Painted scenes in the backyard: a wall, glass doors, and a garden shed take on an Old World look

Sunset, June, 1999 by Peter O. Whiteley

BEFORE: It was just another backyard: the major defining features were the blank two-story wall of the house with unremarkable sliding glass doors leading to the patio.

AFTER: Artist Linda Hoffman has transformed the stucco facade of the house into a vivid architectural scene and made the plywood siding of the pool shed resemble an Italian fresco.

Now the house features a pair of heavy palazzo doors complete with rivets, door knockers, and slotted viewing ports - you can even see the owner peering out. The curved handle on the right reveals that these are, in fact, the sliding glass doors. Although they appear to be opaque, they remain translucent for anyone on the interior. Hoffman covered the glass with perforated "one-way-vision film" (the type found on painted buses). Then she airbrushed the image of the wood doors onto the film. She painted the door frame to match the fake doors, created the eye-fooling "stonework," and added a pair of real lamps.

The shed's paint job began with a thin layer of acrylic stucco, part of which was cracked to create the effect of an authentic antique.

DESIGN: Guided Imagery Design & Productions, Woodside, CA (650/324-0323)

OUTDOOR LIVING

Concrete rugs

Sun, rain, and foot traffic won't damage this pair of colorful outdoor "rugs." In fact, you clean them with the squirt of a hose. Made of concrete, they're permanent parts of two Southern California garden settings.

The first (above left), inspired by Navajo rugs, graces a ramada at the Living Desert, a zoological and botanical park in Palm Desert, California. Jeff Grieve added the rug to what had been a bland, gray-colored concrete pad. He scored the intricate pattern with a concrete saw and masonry blade, then added the colors with a special staining system.

INSTALLATION: Jeff Grieve, Concrete Art (800/500-9445)

The second example (above) is a multihued, geometric design in an elevated dining patio. The patio comprises a grid of large squares; the "rug" is divided into smaller rectangles and diamonds that were created with concrete tools at the time of the pour. The muted colors - buff, gray, green, purple, and red - are the result of applying chemical stains after the buff-colored concrete had cured. Grout adds a tilelike appearance.

DESIGN: Kajer Architects, Pasadena (626/795-6880)

INSTALLATION: Marshall Barabasch, Patterned Concrete, Ontario, CA (909/390-3914) (Furniture source on page 57)

Fire and ice

The two horizontal drawers in this stainless steel barbecue are more than they first appear - they're part of a refrigerated compartment just below the cooktop (see detail, below). Called the Chill-Fire, the barbecue offers restaurant-quality construction and features. It is available in stacked-drawer or single-door models; units can be built-in or freestanding. The 48-inch-wide grill has four burners and comes with a ceramic, infrared burner rotisserie. The unit, which costs about $7,500, is made by Lynx Professional Kitchen Products: (888) 289-5969.