No expert here, but would it work to lay some rectangular edging stones against the fence and then build up the soil a bit in front of the stones so that the grade isn't so steep? I'm thinking that the stones wouldn't fit exactly flat against the fence and thereby allow for ventilation and drainage so the fence won't rot. (?) Soil or mulch would become compacted against the fence, and as you mentioned and you don't want that. I'd probably do that first and then vary the plantings -- depending on the criteria such as: what style you like, whether the plants shed anything likely to be blown into the pool, and the strength of the sun. I'd definitely plant at least one climbing rose to be espaliered against the fence (or at least shaped and trained horizontally on the fence). I'd plant a few of the smaller ornamental grasses (perhaps Hameln or Adagio) as well as something with larger tropical-looking leaves (alocasia comes to mind - upright elephant ears) for a change of texture and then go from there with any favorites that meet the criteria for the spot. Lou

Thanks. My mom did mention possibly one of those white plastic chairs but not only are they unattractive (which they needn't be...someone just needs to care enough to design them nicer) but...then there's the issue of where to PUT the chair when she's not using it in the shower. However, it so happens we were also talking about potentially getting a teak/bamboo bench that's not too 'deep', to potentially put against the currently open side of the bathroom wall. This way folks can sit on the bench while drying if they want, and then the bench could possibly have a lower shelf too, on which to store things. So in this vein, it did occur to me that maybe we could get ONE bench that serves both purposes....goes in the shower when someone wants to sit, and then is put back outside the shower, and against the wall, when done. The only caveat however is...how manageable will it be getting the bench in and out of the shower... fitting through the door angle...and the weight of the bench...

Sophie - I disagree. I did not design this. I have no pretensions to being a designer and for many other aspects of the renovation we have indeed had formal plans drawn up. [I also know from experience that having an architect involved is far from a panacea .... but that's another story or stories]. For this room we knew we needed to replace the large leaky picture window and instead of replacing in kind we asked whether it would be possible and reasonable to build a window seat and what would be involved. We showed the contractor many pictures of window seats and shared the required dimension ranges (not exact dimensions) from various articles. He said a bay window would take care of it and no separate plans were required. I include the manufacturer's literature excerpt that says their Bay and Bow windows can be used as window seats. It seemed (and actually still seems) a reasonable solution. Projection Window Bay and Bow windows are like a piece of fine furniture for the façade of your home. These unique windows project from your home, creating additional space that can be used for a variety of purposes, such as a window seat or displaying meaningful trinkets. Our vinyl windows (typically double-hung or casement windows) are inserted into a solid frame to create this unique look that adds style to any home. Bay windows typically have three lites (one central fixed lite and two flanking operational lites) at 20-25-degree angles. Bow windows most commonly consist of four lites, all of which can be fixed or operational, set at 10-15 degree angles. The contractor asked us to describe what we wanted to the window vendor as well and we did. We never used the term bay window. We only talked in terms of window seat. The window vendor also did not dissuade us or suggest we needed an addition instead of a window. The window vendor spec'd the window we needed. Given that we have 8 foot ceilings - this would have been a really good place to catch that a 52" bay window wouldn't be long enough to provide a seat at a reasonable height off the floor. I think that's the key flaw here - plus someone's telling us that (unless I'm wrong) we weren't going to get the wood backing. Tomorrow should be interesting ...

Basics would be a 3-seat sofa and a pair of chairs that don't match it. Try the sofa on the wall and the two chairs facing TV.