The Best Garden Pathways

This is the time of the year, summer, glorious summer to spend time outdoors. Renew, refresh, get inspired. Visit your favorite garden or park, or dream about making your garden a little more special. I love gardens with pathways that invite exploration. Gardens that make you want to meander, to spend time and to contemplate the finer things of life. I love all the different colors of green in gardens. You don't necessarily have to have color in flowers to make a garden pop. Try different textures, shapes, and colors of greens. A well placed statue or urn gives the eye a place to focus and center on. A water feature can add a cooling element, and a splashing fountain can be a calming and soothing to the soul. Well designed gardens with meandering pathways with well placed plantings and focal points are truly works of art using nature as the canvas.

Garden Pathways

Lavender Garden Pathway
Smell the lavender as you walk down the gravel path to the fountain with lily pads awaiting you.
I imagine that this pool is filled with Koi and that there is a bench or comfortable seating on
the other side to sit and contemplate.

 
Garden Pathway
What a feat of design this elliptical planting between the slate pavers is.
A well placed statue draws you to the end of this pathway.

Garden Pathway
Still there are moments when the shadows fall And the low sea of flowers, wave on wave,
spreads to the pathway from the rosy wall Saying in coloured silence,
"Take our all; You gave to us, and back to you we gave. Vita Sackville-West

This beautiful arbor (above)is supported by a brick wall. It reminds me of the gardens that English poet and novelist, Vita Sackville-West created at Sissinghurst Castle Garden. In April 1930 Vita Sackville-West and her son, Nigel, were looking for an old house where she could make a new garden. Vita fell in love with Sissinghurst Castle and bought it, along with 400 acres of farmland. She spent the next 30 years planting and designing the layout of the garden using the walls & buildings already in place. She was also the first to plant an "all-white garden" because she wanted the color of the flowers and foliage to act as an illuminating factor to prolong the daylight hours and hence to be able to extend the time she could spend in the garden. I spent a delightful summer, several years ago, reading her book: Garden. The gardens at Sissinghurst that Vita so lovingly created, are now part of the National trust and are open for public viewing.

Garden Pathway Villa San Michele, Capri
The house was small, the rooms were few but there were loggias, terraces, and pergolas all around it to watch the sun,
the sea and the clouds -- the soul needs more space than the body.

Reading this poem just makes me sigh and relax. It is so true that "the soul needs more space than the body" and how wonderful to recharge by spending time strolling under this pergola and hearing the soft crunch of the pea gravel under your feet - A thing of beauty is a joy forever! Excerpt by Axel Munthe from La Strada della Dolce Vita

 
Garden Pathway

Garden Pathway Photograph David Duncan Livingston

Garden Pathway

 
Garden Pathway
The best garden pathways can be the simplest, like this cut grass pathway above.

Garden Courtyard Pathway

Pea Gravel Pathway Bulgari Hotel Milan  
I love the use of old brick for garden pathways. Old brick has a character and charm that is hard to duplicate with new materials.

Garden Pathway
Garden on Turtle Creek, Dallas TX, (above and below) was designed by renowned Landscape Architects, Michael van Valkenburgh.
The backbone of the garden is a continuous path of varied walking surfaces and garden pathways that flow from the house down the slope.
The meandering stainless steel planks are hollow underfoot altering the pace of the walk through the garden.
A brilliant juxtaposition of materials!

Garden Pathway

Garden Pathway Versailles
And who is not in love with the beautiful gardens at Versailles.
The French really take their strolling in garden pathways seriously!
Some of my most memorable and refreshing times have been spent in gardens
walking their beautiful pathways while taking in the sights and smells around me.

What makes a perfect garden pathway for you?
Please leave a comment and let me know.

PATRICIA GRAY INC is an award winning interior design firm writing about lifestyle and
WHAT'S HOT in the world of interior design, architecture, art and travel.
2011 © Patricia Gray | Interior Design Blog™

25 Top Patio Chairs

Why is well designed outdoor furniture so hard to come by????????? Everywhere I look I am visually assaulted by poorly designed and equally stinky, (as in smell) off-gassing furniture manufactured in China. I have through diligent searching found some truly amazing, beautiful to look at, and environmentally friendly outdoor furniture that is not manufactured in China. FYI Knoll practices Sustainable Design. All Knoll Space seating is GREENGUARD Indoor Air Quality Certified® for low-emitting products.

First the UGLY........

Okay that's enough of that, now for the sublime...................

These chairs are so beautiful and sculptural and are appropriately call "The Clover Chair"

A truly classic and timeless design by Knoll - the Bertoria Chair and
the appropriately named Paperclip Table

I am partial to the Bertoria chair in white powder coated finish with a white vinyl chair pad.
It also works equally well indoors.

This is a design by the prolific Philippe Starck called One Cafe

The One Cafe also comes in black/ivory and a bar stool is available
with slip cover options in white cotton.

Another design by Philippe Starck called Dr No by Kartell is stackable.
The Dr Na aluminum table is practical, simple and a perfect companion piece.

The Lord Yo Chair (above) designed by Philippe Starck, is a take-off on the classic Lloyd Loom chair.
I like the cotton slipcover. They also come with Leather Slipcovers so you can take them
indoors in the winter for an attractive addition to your kitchen or dining room.

Knoll Noguchi Cyclone Table Kissi-Kissi Table One Cafe Table

Bo Chair Miss Lacy Chair Toy Chair

Now for a few divine settings to get you in the mood for those lazy, hazy days of summer

Sigh

What makes a perfect outdoor setting for you?
Please leave a comment and let me know.

Patricia Gray writes about 'WHAT'S HOT 'in the world of Interior Design, new and emerging trends, modern design,
architecture, and travel, as well as how your surroundings can influence the world around you.
© Patricia Gray Interior Design Blog, 2009

Passion - That is the Key

 

"Passion - that is the key in Interior / Exterior: the urge to beautify and capture reality and to inspire others."

This is an excerpt taken from the book: INEX by Wolterinck.  It is one of my favourite books as it features the interiors of homes and shows how the surrounding gardens have been designed to compliment the interiors, creating a total lifestyle concept. This concept is especially more relevant at this time of year when the weather is warm and invites us to spend more time outdoors, thereby extending our useable living spaces.  In 1986 Marcel Wolterinck opened a flower shop in the village of Lauren, Holland. His concern for perfection and versatility later resulted in his own furniture range and his passion developed for incorporating the interior of the home with the gardens. 

The above pictures are part of the garden that surrounds an updated 70's house.  Both the garden and the house breathe an Oriental atmosphere.  The garden by the bamboo planting around the house, and a Japanese touch is provided by the oak fence which turns gray when weathered.  The garden fountain is lead produced by W, and the table in the upper left is a work of art in bronze by the Dutch Sculptor, Huub Kortekaas.  The garden chairs are teak and metal.

  

This Provencal Villa (above and below) is situated in St. Tropez. where the emphasis is placed on the exterior life.  This is expressed in an outdoor room and outdoor terraces.  How very pleasant to sit at the large, wooden table with a zinc base underneath the pergola overgrown with Wisteria.  The presence of an outdoor kitchen provides an additional dimension to being outdoors and can be used as an exterior fireplace lit on summer evenings. The planting is a combination of old and new.  An age-old olive tree dominates the view (below) and is surrounded by a row of box trees and a wealth of plants such as Santolina, Pittosporum, Senecio, Helichrysum, Laurus nobilis, lavender, thyme, and Westringia fruticosa, all creating a subtle interplay of greens and grays and a perfect match for the various local types of stone. 

 

 
 

Paradise in Algrave: This beautiful villa (above) is located in Portugal.  Wolternick arranged the seating areas surrounding the villa like rooms.  The floor lamps, tables, and chairs with cloth upholstery have been assigned a permanent place in these comfortable outdoor areas.  Taste and rhythm also apply to the exterior kitchen with its fireplace to grill dishes.  Meals can be prepared on the worktop that flanks the fireplace on either side.  At right angles with the fireplace is a bold U-shaped zinc table surrounded by delicate director's chairs.

 
 

The above photos are part of a 20-hectare estate in Bremen, northwestern Germany.  The 16th century farmhouse on the estate is surrounded by ancient trees and hedges.  The farmhouse court, where horses once stood, was all stone, but was given an intimate character by Wolterinck by means of 60 year old beech hedges, walls, and trained box trees.  The garden has many exotic varieties of plants.  "The people who used to live on estates like these traveled extensively and brought back with them plants from distant places.  This is how many exotic varieties ended up here, like Brugmansia, Hibiscus trees, Agapanthus, lemon trees, figs and Plumbagos.  In summer these are put outside in pots, in autumn they find shelter in the orangery". The teak bench from the Lister Collection in the top right picture is in the style of the English Architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869–1944) who collaborated with Gertrude Jekyll the renowned English artist and gardener.

What is your most favourite garden?
What makes a garden special to you?
Please let me know by leaving a comment.

Photos and excerpts from: INEX Wolterinck
Photography: Sigurd Kranendonk

 Patricia Gray writes about 'WHAT'S HOT 'in the world of Interior Design, new and emerging trends, modern design,
architecture, and travel, as well as how your surroundings can influence the world around you.
© Patricia Gray Interior Design Blog, 2009