Tuesday, February 17, 2009

INTERIOR DESIGN INSPIRES LANDSCAPE DESIGN

Landscape magazines haven't inspired me for design in at least a decade.
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Interior magazines are full of ideas if you transpose furnishings & art for plants & hardscape.

Copy your interior style outside.

The table, below, is a landscape template. A pathway leads through its center. Shrubs and groundcovers are each side of the path. The insect is an iron arbor coated in evergreen vine leading to another garden room. The candlesticks are an understory tree, perhaps redbud. The ferns in terra cotta pots are southern indica azaleas. The plate is a drift of Lenten rose. Bric-brac- to the left of center- are wild ginger. The green walls are obviously a hedge of dwarf cherry laurel. The pair of chairs are lovely urns on plinths. Below, another tiny space to copy outside. Perhaps the side of a brick house between a front corner and fireplace. The lamp is witchhazel 'Arnolds Promise', the vase a cryptomeria 'Yoshino'. The 3 misc. items a variegated daphne, dwarf sarcoccoca, and heuchera 'pewter veil'. Placement of the plants matches the tabletop.
This would be fun, below. The painting would be a blue conifer, pair of vases, to the left, Snow azalea. The pair of matching silver candlesticks are fastigiate plum yew, the roses a dwarf burgundy loropetalum, the finial looking thing a daphne and the decanter a virginia sweetspire.
Everything blooms white but the plant where the roses are. All evergreen plants except the decanter (virginia sweetspire). The chair transposes into a bench outside. Paint it a showy color from artwork within the house.


Planting zones and scale don't matter the theory is the same for all scales and zones.
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Design using furnishings transposed into plants works especially well with mature landscapes needing a tweak.
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The overall landscape design must have strong simple structure.
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Photos via style court, Courtney Barnes. Top from Thomas Jayne Studio, middle from Josyln at Desgin*Sponge, bottom from Martin Morrell.
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Garden & Be Well XO T

2 comments:

Topsy Turvy said...

Tara - great idea to show how to apply interior design principles to exterior.

-Lana

Vera @ Cozy Little Cabin said...

Ohohohoh - - - - I never would have thought of this! Great ideas! My mind is racing with ideas!