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Glamorous roof garden

The F&F roof terrace gets a stylish makeover, with beautiful decking and Mediterranean plants.

‘It’s got a roof terrace!’ That was one of the first things we said about this house when we were looking through the estate agent’s details. It’s also been one of the first things we’ve set to work on since moving in because when we arrived, the roof terrace didn’t look quite like the kind of place where you’d like to sit under the stars with a glass of wine:

Roof garden

It turned out that under that felt was a lot more grief and woe. The previous owners hadn’t got around to doing the roof terrace, but we’re jolly glad that we did it in the first few weeks after moving in, as the roof was rotting. It was so bad that one night after the builders had been working on it, water came gushing through the ceiling at 3am. But now it’s fixed, and looks like this:

roof garden

We’ve decided to model this on a Mediterranean balcony, with lots of pelargoniums, herbs, and climbers. You can’t beat a lovely pillbox red geranium as the centrepiece.

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But balconies in the Med rarely stick to one colour, so we’ve got deep pink, light pink and white in three different troughs.

roof garden

And we’ve got two different, warmth-loving passionflowers climbing up obelisks.

roof terrace

And two bay trees. Oh, and that lovely view of the hills beyond the terrace. Not bad. Although the view into the garden isn’t too bad, either.

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Our decking came from Trex, and is long-lasting composite decking called Lava Rock.

roof garden decking

It is smooth to walk on barefoot, which is useful as this roof terrace adjoins a spare bedroom (which means our guests can hop out here in the mornings for a private cup of tea). And because it is a dark composite, it warms up beautifully in the sunshine so that it feels so lovely to walk on. Our builders were raving about how easy this was to install, and if there is another problem with the roof underneath (which there shouldn’t be after all the builders’ work fixing it), then you can lift the deck up piece by piece as it is installed on its own frame.

We had the walls plastered and painted white because they would contrast beautifully with this dark decking. We chose it in this colour, though there are many different options and it took a while for us to narrow it down. Though a bit more costly than hardwood, composite decking is worth every penny because of its longevity. It will last over 20 years, while hardwood would only last 10 years, and this deck didn’t come from a tree, so it is environmentally friendly, too.

And so the roof terrace has gone from being a dangerous and ugly part of the house to being one of our favourite bits. We eat supper up there every evening, and often wander out there when it is dark to sit a while under the stars and chatter.

Thanks to Trex for this wonderful decking. We cannot recommend this product enough. Do have a look at their full range.

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