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A Riverwoods, Illinois, couple expanded their long-tended property by adding the neighboring parcel, creating a 24,000-square-foot garden designed by The Outside Design Studio and En Masse Architecture & Design. The landscape combines Italian countryside-inspired features with woodland terrain, productive growing areas and spaces for everyday use; the source report does not identify a public opening or an upcoming event.
A 24,000-square-foot private garden in Riverwoods, Illinois, brings together Italian countryside-inspired details and the site’s woodland character, according to a Homes & Gardens report. The landscape was created after the homeowners purchased a neighboring property, with The Outside Design Studio and En Masse Architecture & Design shaping the expanded grounds for gardening, growing food and spending time outdoors.
The homeowners had cared for their original property for more than 30 years. As they planned for a new stage of life, they wanted a home and landscape surrounded by greenery, with garden views visible from the windows, Homes & Gardens reported. Buying the adjacent parcel allowed the couple to combine the two properties into a larger setting for that vision.
The design connects the parcels with an extended driveway that loops through the grounds, following the existing terrain. The Outside Design Studio drew on existing boulders and bluestone thresholds, using bluestone elsewhere on the property. Garden beds, fences, gates and a pergola also echo details from the main house, making the new areas feel related to the original landscape.
Planting combines structure with seasonal variation. The report identifies Hydrangea macrophylla, Allium ‘Summer Beauty’ and Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’ among the plants selected for their form and changing presence through the growing season. A cedar pergola frames a terracotta planter, while a nearby kitchen garden uses gravel and subtle fencing to organize vegetable, fruit and raised beds.
The greenhouse, designed by En Masse, is intended to serve more than one purpose. Its features include custom metalwork, a stone sink and cast-concrete potting benches for propagation and garden work. The report says the space can also host candlelit dinners, connecting it to the home’s kitchen. At the garden’s edge, a pavilion that reflects the main house provides tool storage and a place to sit, furnished with French bistro tables and wrought-iron chairs.
A Garden Built for Daily Use
The project’s central idea is not simply to reproduce an Italian-style garden. It is to adapt those visual cues to a woodland property in Illinois while keeping the grounds useful to the people who live there. The looping route, repeated stone and house-matched details help make the expanded land read as one landscape rather than two adjacent lots.
The greenhouse and kitchen garden also make the design functional: one supports propagation and food growing, while the other can be used for meals. The pavilion adds storage and a sheltered pause. Together, these spaces show how a private residential garden can be planned around routine work as well as leisure, rather than treated only as a view from the house.
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How Two Parcels Became One
The owners had maintained their original Riverwoods property for over three decades before acquiring the neighboring parcel. The added land brought the combined site to 24,000 square feet, according to Homes & Gardens. The supplied report describes a design collaboration between Chicago-based The Outside Design Studio, responsible for the landscape design, and En Masse Architecture & Design, which designed the greenhouse.
The designers used features already present on the site as a guide. Boulders, bluestone thresholds and the home’s cedar entry informed material choices and details in the expanded garden. Pappas Company handled landscape construction. Photography was credited to Scott Shigley and John Boehm. The article presents the project as a completed private garden but gives no construction or completion date.
“The expanded site, now 24,000 sq ft, became the foundation for a private outdoor sanctuary; a garden idea that feels both cultivated and wild.”
— Homes & Gardens report
Project Details Not Provided
The source report does not state when the garden was completed, provide a project budget or identify the homeowners by name. It also does not say whether the property is open to visitors; the article describes it as a private outdoor sanctuary, not a public garden. The supplied material offers no direct interview quotes from the owners or designers, so their individual comments and the precise decision-making behind the design are not available here.
No Public Opening Announced
No future event, public opening or next project milestone is identified in the source material. The garden is presented as an established private landscape, with its greenhouse, kitchen garden and pavilion intended for ongoing use by the homeowners. Any plans for public access or further changes to the site remain unreported.
Key Questions
Where is the garden?
It is on a private property in Riverwoods, Illinois, according to Homes & Gardens.
How large is the expanded property?
The report gives the combined site area as 24,000 square feet, after the owners bought the neighboring parcel.
Who designed the landscape?
The Outside Design Studio collaborated with En Masse Architecture & Design. The report credits The Outside Design Studio with the landscape design and En Masse with the greenhouse design.
What makes the garden Italian-inspired?
The report points to a terracotta planter, a cedar pergola and a romantic countryside influence. It also describes the design as adapted to the property’s woodland terrain, rather than as a replica of a specific Italian garden.
Can visitors go to the garden?
The source describes the garden as private and does not announce public visiting hours or access. Whether the owners allow any visits is not specified.
Source: rss
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