Architect Meeting At Jobsite

Ironic scene, below, in the chaos of construction at the pool, garden,

 and now, below, the house itself.  Two rooms will be added overlooking the pool.

 Met with the architect early this month, above, for the rooms to be added here, below.

 The pool is humongous, below, built in the 70's for the house next door.  Don't ask. 

 I have a real problem with the architect.  He's smart, witty, intuitive, hardworking, cute, and

 wears white socks.

 Doesn't he know white socks are total birth control?

He, nor his wife, got the memo.  They have lovely children.
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Now you have all the important points from my meeting with: homeowners, my contractors, architect.
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Unless we should talk about the orange breakfast poundcake & other delicious etc. she served.  Remnants are on the drawing in 2nd pic.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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OMG, lots of awkward choices with this project, hence full arsenal teamwork.  The best part?  It doesn't feel like work.  Homeowner is one of Atlanta's quietly successful interior decorators.  You only get her by word-of-mouth.

Small Moments 2 Bathrooms

 Not large her bathroom, nonetheless, creates

 its own world, above/below.

 Classically designed new home, below, had a

 surprise.

 Rounded, soft pebbles for a son's bathroom.

The rest of the home is straight from an English novel. 
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I should have taken bathroom pics for the past 30 years. 
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Bathrooms & Gardens.  Yes.  A new magazine.  Of course Garage & Garden would be fabulous too.
Dogs & Gardens.....
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara

Interior Decorate From Garden Views Too

Views into your home

 from the

 garden

must be considered.
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
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Same garden as previous post.  Back of picture frames, tv, couch?  Hmm, not in my realm of Landscape Design.

How To Add Size & Magic To Your Home Affordably

Both sides of most USA homes are a waste land of HVAC & meters, along with little to no landscape improvements.

 Turn a window at the side of your home into French doors.  Exactly what this tiny home did.

You'll create flow & a new room on axis with your interior.
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This 2 bedroom historic cottage lives bigger than most 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath homes.  More beautifully for sure.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Same garden as yesterday's post. 

Make Small Front Door Zone Live Large

The narrative of who lives here is already written before you knock on their front door.

 Everything about this home is TINY PERFECTION. 

 That boxwood, above, also provides mystery.

Who knew the hydrangea was there?
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Would never have thought to add drama to it by putting it in a pot. 
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Don't you know life is much better when the drama is merely putting your hydrangea in a pot?
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And the boxwood/hydrangea continue the frontdoor zone....metaphorically.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Same tiny home/garden as yesterday.
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Now, this moment, what does the narrative about your frontdoor zone say about YOU?
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How To Design A Small Frontyard

Nestled in a row of other homes, below,

 is the tiniest lot in historic Douglasville, GA.

Their backdrop evergreen hedge smudges visibility to their neighbor's home.
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White picket fence stretches the white clapboard home's footprint.
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Stone wall frames the view & directs foot traffic.
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Horseshoe shaped lawn controls & expands visually the small space, its curve contrasting with the lines of the home.
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Perennials are playful but the serious business is done at the house with evergreens.
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Invitation is engraved on the stone column with boxwood in a pot.  A very sure hand.
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Private world is created for public view.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Underlined portions are How To design A Small Frontyard.  Notice it doesn't include, "Oh, I just love this plant."
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Of course without that primal URGE I wouldn't have a career !
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This frontyard belongs to the waterfall post 2 days ago.  Sir Roy Strong said, "If you have an irregularly shaped area put a bonafide geometric shape in it.", when he lectured at the Atlanta History Center ages ago.

Designed Not Natural

"Spurred by the environmental movement and controversies over clear-cutting forests, and with support from top management, he launched an innovative visual resource management program, including training, land management and monitoring functions."  ca. 1965

Written about landscape architect Edward H. Stone II, USA National Forest service.
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USA National Forest lands had become a mix of Nature, hucksterism, garbage dumps & a quick buck for clear cutting & etc.
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Edward Stone became our Capability Brown.
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What's YOUR visual resource management program?
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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pic from a private totally designed landscape via Architectural Digest.    Sad the wheel keeps needing recreating.  Central Park in NYCity is another example that needed an intervention. 

Tabletop Talent Outside

Atop a huge stone wall of water, below.

Too large in too small of a space for my camera.

 Their living room view, above & below.  Tiny home, tiny lot, big living.

He treated the top of his waterfall exactly as he's treated his interior tables & chests.
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Tiny home, tiny lot, big living.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Waterfall is humongous.  Out of scale to the lot & home.  And PERFECT !!!

Porch Porn 101

Front Porch PORN

 My newest book.  Already written 5.

 If Porch Porn 101 must be 'written'

 it's the wrong approach.

 When Porch Porn is PORCH PORN no words,

just pictures.
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Garden & Be Well,         XO Tara
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Jeri's Front Porch PORN.  I can see the franchise: Patio Porn, Back Porch Porn, &tc....  Words can be added to the 'Porn' franchise.  After cocktails Jeri served......    Yes, this is good.  Recipes, porches, porn.  Cats & dogs allowed into the pics, not people.  Cannot imagine the exceptions to that rule ! 

Screened Porch

I let a butcher block go thinking, 'what would I ever do with it?'   Jeri knew exactly what to do, below, on her covered porch.

 Intuitively she knew, below, it's important to make flat walls 3-D.   

 Builders never complete a house properly with shutters, it's your job.

Her porch is mostly black, white, blue.  She wears a lot of man tailored white shirts with black leggings & a pop of pink lipstick. 
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I always look to what my clients wear for the secondary colors to their trinity.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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More pictures from Jeri's garden, she's Porch Porn.  

A Secondary Front Porch

Near the front door, is

 another door.

 Another welcome.

Black, white, green.  She keeps playing with color trinities.  Yes, more of Jeri's garden from previous posts.
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There is no part of Jeri's garden left 'undone'.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara

Color Echoes

Cute Kills in a garden

 Except when you like the cute.

 Pamela Harper wrote of color echoes in landscape design 2 decades ago.

 Advice to

follow.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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This is a new garden room.  It had been a few green meat balls & lawn.  Daylight basement level at the side of her home. 

Antique Imari In The Garden

Hydrangeas & Imari, below.

 Antique Imari. 

Only outside for garden tours & family dinners.
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Hydrangeas, boxwood, antique Imari.  Yes, a great trinity.
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Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara
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Pics taken in the same garden as previous post.  Not an expert on Imari but KNEW it was antique when I walked thru their gate. 

Let's Put It In The Middle Of The Lawn

What should we put in the middle of our lawn?

Darling, don't be silly of course the dining room table seating 8.  Really?  Baby, won't that be too plain?  Sweetie Pie, it will have the concrete plinth & bronze armillary sundial in the middle.  Sugar, you're the best.
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You have got to love some marriages.
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Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara
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Loved this couple.  Their garden was on the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival tour.  Wish this was my idea !

Garden Path

Gravel leads to gray flagstone.  Curve invites you 'round, mystery.

Entry anchored with a pot/boxwood, repetition of plantings on both sides.  Curve has narrative.  Called the eye-sweet line.
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A macro-path formula, works every time with the magic of being unique each time.
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Of course you must deal with the micro-path details.  Resist the urge to go  beyond simplicity.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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More of Jeri Farmer's delightful garden.  Can you imagine zero mulch, evergreen groundcovers, daffodils, a sasanqua, a camellia japonica, dwarf forsythia.....  With Jery's color combination I can see black-white-pink pansies.  This path is gorgeous all year.
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Too often gravel & stone choices are horrendous.  Imagine a brown crab orchard with pops of  orange.

Topiaries vs. Annuals

Simple topiary. 

24/7 showtime.
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Annuals?  Hardly green & sustainable, unless they are self-seeding.
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She has annuals elsewhere in her garden, at her own pleasure.  No need for the apartment complex style of annuals at the front curb.
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Garden & Be Well,         XO Tara
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More of Jeri Farmer's garden.  Her husband is a dreamboat, and does much in the garden.  With a smile too.  Can't wait for the groundcovers to fill in, liriope above, and no more mulch.  Mulch is not an end option.   Again, hardly green & sustainable unless it's your own leaf/needle litter.

Covered Screened Porch

She recently screened in her covered porch, below.

 Fluffing the decor was required.  Of course.

 Top pics are to the left of the screen door, and, below

to the right.  Now you know where you are.  The previous posting's focal point.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Jeri Farmer uses majority white for her theme, with blues, and blacks & POPS of pink.  Every part of her exterior is HAPPY.  She has a life just like anyone else.  She chose HAPPY.

Bust On Plinth

From this direction, below, it's obvious

 she's on axis

with the screen door, above.
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This is Landscape Design.
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
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Pics taken last weekend in Jeri Farmer's garden.  Her garden has been in Southern Living magazine (a current rag but have heard rumors they're going back to what made them thrive.)  She's Susanne Hudson's partner at Le Jardin Blanc.  Arbor, bust, door not perfect geometry but Faux Geometry.  Whatever.  Get your axis.