Showing posts with label Plants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plants. Show all posts

Saturday, 23 June 2012

small gardens

So I have this really small garden in our new house and right now we've been so focused on renovating the house that I've never really thought about how I would like my garden to look like.

You see, I've never been the gardening type of girl... have always loved the decorating of the interiors of houses rather than the exterior.

But a lot of the blogs I read and the pinners I follow on Pinterest are garden lovers, and I cannot help but find myself inspired and repinning away of photos of beautiful small gardens. Something I can refer to when hopefully, one day, I get the time and spirit to spruce up our future garden.

Here are some of my inspiration photos of small gardens... or corners of bigger gardens. :-)

via Design Chic
I love topiary and a neat little garden like the one above. Okay, my garden / landscape vocab is a little rusty, so I'm not going to be narrating much here. I need my landscape architect friends to help me out.

Paul Bangay
A cute white bench to enjoy the greenery.

BHG
I would love to have a fountain in my garden. And I like the way the plants are encircled around this one.


Debora Carl Landscape Design
I love the idea of having a gravel laid path.

HGTV
And, if I could have flowers - surprise, surprise - I would want white flowers.

Shelterness
This adorable urban garden above would be more my style. Simple, a little bit modern, and low-maintenance.

via The Good Stuff
Our garden in our new home is a side garden, kind of like the one in the photo above. It's about 10 feet wide. I love how they've laid out the slabs in this diamond pattern.

via Downsize my space
I love this small garden with square blocks of different plants. Cute and contemporary.

unknown source
Black makes a great accent colour for seating, tables, chairs and planters in this photo. Note the gravel again.

Flickr
Succulents are always adorable.

House Beautiful - Chris Barrett
I love this little courtyard with the stone table stacked with green goodness.

So how would you decorate your garden? Hope you enjoyed my inspiration photos!

Have a great weekend!

Monday, 2 April 2012

lived-in look - sets of The Vow

Last Saturday, I went out with a few of my gorgeous girlfriends to enjoy the ultimate chick flick recently released in cinemas - The Vow. I was excited, as the last movie I watched was Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows part 2... yes, it has been that long.

Just before the accident which caused Paige's memory loss. See that lorry coming their way?
Not going to spoil this movie for you all, but let me just say I enjoyed the movie despite it being chock-full of cliches and (I know, I know!) it didn't fare well with the critics. As always, I cry in soppy love stories (which amazes myself and my husband as I'm not the soppy type. We're at a loss as to how soppy movies manage to push my waterworks button).

Anyway, as always, I like to look at the home sets they use on shows I watch, and I was delightfully impressed with the kitchen of the industrial loft of where the commercially good-looking couple, Paige (Rachel McAdams) and Leo (Channing Tatum) live in.


Firstly, I noticed they used pretty aqua-blue backsplash tiles which looks great with the white cabinets and wood countertops. I also noticed they used open shelves for the upper cabinets, and a stainless steel little portable island. The little plants on the windowsill above the sink also makes the home look lived-in, showing a bit of Paige's nature-loving character.

So, it turns out that the production designer of this movie is Kalina Ivanov, who happens to have won an Emmy for her work on HBO movie, Grey Gardens. No wonder.

Here are some more photos from the set of The Vow taken from Apartment Therapy. You can read the article and view more photos of the sets in this movie there. Enjoy!


A view of the rest of the loft from the kitchen. Like the green industrial lamps above the island and the open brick wall.


Paige tries to do a timeline of her photos on the dining table. Kind of like the Facebook Timeline which is being forced upon us all. Love the huge lamp shades.


The bedroom. I've always loved the idea of having built-in bookshelves around the bed. Ain't that pretty. Cool artwork above the bed.

Paige's studio
Paige and Leo in her studio
Which reminds me (pun not intended) - Paige lost her memory of the last five years, and she seemed bewildered with the fact that (spoiler alert) she dropped out of law school and became an artist. I mean, in reality, wouldn't she be amazed upon finding this out because a passion doesn't come out of no where? If I were Paige, after losing my memory and finding out from my incredibly good-looking and sensitive stranger/husband that I was a talented artist, I would be like, "Whoa! I'm an artist?! I've always loved art! Good on me!" and do a funny but endearing little dance.

So Paige has super-rich and estranged parents, but she lost her memory so she can't wrap her head around why in the world she would not have spoken to them in the last five years. So she goes back to her parents' home and leaves poor Leo mourning alone in their stylish loft.

Here's the parents' rich and sophisticated, formal home - looking all classy but cold. I think the formal family portrait brought in that feeling.

The tastefully-decorated formal living room with dark walls and furniture and a serious-looking family portrait of Paige and her family.

More dark furniture in the dining room. Nice wallpaper there.
Finally, Paige sort of comes to her senses and moves in to a city apartment all by herself.

Paige's loft, decorated with sculpture pieces, looking similar to the loft she shared with Leo.
Have you watched The Vow yet? After watching this, I feel like going on a Rachel McAdams'-romantic-movies-marathon. Starting with...The Notebook!

Hope you enjoyed these photos. See more of the set here.

Have a great Monday!

Monday, 13 February 2012

topiary love

Today I'm going to be talking about topiary as I think they are charming little pieces of art that brings character in any room.

Image source

I would totally consider having topiary flanking my front doors like this to greet guests:

atlantahomesmag.com
The fresh pop of green enhances the clean white walls and black door.

decorfortheoutdoors.com


They also look lovely in simple kitchens against a window:

Houzz

And this one:



San Jose Res 2 traditional
traditional spaces design by san francisco interior designer Fiorella Design


You can have them greet you every time you enter your house: 
 
decorpad.com
Aren't these just lovely? Topiary of different shapes and sizes in terracotta pots against shutter windows:

Image source
Bigger topiary in your garden to enjoy before your evening nap outdoors...

Image source
Topiary of different colours, shapes and sizes laid out symmetrically, flanking the stone sculpture looks gorgeous in this picture below.

flickr
You can even consider having them for the centrepiece of your wedding dinner tables. Beautiful.
Traditional Home
One thing I've gathered from collating these photos is that topiary looks wonderful against a neutral backdrop - just like any green plant would. But the uniqueness of it's shape helps to give the character that a room lacking texture needs. 

Hope you enjoyed this post!
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