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A Riverwoods, Illinois, property has been expanded into a 24,000-square-foot garden designed by The Outside Design Studio and En Masse Architecture & Design. The project draws on the owners’ vision of an Italian countryside garden while working with the site’s existing woodland features and making space for food growing, propagation and dining.
A couple in Riverwoods, Illinois, has turned their longtime property and a neighboring parcel into a 24,000-square-foot garden that pairs Italian countryside-inspired design with the local woodland landscape. A report by Homes and Gardens describes a project by The Outside Design Studio and En Masse Architecture & Design, with a looping driveway, kitchen garden, greenhouse and pavilion among its features.
The homeowners had tended their land for more than 30 years before buying the neighboring property and incorporating it into the grounds. According to the report, they wanted a home and landscape surrounded by greenery, with views framed from the house’s windows. The enlarged site gave designers room to create a private garden that combines cultivated planting with a more natural setting.
Chicago-based landscape architect The Outside Design Studio worked with interior architect En Masse Architecture & Design. The designers extended the driveway into a looping route through the new grounds, using the path to connect the two parcels while responding to the surrounding terrain. Existing boulders and bluestone thresholds informed material choices, with bluestone carried into other parts of the property.
Design details link the garden to the house, including a cedar pergola made from the same material used at the home’s entry. A terracotta planter provides a focal point beneath it, while gravel and understated fencing define the nearby kitchen garden. The plant palette includes Hydrangea macrophylla, Allium ‘Summer Beauty’ and Rudbeckia ‘Goldsturm’, selected for form and seasonal interest, the report says.
The greenhouse is designed for both practical work and leisure. It includes custom metalwork, a stone sink and cast-concrete potting benches, and can also be used for candlelit dinners connected to the kitchen. At the garden’s edge, a pavilion echoes the main house’s architecture and stores tools; its interior is described as a place to rest after gardening. The report credits Pappas Company with landscape construction and photographers Scott Shigley and John Boehm with the images.
A Garden Built for Daily Use
The project illustrates how an expansive residential garden can serve several purposes without separating ornamental design from everyday activity. Its vegetable, fruit and raised beds provide growing space, while the greenhouse supports seed propagation and can be used for dining. The pavilion adds tool storage and a sheltered place to sit.
Its design also addresses a specific challenge: connecting a newly acquired parcel with a home landscape that had developed over decades. Rather than treating the added land as a separate garden, the designers used a looping drive, repeated materials and coordinated planting to create continuity. The report’s account may interest homeowners and landscape professionals looking for ways to connect formal garden elements with an existing wooded site.
The Italian countryside reference is presented as the owners’ desired aesthetic, not as a claim that the planting or setting reproduces a particular region of Italy. The project’s defining approach is its pairing of rustic visual cues with features suited to the Illinois property and the owners’ routines.
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Two Parcels, One Garden Plan
The garden began with a property the couple had cared for for over three decades. Their decision to purchase the neighboring lot expanded the site to a reported 24,000 square feet and prompted a broader plan for the grounds. The report does not provide the dimensions of either original parcel or say when the purchase or construction took place.
The design draws on materials and features already present, including large boulders and bluestone thresholds, then repeats those cues through garden details. The cedar pergola similarly takes its material from the house’s entry. Planting was planned to link older gardens with new spaces, with seasonal changes intended to carry color and structure through the year, according to the article.
“They envisioned a home and landscape enveloped in greenery, where every window frames a view.”
— The homeowners, as described by Homes and Gardens
Project Details Not Reported
The report does not give a completion date, project budget or construction timeline. It also does not identify the homeowners or provide measurements for individual features such as the greenhouse, pavilion or growing beds. No information is given about plant maintenance, water use, accessibility or how the garden changes across a full year.
The account is a design feature based on project descriptions and photographs; it does not include an independent evaluation of performance or the owners’ experience over time. The stated size of 24,000 square feet refers to the expanded site, not a supplied measurement of planted garden area alone.
No Further Milestone Given
The source report does not announce a future opening, public access or another project milestone. The garden is described as a private residential landscape, and no plans for tours or public use are provided. Any further information about the project’s timeline, ongoing maintenance or the homeowners’ plans would need to come from the owners or the design and construction teams.
Key Questions
Where is the garden?
It is on a private property in Riverwoods, Illinois, according to the Homes and Gardens report.
How large is the expanded property?
The report gives the combined site size as 24,000 square feet. It does not say how much of that area is planted garden.
Who designed the landscape?
The Outside Design Studio worked on the landscape with En Masse Architecture & Design, which also designed the greenhouse, according to the report.
What makes the garden Italian-inspired?
The owners wanted a landscape with the feel of the rustic Italian countryside. The report points to features including a terracotta planter and pergola, but describes the overall plan as one that also responds to the Illinois site’s existing terrain and woodland features.
Is the garden open to visitors?
The source describes it as a private outdoor sanctuary and gives no information about public access or tours.
Source: rss
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