The Windy Hill Courtyard Project: Is it possible to combine your love of travel with your love of home design? In this post, I'll share how we created a travel-inspired DIY courtyard on our farm at Windy Hill.

Planning our vacation

Several years ago I planned a very extensive family vacation. It’s understood that whenever I plan a vacation, I carefully consider the accommodations because, I believe, if you seek out cool spaces, where you stay, can be as interesting as the vacation itself.

So, one day as I was paging through Country Living Magazine and I came across an article about a quaint hotel in San Luis Obispo, CA, which was dubbed America's happiest town, by Oprah Winfrey. The hotel I found had a french theme and was named Petit Soleil {A Touch of European Charm in the Heart of San Luis Obispo}. It looked perfect and with a tagline like that, they had me hook line, and sinker.

find Inspirations

Upon our arrival, we were greeted at the front entrance by a sweet bicycle covered in flowers and giant pots filled with herbs. It was charming, to say the least. Inside there is a cafe that looked like a French bistro and all the rooms had creative names like La Cage Aux Folles, Chocolat, and Herb de Provence. But the space that inspired us the most was the sun-warmed garden courtyard. And because it was July, we took advantage of the courtyard’s morning French Toast and also its happy hour French wine. As we enjoyed that glass of French wine, my husband and I looked at each other and said "We should create a garden courtyard like this at home." And when we retruned we did. 

Our farm’s original courtyard

Our home is in Doylestown, PA, so first of all, we get much more snow than California and we were working with a farm that was built circa 1850 and property with many overgrown gardens and herds of pesky whitetail deer. So, we had a few challenges to consider.

The space we wanted to transform into our courtyard sits between the main farmhouse and the lime-green artist cottage and this area wasn’t in the best of shape. We needed to rip out some old, weedy gardens and lay a lot of weed barrier cloth to prepare the way for the red tipple stones and large overlaying flagstones we were about to bring in. 

We also needed to remove a very large, old tree that leaned precariously over the house. We have a lot of high winds here and this tree posed a danger every time it stormed, so we decided it was time to take it down, plus that would free up space and allow for more sunlight into the courtyard. This was a big undertaking, and a crane and a few professionals were called to handle the job.

Clearing the space

We first cleared all the old, weedy gardens, and removed all the broken pieces of slate. Then, we defined a circle around the tree with some rocks, because we knew as soon as the crew could remove the tree, we’d plant something new.

weed barrier mat

Once the slate and gardens were removed, we carefully lined the entire space with a weed barrier cloth, overlapping the edges so nothing could sneak through. (It still did, but that’s another story). Here our daughter’s pose for the camera, indicating they were helping me, but I am not sure that’s the case.

Red Tipple Stone

Next came the smooth spreading of red tipple stone. We chose red tipple because all of our farm driveways already used red stone, so this balanced nicely. Red Tipple is a very small stone and you can smooth it out with a metal rake. Landscapers can deliver several yards of tipple or you can also find it in bags at garden centers or at Home Depot and Lowes. For this courtyard, we had the stone delivered and used a makeshift ramp to wheelbarrow it down the step into the courtyard. As you can see, we worked night and day to finish!

Removing the old Tree

We hired a landscaping crew to remove the big, old tree. They brought in a crane and had to carefully lower and roll the pieces out of the yard. I was very nervous to do this step, but it was so big and potentially harmful, at this point, so we took it down.

Laying the Flagstones

As we neared the end of the project, we still needed to bring in the large, flat flagstones. The stones were delivered on palettes from a local stone supplier and we rolled each one into place by hand. It was a bit of a puzzle placing them on the tipple while considering our furniture and at the same time creating a little bit of space for the tucking of herbs like Creeping Mother of Thyme groundcover. We also knew we wanted a water feature someday but hadn’t found the right one yet. To prepare for this, we laid the flagstones near our house in an arch to accommodate a walking path around the “future” water feature.

Here our son, Blake, lends a hand spreading the tipple around the flagstones like a pro.

finishing touches

So here is the end result of all that hard work. A Pee Gee Hydrangea Tree stands right where the other tree once stood. Many rogue hostas and honeysuckle spontaneously sprung up around it over the years. The stunning stone wall fountain was eventually found at a local company called Campania and ironically was made right up the road. The circular shape was just what we wanted and it fit nicely inside our previously designed, arched flagstone path.

Courtyard Reveal

This is the view from our cottage. In the mild Pennsylvania months, it’s so nice to hear the water trickling and just enjoy this transformed space. We are so glad Petit Soleil inspired us many years ago. I’d love to hear about projects you’ve been inspired to do around your home. Please comment below.