Backyard Goals in Wash Park

Urban dwellers, take note: It doesn’t require a ton of land to create an inviting backyard haven. Take, for example, the now-lush corner of this Wash Park lot. It might well have lived on as a small, neglected patch of grass—the kind of place where dog toys go to die—were it not for the creative eye of Kaylin Kittle, senior landscape designer with Denver’s Ivy Street Design. She says she conceived the space as “an extension of the interior of the house”—another room, but under the wide-open sky—with an elegant cedar pergola and three-tiered fireplace forming the ceiling and “walls,” and a Pennsylvania bluestone tile floor underfoot. The fireplace and cozy seating (a Design Within Reach sofa and chairs, illuminated by retrofitted West Elm lanterns) make the space feel inviting well into the cold-weather months, while the ornamental Chanticleer pear and Spring Snow crabapple trees along the fence create privacy. “Our goal was to make the backyard feel like a true outdoor room,” Kittle says. “We gave it that garden oasis feeling.”