Small Garden Secrets: Making 600 Square Feet Feel Spacious

Dean Shibuya and Jeffrey Molloy's San Francisco backyard uses every inch for multiple garden rooms. Designer Terry Mulrooney pushed features into corners: a hot tub in one, a pergola with built-in bar and bench in another. Three rooms are defined by paving: Connecticut bluestone on a lower patio; a redwood deck and granite pavers with polished stone on two upper patios. A decorative fence shares the deck's coppery stain. A low dry-stacked moss-covered stone wall adds permanence in the urban setting.

"Before, people didn't know we had a backyard. Now we pull everyone out there to see it."

DESIGN: Terry Mulrooney, Admiral Green Landscaping, San Francisco (415/750-9002)