The designer moved outsize furniture into her neglected outdoor space to turn it into an atmospheric bolthole. Kate Jacobs drops by
When it comes to kitting out homes, designer Abigail Ahern knows what she’s doing. She has a knack for anticipating trends – most recently restoring the credibility of faux plants. Her own home, a Victorian terrace in London (“the area’s gone from murder mile to hipsterville in the 17 years we’ve been here”), is four floors of bohemian glam. But for many years the small rear garden was an afterthought, despite a double-height glass box extension looking out on to it.
That changed four years ago when Ahern and her husband, Graham Scott, snapped up a wooden cabin on eBay. “The cabin pulled the eye down the garden and everything looked so bleak, just a long rectangle of grass and gravel with bamboo planted down the sides,” she says. Ahern decided to apply her well-honed interior design instincts to the garden and the transformation began.