From the drawing board

I have recently been commissioned by a local interior designer to design the entranceway to their new office.  Their business has just gone through a period of rapid growth and this has resulted in a garage conversion project to provide more office space for their team.

The new meeting room, where they will now meet with clients, looks out on to what was the hard standing outside the garage.  Because it is the main entrance to the office, it needs to be welcoming and inviting.  We also wanted to create a space where staff could sit out at lunchtime if they wanted to.

The adjacent courtyard between the office and their house is very “country manor” in style – York stone paving around a parterre of box hedging with a central water fountain.  Because the areas connect to eachother, it was really important to bring the same style and feel to the front courtyard.

This is the view as you approach the office from the driveway.  The planter at the end of the drive serves as a focal point  – there is an oil tank in the corner so access had to remain in tact and planting in this area was not therefore an option.

The entrance itself is a symmetrical parterre-style courtyard with simple planting and bench seating.  The terracotta urn provides interest from all viewing points whilst still allowing easy access to the office space.

The canopy of a large beech tree shades the whole area so it will be really important, when we get to the planting design, to choose the plants carefully.  It must look good at all times of the year so evergreen plants will have to be key.

You may remember that I blogged a while back about a terrace redesign for a London town house.  The house building project has very much taken priority over the past few weeks, but my clients are now ready to tackle the garden. Read more

On Monday I presented a planting design to my client in Ashtead.  Sadly, she lost her husband a couple of years ago and because he was the “gardener” of the house, the planted areas in the back garden have become a bit tired and unkempt. Read more

It has been 4 weeks since the build commenced at the project near Woking and on Friday I made a visit to site so that we could sign off the final setting out of the front garden and also to check the scale of the large archway at the side of the house. Read more

As you know, my parents own and run Forton Nursery in Somerset and I normally go down and help them with the local shows.  This weekend was the Taunton Flower Show… Read more

Friday marked the end of week 2 of the construction phase for the project near Woking and now that the site has been cleared and the initial ground works have been completed, the new design can be “set out” on the ground and the final levels set.  I love this part of the construction phase, the mucky work has finished and you can really start to see the new garden begin to emerge and with this project, the garden at the moment truly is a blank canvass… Read more

Very excitingly, the build for the garden in Woking commenced this morning so I was on site first thing to walk round the garden with the landscaper and to earmark which plants are to be moved to a holding bed until we’re ready to plant in the autumn.  I also presented the planting design to the client, the last piece in the design jigsaw. Read more

If you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll remember that I showed you a series of sketches when this design was at its concept stage. The final design has now been agreed and the construction phase of the project is scheduled to start in mid-July. I thought you might like to see the final drawing… Read more

I am very excited to announce that I have just launched my new “Garden Designer In Your House” package which is aimed at clients who want to design and build their own garden but who would like some input from a professional designer. Read more

This morning I presented some concept sketches to a client in Wandsworth.  They are in the middle of a building project to change the layout of their kitchen and dining area which means that the terrace in the back garden now needs to be reconfigured. Read more