Still Life

Beyond normal desires for my garden & home I want the accouterments of my life to be a Still Life.

Have seen it brilliantly done in a handful of gardens/homes I've visited.  They gave me the idea.  A choice in how I want to live.

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Leaving for the weekend, my car had been unloaded of  work gear in the garage, above.  My mobile office contained in antique wicker.  Looks like a scene from Ellis Island. 
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Alexandra Stoddard is much better at describing this here, Living A Beautiful Life.  Wicker is an odd thing, it bores you or you love it. 
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Perhaps this is why I like benches for focal points.  Their illusion of repose for Still LIfe.

Just Let It Touch

Subsidiary focal points should 'just touch' some foliage.

 It ties the subsidiary focal point to the garden.

 Instead of the subsidiary focal point looking like it landed from Mars.

Was happy to see, above pics, this well sited peacock.
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When I was shooting the pics the owner said, "Touch his head, it moves."
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Yes, this is a bobblehead Peacock.

Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara

Kelly Harmon: Interiors & Exteriors

Vanishing threshold, interior/exterior are one, below.

 Tassels & Twigs led with the pic, above, a few days ago.

 Kelly Harmon's work, above/below.

 Epiphany: it's ok to use spiritual symbols, below.

 Kelly leaves no detail undone.

A joy to be inspired.  Kelly Harmon, above.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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We'll be moving an old church to a clients property in another layer.  WHY hadn't I thought of a cross somewhere?  Now, before the church arrives.  Ok, got the message. 

Table Scape In The Foyer

Tabletop 'scaping' tells me how to landscape.

Lamp is a tree, clock is bushes, figurines are flowering shrub, platter is groundcovers.  (aka, kousa dogwood, sasanquas, hydrangea, liriope.)
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Many times mantels, chests, tables, dressers have the exact scaping.  Makes my job easy.  Especially the matchy-watchy stuff.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken in a client foyer last week

A Chinoiserie View

Every window must have a garden view.  And my garden must be a moat of grace around my home.  Facts from my mission statement. 

 Yesterday, above/below, I did something I haven't done since college.  Ironing for pleasure.  Of course I set up with a garden view.

 My grandfather was a doctor & always had a snazzy linen handkerchief in his suit pocket.  I loved to iron them watching the patterns & threads appear.  My brother-in-law is a doctor, and loves to iron.  Without him I doubt I'd have courage to let anyone know of this pleasure.

 My linen tea towels are all vintage.  Ridiculous, silly women saved them for a 'special day'.  They died, I bought them at estate sales for cheapo/nothing.

 In my kitchen is a fabulous new stove/oven.  With a bar perfect for ironed linen tea towels.

Vintage draperies, above, were rescued from a demolished home.  Loved Chinoiserie before I knew 'Chinoiserie' was a word. 
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Chinoiserie Chic gave me permission for this passion.  Mentors gave me permission to develop to the 'N'th degree my gardening passion.
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My brother-in-law picked me up from Hobby airport last January knowing something terrible.  He let me be quiet, chit/chat, ask questions.  He gave me time & my own lead to understanding.  The car was surely heading to the hospital where my Dad lay.  Dad would not live beyond the day.  He held my hand while tears fell like acid & breathing was impossible.  G*d gave me these moments to compose myself before walking into Dad's hospital room.  G*d gave my brother-in-law the task of telling me my father would die. 
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Of course I want to do something nice for my brother-in-law.  I'm on a fresh hunt for vintage linen tea towels.  My sister thinks her husband's ironing 'thing' is humorous.  She showed me his specially ordered iron, a German beauty.
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An enriching enfilade: ironing vintage linen, loving Chinoiserie draperies, adoring beautiful garden views.  Willie Nelson was singing love songs.  I took the CD from Dad's car after he died.      
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I'm plodding thru this.  Thankful for nurturing templates. 
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

Zinc Sideboard in the Woodland House

Woodland House, below, isn't quite complete.  It's at the pool, of course we will never call it a pool house.

 Sideboard, above/below, has a fabulous zinc top. 

 Railings, below, are code but look much better than typical code rails.  That touch of 'custom' reeks of the sublime.  (More literally it reeks of Magic Man!)

 Totally electrified, below, 1 of the 4 sconces.

Ceiling fans & chandelier pics were terrible.
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Another day.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Wood needs to cure, it will be stained a faint taupe, echoing the stronger taupe on her home.  Love a project looking so good even before it's complete.
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Pics taken at a jobsite last week.

Secretary & A Game Table

She didn't know I would shoot inside.  You're seeing real world no styling. 

 Near her secretary, above, is

a game table.  2 walls of windows for the game table.  What's not to like?
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Well, my camera.  The orchid on the game table is gorgeous & my camera picked it up like a boring dust ball. 
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These windows overlook my realm: Garden, pool, Woodland House.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken last week at a jobsite. 

Vanishing Threshold: Windows Into Doors

Soon, this pair of windows in the breakfast room, below, will be doorways

leading to a new room overlooking the pool & Woodland House.

The hutch, above, will stay.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pics taken last week at a jobsite.  Will show how its impacting the living room next.
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Again, Tara'izing a garden has turned windows into doors and home/garden into Vanishing Threshold.  She & I always knew we were heading inside for the garden.  Her husband?  He had been merely concerned about the new stone step to the porch.  Now he knows why we merely smiled at his questions.  As the wicked sea monster  in The Little Mermaid said, "Poor unfortunate soul."

How To Site A Pot on Plinth

Pot on plinth, below, placed EXACTLY correct.  Viewed from the backyard, below.

 Viewed from the front yard, below.

 Look closely, below, at the pot's base.  Drip irrigation.

 Quite a sophisticated color palette, below,

pops of blue are magic & subtle.  Can't be seen at a distance.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics taken at a jobsite yesterday.  Her garden was merely a Tidy Landscape when she hired me.  We're turning it into a Beautiful Garden. 
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Steve Eaton of Blossom Boxes does her pots, 770-337-8840, sceaton3@yahoo.com.  Yes, I posted this urn earlier but had not taken the Double Axis pics. 
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Did you notice the urn NEEDED a plinth?

Grandchildren Cause Gardens

Roof line of the new (unfinished) Woodland House, below, is copied from their home.  Pool, built by a basketball star decades ago, is sited wacky.  It was built for the house next door (don't ask).  And the pool is HUGE.  How to site the Woodland House giving narrative with the pool & their home? 

We did but that isn't today's topic.

 Something expensive happened during construction, above.  Alas, it happens a lot.

 She decided to add to the project.  A new deck is going in, above, and some of those windows are becoming French doors.

The new deck will tie into the existing deck, above, and wrap around. Soon the breakfast room & living room will flow to the deck....& pool.
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She's wanted to do this for decades.  Oh no, said her husband.
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He's toast.  There are now tiny grandchildren.  They love being with their grandma.
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Grandpa, repeat, is soooooooo toast.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pics taken 3 weeks ago at the jobsite.  Going this morning.  We'll discuss the new deck & its railings to the pool.  Love this woman, we'll talk//work, laugh, hug.  Grandpa?  He gets my best Cheshire cat smiles.
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3 decades of Landscape Design & I KNOW what happens when women get their grandchildren. 

Double Axis: House of Turquoise

Sandra Espinet, designed a perfect Double Axis.  From inside the living room, below, looking out to the pavilion.

 From the garden, below, looking into the pavilion.

 In the pavilion, below,

looking into the living room.
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Sandra owns the interior & exterior.  A rare interior decorator knowing her work ends at the property line not the walls of the house.
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Double Axis is an easy concept.  Quit reading this and figure yours out !
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Garden & Be Well,               XO Tara
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Penelope Bianchi is the rarest.  Interior Decorator doing Vanishing Threshold, Double Axis & la-ti-da multiple axis to a single focal point & etc....
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When you realize these concepts are easy, historically correct, necessary to happiness/joy/grace, & affordable you will stop thinking in terms of what Garden Centers & Testosterone-On-Wheels-Mow-Blow-Go want to SELL you.  Foundation plantings & lawn & seasonal annuals?  OMG, worse than boring.  Stupid, environmentally harmful, terrible for property value, & worst of all devastating to your inner muse.  No, don't ask me what I really think, because I can go there too.  And there waits the fabulous Puppet Barbuda.
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Pics via House of Turquoise with more about Sandra Espinet, here.

Designing With The Poverty Cycle

At a cottage with zero interior/exterior budget, Poverty Cycle, I'm doing platter

 shelves, above/below, in the dining room.  Now, it's deep red paint over poorly hung wallpaper & no direct natural light.  Dare I mention a stippled ceiling? 

 The salon, and it's a tiny cottage, will be arranged

just so, above.  Walls have already been painted BM Historic Color Philadelphia Cream.
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Found a mahogany drop-leaf gateleg table almost Shaker in style, old-$60-thrift store.  Ikea is soon.
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
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Cottage garden will be boxwoods edged in rescued stone, gravel & Tara Turf.  Project is SLOW but satisfying.  Crazy delight to interior/exterior decorate with total Poverty Cycle.  Lamps, thriftstore with shades from Homegoods, are awaiting tables.  G*d does have a sense of humor.  I'm really good at Poverty Cycle interior/exterior designs.  A thriving business plan?
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2 clients, in past 3 decades, I designed their landscapes in million+ homes.  Divorce.  We had a blast doing their new home/garden in total Poverty Cycle. 
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Cannot find photo credits.  Boxwoods were rescued from a job, stones rescued from a friend's acreage.      
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Ironically the Poverty Cycle is a needed element in every Landscape Design.  Gardens of Charleston, SC prove this.