Modern Timber Steps — A Garden Design and Build Project

In this article, I’ll show you how I designed a set of modern timber steps for a particularly difficult site — a shallow courtyard garden in London. Being right outside the living room, it needed to (i) suit the style of the interior, (ii) provide safer access to the adjacent garden areas and (iii) double as a useful room outside. Read on to find out how I solved these design challenges, and in part 2, how I built the steps.

Background

Earlier this year, I took on a commission to finish a tiny London garden that I had been involved in a few years ago. The property presented quite a challenge: a ground floor flat, predominately consisting of a large warehouse-style single-story rear extension, cut into the hillside behind the original building. This had left only a narrow, wedge-shaped vertical void dominated by a 1.4m high concrete retaining wall. Despite these limitations, the owner was determined to create a multi-level courtyard garden through this thin strip of land, allowing access to develop a roof terrace. Unusually, this property has almost no external windows, relying on high level glazing and skylights for natural lighting. One exception is a pair of patio doors to the rear, which provide the only access to the garden, and the only eye-level view of the outside world. The tiny bit of garden these doors look out onto is, therefore, particularly important, as it is constantly on show from most of the living areas. Unfortunately, it was also the darkest, dankest part of the whole garden: a small area barely two metres square, backed by a concrete retaining wall with high boundary fences. To make sense of this unprepossessing space, the top of the retaining wall acts as a walkway for accessing an intermediate-level deck and ladder to the roof terrace (see layout below).

Site plan and recent landscaping

Following our initial design consultations, the client installed high quality larch decking with matching vertical slat fencing, creating a stylish design that transformed this very difficult space, into something quite special. The lower deck area, though, was incomplete. Being the most difficult — and in many ways important part of the design — it was not clear initially what the best approach would be. Fortunately, when the decks were installed the carpenters knocked up some temporary steps from offcuts, awaiting a final decision on a permanent solution. That was two years ago…

Here is how it looked in August 2024:

Design Brief

The owner had lived with these temporary steps for over two years, during which time he had formed clear opinions about what was wrong with the current arrangement, and what he wanted to achieve. Here are the key points we discussed:

1. Safety and ease of use
   The temporary steps, were too steep (54 degrees) and the treads too shallow (6″, 150mm). Although easy enough to climb (due to their open backs), descending was a terrifying and dangerous experience, with the small treads feeling very insecure under one’s heel. Although the clearance in front of the patio doors gave us an additional 6in (15cm) to play with, even this would leave the steps too steep and narrow. After many discussions and sketches, we came up with the idea of using just three (instead of six), double sized steps. Although this would make each riser about 35cm (14in) — equivalent to climbing two steps at once — the increased tread depth of 38cm (16in) would be much more secure underfoot. This would result in a more acceptable incline of 42 degrees. Mock-ups convinced us that the benefits of deep treads easily outweighed any disadvantages of double-height risers. Indeed, we soon realised that the increased tread depth would enable the steps to double up as informal seating.
    
2. Flow and desire lines
   Another issue with the temporary steps was their placement along the south-fence (to the left of the patio doors looking out) which was not ideal, as the bottom step ended behind the opening door leaf, making movement through the space rather awkward. The natural ‘desire-line’ through the space was to and from the centre of the patio doors. By making the bottom step L shaped, turning back towards the rear wall, the new steps would comfortably accommodate diagonal movement.
    

3. An outside room
   The steps, being in full view from the main living area, needed to feel like part of the house – “like a piece of furniture,” the client said. Also, the space around the steps should become a place you want to be in, not just a transit area. In its current configuration, neither the client nor guests were ever drawn to sit out here, as there was not enough space for chairs, and it was difficult to keep clean.
   
   The solution we found was to build the stairs as a series of stacked cubes, like a stepped pyramid, with the bottom step wrapping back towards the wall. As well as improving flow, the broad steps would create a series of informal seats, encouraging use as a social space. By staining the steps and decking with a black stain that matched the existing retaining-wall tiles, the space could be unified and made significantly easier to keep clean. This tiny, dank space would soon be turned into a stylish outside room — a seamless extension of the living room.

A Rough 3d render

The photos above were taken from approximately the same location indoors. On the right, is an iPhone screenshot using Apple augmented reality, which is overlaying a basic 3D model of the proposed construction. In this early mock-up the cubic steps were a bit too tall, making the last step up onto the concrete walkway disproportionately shallow. In the final design, the four risers were equalised.

Once the design was agreed on, I spent several weeks working out detailed construction plans, which had to take into account the complicated geometry of the location: none of the walls meet at right angles, and there are several concrete intrusions which need to be spanned. As I planned to construct the steps off-site, I would have to make it modular, so it could be delivered, assembled and finished in-situ.

Over a couple of weeks, I built the steps using offcuts which were left over from the larch decking. Thanks to meticulous preparations, everything went to plan, and once I had constructed the steps and given them an initial coat of stain, I transported them to site, installed and finished them in one day.

I’ll go into the construction details in a separate article, but for now, let’s take a look at the final result.

Completed Project

“Completing this lower area has made a world of difference to how I use the garden. I’m now confident going up and down the steps, and sit on them almost every day. The view from inside is so much better, especially lit up in the evening, when it really feels part of my living room. My cat is very happy too.” — Client

Next: Part 2 — Construction & Fitting