you for spending
the time with us today, Wendy.
Beautiful space, can't wait to see more
of your amazing projects with clients.
- Thank you so much Rick, I'm so glad that you could come
and I hope people got some really fun ideas
and that they can feel a little less pressure
about making their backyard oasis happen overnight.
Inch by inch, it's a cinch!
(laughs)
- Oh, there we go.
Inch by inch, it's a cinch.
Hey, I like that.
That's good stuff.
- Yeah, yard by yard, life is hard.
- Oh no.
(laughs)
All right, how many of these do you have?
(laughs)
- Oh, those little bits?
- [Rick] Come on, give me another one.
- I do have a lot. - You're on a roll.
- Yeah. - Yard by yard, it's hard.
- Ferns make it friendly, ferns make it friendly,
that's my deal.
All my friends tease me and say the Wendy way,
'cause it has to be cute, clean.
I like it tidy.
I don't know, I have a lot, I'm sorry.
(laughs)
- I think this is a book, a book in the making.
That's a whole-- - Oh gosh.
(laughs)
- [Rick] Well thanks again, Wendy, we will see you soon.
- Sounds great, Rick.
- [Rick] Okay, bye-bye.
- Thanks.