Choosing Wallpaper

In the bay window, below, at the front of my home, facing the street, tiny front yard, and several houses.

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Landscape design begins inside your home.

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Your realm doesn't start outside.

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Winter's tilt of the Earth, light hurtling through space, wrapping wavelengths tenderly around my garden, shooting as particles through the window panes, returning to wavelengths of light & shadow, seen perhaps merely in walking past, better, when there is lunch here with a friend, light & shadow caressing all they touch.
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This is all about you.  Choices.  How do you want to live in your realm?
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Lighting from the garden & views into the garden are interior design choices along with paint colors & wallpaper.
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Sacred vs. profane.  If you aren't making active choices in either direction, the choice is still made.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic taken this week.   Set of chairs a great find at estate sale nearby years ago.  Tiger oak drop leaf gate leg table a  delightful find at local junk shop, now out of business.

For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

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Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

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Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

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Construction by Award Winning

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

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NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow. 

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
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What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 
 I  welcome your input.

The Little Terra Cotta Pot: Give it Away

Terra cotta pots.

Your secret weapon to bring inside.
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Plainly with patina and an herb, or geranium.  Perhaps a topiary.
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An old ironstone plate.
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Once you get good at this, have several.  Invite a young kindred spirit to lunch, someone you don't know well but would like to.
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As they are leaving, hand them the terra cotta pot & ironstone plate.
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Lunch Ministry.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic via Fanci Taste.
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If you want a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, and causes you to tap the brake pedal, as you look in the rear view mirror heading out, become my client, local or on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me to speak to your group, local or out-of-state.

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Garden books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

Design Interiors From Outside

Front porch, below.

 Lamp seen from the front porch, above, and from inside, below.

Further to the left of the lamp, below.

You do know this already?  Interiors must be gorgeous from every garden view.
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Your home is the focal point of the garden.
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Walking with new clients, around their garden, seeing an ugly interior view I will turn my head, look into their eyes and my right eyebrow goes up.  Enough said.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite last week.  Same home as previous several posts.

The Poverty Cycle

From the garden.

Dried hydrangeas & roses.

Young, her garden produces for special gatherings.  Soon, her garden will be decadent in what she can use, and most importantly, give away.
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Garden & Be Well,           XO Tara
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Pic taken 2 weeks ago at a client's home.  About 100 years old, the garden had pecan trees & a few pears,  necessities of the Great Depression. The poverty cycle (yet another Tara invention!) so important to the look of 'new' gardens.  Incredible joy in nurturing these delayed Pleasure Gardens into being.  
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
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Details about online design services.
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Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
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Details about lecture titles here.
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I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Vanishing Threshold

Vanishing threshold's 2 questions: 1) Is the garden so fabulous I MUST see inside the home.

2) Is the interior so fabulous I Must see the garden?
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Casement windows, library thick with sconces, terra cotta pots looking 'as if' they were just carried in from the conservatory, I'm wanting to be in the garden looking in at dusk with all the lites on......this room & garden have me.
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Want to read every book, see all the ironstone, types of silver.   What types of pots does she cook with?
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More than narrative, this bit of vanishing threshold is mentoring.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Thank you Cote de Texas for another great pic on your blog.  Look at those library sconces again, notice the multiple layers?  No need to ask, I KNOW they are on a dimmer switch.
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Do you want to be in your garden at dusk looking into your home?  I do.  And adore what I see.
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pic via Bumble at Home.  In a small garden, for above, I would use #89 granite gravel instead of lawn less maintenance.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
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Details about online design services.
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Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
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Details about lecture titles here.
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I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Choosing Correct Shutters

These windows, original 1945 leaded glass, face east.  And a busy street.

Need maximum lite & privacy.  Historically.

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Front parlor.

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You know what the budget is.  Thrifting.

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Does it pay to have sneered haughtily down the nose chip on fabulously beautiful shoulder being too good for most everything on the planet in one's 20's?  Especially these mini-shutters.

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Not hung & not painted what was once disgusting to my spirit is already fabulous & meeting every demand of the site.

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If money were available for custom plantation shutters?  Not vernacular to this piece of Americana.

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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French cafe table & ironstone tureen from Scott's, bistro chairs from estate sale, lamps & shutters thrifted.

Lamps & Libraries

Using what he had I created a small library, with desk of course, in the living room.

His sofa has the same shades of robin's egg blue as the lamps.

The lamps were thrifted.  A contractor for the Ritz tossed about 40 of these lamps at his personal driveway on garbage day.  A neighbor brought 1 in to the thrift store asking if they wanted all of them.  I bought 4.
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Libraries, desks, lamps.  Comfort for the soul.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Still hunting a spot in my garden for a desk.

Forcing Bulbs

We junked together this month and saw the little Delft shoes.  Cute.  Whatever.

Checking out she said they would be great to force crocus bulbs in.
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Instantly, 'whatever' became 'want' !
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When she flew back home she left these on the kitchen counter.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Her years of living in New York City, working as a florist, were on display.  Sublime to revel in a friend's creativity.

Choosing Large Rugs

Cost, pattern, color & impact at 9'x12' are a concern.  Yellow/blue/white are the interior colors.  A pair of rugs were needed for his guest cottage.  He's stringing me along in the garden, it's a 2013 project.

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Price was unimportant once the outlet store was found.

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Allowances were made for pricing this good.  They did not have a matching pair of rugs.

Benjamin Moore- Philadelphia Creme, below, is on the walls.

Saw this rug, below, first.  Hanging on the wall, a splash of happiness.  Received a good eye roll from him for that comment.

Checking out I told him it was amazing to find a pair of happy rugs in his colors.  He wanted to be anywhere but in line with me.
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Unrolling the rugs later in the day his helper exclaimed, "These are such happy rugs."
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
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Each rug under $200.  I saw Myrna Loy walking across his rugs.  Told him that too.  Now you know I'm fearless!  Pics taken last week.  His guest cottage is ca. 1945 & I've chosen matriarchal-lake-house-chic ca. 1949.  You now, decent cast offs from decades of life in the homestead.  
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If you can't find multiples of something stay in the same color family.  Bless the interior design woman who said that to me decades ago!

Vanishing Threshold with Liz Caan

Eye catching, welcoming, simple, confident, a statement, sense of place, timeless, elegant.

Inside Liz Caan Interiors, below,

the Vanishing Threshold frames exterior views & is a backdrop for her aesthetic.
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It's the biggest impact when you can do all these things with the fewest amount of materials.  'Elegance is refusal.'
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Garden & Be Well,             XO Tara
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Pics Liz Caan Interiors

Bedroom Changes

My bedroom is in the hunting/gathering stage.  26 year old carpet was removed & heart of pine flooring now matches the rest of the house.  Researched headboards on Velvet & Linen, and, Things That Inspire.  This headboard, below, is what I ordered. 

 A couch & ottoman will be ordered for the foot of the bed.  Need a couch in the music room too. 

Debating if the 2 new couches should 'match' in case they end up together in a new space.
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Need the lampshades, above, too. 
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The bed was moved and I'm loving new views into the garden.  Can't wait for the couch, it's views are thru a different window.
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Decades planning/planting in the garden it seems strange to be fixating on the interior.  After a quarter century has passed, it's time.
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Garden & Be Well,           XO Tara
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Top pic via Things That Inspire
Bottom pic via Velvet & Linen

Intimacy In Large Spaces

A folly in the landscape.  (aka, a one-room cabin.)

Light from the landscape a palpable force.
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Beyond the door, acreage in open meadow & wildwood.
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Design intimacy into landscapes with acreage.  
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Let Nature reign in open meadow & wildwood.
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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara
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Pic taken at a jobsite last week.   I wish you could walk thru this door, into the acreage.  Know the spirit of this land.  The stewardship of its owner, dancing with Providence.

Big Impact Little Input

Interior design & landscape design share templates.Most garden magazines waste my time. Neglecting to educate, inspire or widen my horizon.
Instead I look to other realms/arts for landscape design inspiration.

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Color, form, contrast, texture, scale, flow, focal points, high density, low density, invitation, joy, peacefulness, simplicity & more; this interior design, above, speaks.

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It would be pure pleasure to design a landscape flowing from the views of this window. My inspiration? Easy. Color, form, contrast, texture, scale, flow, focal points, high density, low density, invitation, joy, peacefulness, simplicity & more.

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Landscape designed in conversation with interior design. Vanishing Threshold.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Another pic from my project at Mixson in Charleston, SC.

Art, Multiple Axis

From the lower garden, formerly a tennis court, I first saw this sculpture on a plinth, below. (Did you notice, below, the dry stack stone wall?) Up the stone steps, below, curiosity is satisfied.

Drawn to another garden room, below, I turn & see a better axis for the sculpture. (Did you notice the mature canopy/understory trees+sky view?)

Inside the new garden room, below, the axis keeps getting better.

Then I turn body, but not feet, to my left & see this, below,

and about fall over in delight/surprise. Vanishing Threshold.

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Inside the room, above, the first sculpture is on perfect axis with the door in the center of the wall.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics, from Athens, GA, taken last week. Same garden as previous post. Think this is easy? Good, poppets, do it in your garden too. Remember, this is a subdivision with homes encircling the garden. Always a tough constraint.

Hydrangea Drying Now

Hydrangeas, too many weeks, have spilled into my paths. (These are EXACTLY the type of problems I want in life!) Finally, edges of their blossoms feel 'papery'. Time to dry. Drought & hi temps are the obvious diary entries upon each petal.

Cut the stems, peel off the foliage. Voila, ready to dry.

Lazy Woman's Guide to Drying Hydrangeas by Tara Dillard.

Could it get any easier, above/below, than sliding an entire bouquet in the slats of my French garden chair?

I like that the blossoms are not perfect.

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Their story, more potent.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken Sunday. Love, love how my Robin's egg blue looks in the top pic. The table, from France, on the patio many years, was moved inside while redecorating earlier this year.

Tasha Tudor's GARDEN

House, garden, life, it's all in Tasha Tudor's Garden, Tovah Martin author & Richard W. Brown photography. This book continues to inspire over a decade after discovery. Tasha's cache pots & how she used them were 1 take away from the book I knew I had to copy.

Finally found one, top pic, this spring while lecturing in Richmond, VA. Three Swallows Antiques had a booth at the Flower Show.

Can you believe Richard W. Brown's photography, above? Looks like a painting.

"I don't make proper flower arrangements; mine just grow, like the garden." Tovah Martin's writing invites you to tea with Tasha Tudor.

I have yet to create a floral arrangement in my cache pot. Cat's are one excuse but, mostly, it's selfishness. Not wanting to take so much from my garden.

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Soon, especially with this 4 week + drought & heatwave, it's time to prune the espalier oakleaf hydrangea. Yes, that will be the 1st arrangement in my cache pot.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Laskett, top pic, isn't he a grand cat!!! Don't have this book? Order today.

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2nd pic, a little of my fabulous desk, an old door rescued when they tore down College Boy's grandmother's home. After she died we lived there a couple of years. It was the 1st brick house in Tucker, GA. Miss Louise had a 3 acre garden with something new coming into bloom every 2 weeks. 50 acres of wooded pasture with horses was behind the house. And.................

Vanishing Threshold

Looking out, below, the Garden Room. Looking into, below, the garden room.

Vanishing Threshold.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken in my garden last week, Hydrangea 'Penny Mac', dug from her garden. Found the antique French garden chair at my favorite junk shop last year. A rusty, flaky $22. Have this Vanishing Threshold pic with: azaleas blooming, camellias blooming, pittosporum blooming, oakleaf hydrangea blooming & snowfall. Will get them combined for a post; at some point.

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Debut: exterior paint, Bemjamin Moore HC-Waterbury Green.

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I'm quite serious about Vanishing Threshold. AND it must be for every window of your home.

Outside & Inside A Hedge

Standing in the street, below, at my front gate this morning. Inside the hedge, below, is my Bay Terrace.

Oakleaf Hydrangea blossoms unfurling, below, in the Bay Terrace.

The subtlety of my rule "Just Let It Touch", blossoms caressing, below, the adirondack chair.

Oakleaf Hydrangeas espaliered, below, at the bay window. Learned this trick in Italy at Lake Maggiori.

Did my garden make you curious about seeing, below, inside?

My go-to spot, above, for working on projects, lunch, dinner with a girlfriend.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Bottom pic taken weeks ago, rest of the pics taken less than 15 minutes ago.

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Love English hedgerows and copied. Mine: dwarf abelia, climbing rose 'Dortmund', hydrangeas, boxwood, palm, rosemary, lavender, liriope, clematis, hollyhocks.

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Breakfast yesterday morning, in my gown, sitting in the adirondack chair caressed with oakleaf hydrangea blossoms. Neighbors in my tiny subdivision, surrounding my tiny property, well hidden behind my hedge.

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The antique gateleg table had been in my office for a decade until last January. I hired Susanne Hudson to choose paint colors, somehow, ALL my furniture moved !

SERENDIPITOUS BEAUTY

Serendipitous Beauty is one of my mission statements. Chinese Snowball blossoms snowing petals, below, 2 days ago in the rain on my Bay Terrace.

Going inside, below, a perfection of Serendipitous Beauty.

Tossing off my hat & setting the umbrella down, inside the door, below, more Serendipitous Beauty.

Jack, below, was attracted immediately to my Serendipitous Beauty for different reasons.

No, I'm not making this up as I go along.

Creating a life of Serendipitous Beauty is a choice.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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She invited me to tour her garden. No, I invited myself. I'm quite rude if I think it's important to see a garden. It was hot. Humid. Bringing us (I was rude enough to invite myself & entourage) inside she offered lemonade. Yes. Walking toward the kitchen she set down her straw hat & straw purse on a table without pausing. Beautiful still life. Without effort. The effluvia of her life was beauty. In that moment I knew. Serendipitous Beauty must effulge in my life too.

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Oh dear, now you know I go into a morning rain wearing my gown, and ugly shoes, taking pics of my garden.

SMALL CONTENTMENTS

Wallpaper, 24 years old & still adored.The urge, energy & creativity to bring flowers inside, below, was absent for years. Blooms outside these windows every day, all year, no effort. Of course I must tolerate birds, butterflies or honeybees everyday too. Camellias, blooming outside, below. The brown? Dormant hydrangeas. The green? Azaleas. (Tara's Trinity of the Southern Garden: Azaleas, Camellias & Hydrangeas.)

Old wicker from an estate sale around the corner 3 years ago.

The cloche had been in the garden over 5 years, until hellebores were cut last week.

After 20 years, my house was painted. A decorator, Susanne Hudson, hired to help with colors & interior design.

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I'm basking in the joy, serenity & energy my new spaces are giving me.

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Above, When stamens drop, I'm taken out of time. (Lucky me, I think some people need cocaine to feel like this. As the Sea Witch in Little Mermaid says, "...Poor unfortunate souls........")

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What mentors have shared with me the most? Small contentments.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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That fabulous cloche? TJMaxx, $9.99!