I spent £40,000 transforming my garden — it has a football pitch and outdoor bath

When Sally Worts, 56, and her husband Chris, 64, bought their Victorian barn conversion near Skipton in North Yorkshire 12 years ago, it was the building’s huge garden and sensational views that sold it to them.

However, with four young and energetic sons, designing an outdoor living space wasn’t high on the agenda when they moved in.

Instead, they focused on transforming the home’s interior and putting their funds towards excavating the bottom
of the garden to make room for a five-a-side football pitch and carving out an area for Sally’s two greenhouses – where she grows flowers and vegetables.

‘It ticked all the boxes to begin with,’ she says. ‘The boys could play while Chris and I enjoyed the views and pottered around in the greenhouses. But I knew I’d eventually want to build a veranda across the back of the house and create a fun outdoor entertaining space.’

It wasn’t until 2020 that Sally
began designing a veranda as an extension to the house. Her brief was to create a sociable area in which to relax with friends and family with specific zones: a lounge area with a sofa, armchairs and coffee table; and
a dining area with a nine-feet long Edwardian dining table from a local antiques dealer, which can fit lots of people for maximum socialising.

She drew a simple design, instructing her joiner to cement seven posts into the existing paving and build 
a simple wood-beam roof structure with laminate roof panels overhead and 
wooden decking underneath. She also spent hours measuring the roof angle to ensure water tightness.

‘It’s completely waterproof and the house shelters it from the wind so we can leave everything outside all year round.’

To soften the space, Sally attached rattan sheets under the roof beams using a staple gun and threaded lengths of fake ivy between the roof and the rattan.

‘I’ve trained real ivy but, as it takes time to grow, I added an artificial plant. It looks real – I struggle to tell the difference.’

It’s clear to see Sally has placed just as much importance on the decor outdoors as she has inside her home.

Using the same colour palette of 
yellows and animal prints as inside the house, she bought accessories she would use indoors, too, such as cushions, throws and rugs – with enormous disco balls hanging above.

‘I didn’t want to look out into my garden during the winter and see everything covered up. I wanted to be able to use 
the space all-year round,’ says Sally, 
who has installed outdoor heaters for when it gets really cold. ‘And don’t feel you have to buy furniture that’s specifically
for outdoors.’

She upcycled an Ikea unit for her veranda, which was bought on Facebook Marketplace and painted dark blue.

‘It’s brilliant for storing my vintage
plates and glassware. Yes, the wind gets in over the winter months but I wash my plates before use anyway, so it’s not that big a deal.’

Next on the agenda was the outdoor kitchen, built by her joiner in the same style as the veranda. Sally used identical laminate panels, knowing how effective they were, and allowed for a slight 
pitch on the roof again to allow the rainwater to run off the back rather than onto the chef.

She then fitted a tile splashback using tin tiles from Rockett St George, which she painted gold to fit her existing colour scheme, and installed a hardwearing Carrara worktop.

The pièce de résistance is the Charlie charcoal yellow cooker. ‘When I saw it, 
I knew I had to have it. We had it 
colour-matched to blend in with our existing decor – and it’s now one of their bestsellers,’ says Sally, who’s a big fan of the brightness. ‘It’s just a really nice happy colour, isn’t it?’

Mindful that the wooden exterior, 
which Sally painted in an outdoors paint matched to Farrow & Ball Railings, looked quite hard, she planted bamboo in huge plastic planters sourced from her local garden centre, which she spray-painted in gold.

‘You’ve got to be really careful with bamboo if you plant it in the ground because its roots grow rapidly – but 
I love how beautiful it looks when it sways and flutters in the wind,’ says Sally, who has recently begun 
studying for a degree in horticulture and garden design.

Winning the best garden prize at the inaugural ufurnish.com awards last year gave Sally the impetus to turn her passion for garden design into 
a business.

‘I’d been thinking about studying for a while and then I won the prize.

‘The awards are 
all about celebrating what normal people do to their homes and gardens and it gave me the nudge I needed to say, “You know what, I can do 
this”,’ says Sally, who hopes to specialise in wellbeing and 
regenerative gardening.

Her most recent garden addition is her fantasically bright yellow outdoor tub from Victoria Plum Bathrooms, which is a firm favourite on her Instagram account @sallydoessassy.

The family initially had an oak barrel for cold-dipping but it wasn’t practical in all weather, so Sally replaced it with a cast-iron bath. Husband Chris painted it in a yellow exterior paint to match her cooker and furniture and gave the legs a bit of pizzazz in gold paint.

‘We tiled under the bath using cheap yellow and white tiles and hid the plumbing under the gravel and connected it to an outside tap at the front of the house,’ says Sally.

‘It feels so decadent to have a hot bath in your garden. But it’s wonderful being able to have a soak in the tub after a hard day’s gardening. I love it.’

Sally’s favourite plants

Grasses are lovely, even when in a pot, as they sway in the wind.

Anything you can rub your hands on and smell – geraniums are amazing for this

Nasturtiums are brilliant as they can add a pop of colour – plus they’re edible

You can’t go wrong with herbs. There’s nothing better than the feeling of growing something you can take to the table and eat.

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