Garden Design - Mortlake, London SW14
This design takes inspiration from the lines, angles and blocks of colour found in the paintings of Dutch artist Mondrian. Intended as a family space that is both aesthetic and functional, the new garden will display minimalist leanings whilst remaining architecturally in keeping with the rest of the house.
Flooring throughout will comprise attractive and durable Iroko hardwood decking. This West African hardwood has an appealing light gold colour, which will weather to a light- to mid-golden brown over time. Extremely long lasting and hardwearing, the wood is naturally water-resistant and contains innate anti-fungal and insecticidal properties, making it ideally suited to the unpredictable British weather.
Directly adjoining the house on the kitchen side will be a large expanse of decking, raised so that it is flush with the kitchen patio door. To the right hand side of this platform, steps will lead down to a further area of decking around the lounge extension, while to the front of the raised platform, terraced steps will lead down to a large rectangular lawn bordered on the left hand side by a decked walkway. This walkway will lead down the space to a ground level decked patio in the left hand corner of the garden. Measuring approximately 5.5m x 4m, this patio will form the main dining area for the garden and will be enclosed along the garden boundary by a sturdy 2m high rendered brick wall. A large rectangular exterior awning will stretch over this area, providing both shade and a sense of seclusion and privacy.
This area will also benefit from a large rectangular rendered brick fireplace, open on the two sides nearest the decking patio and closed on the two sides adjoining the lawn to direct the heat towards the dining area. Rendered and painted on all sides, with a tall rectangular chimney, the fireplace will create an imposing, visually stunning focal point to the space.
A second walkway will continue along the lawn at the back of the space, then dogleg down to join the decked patio outside the lounge extension. To the left of this patio will be a large rectangular black lined pool. Edged with new railway sleepers, this slightly sunken, slightly raised pool will be filtered to keep it clean.
The space will be given added interest with the addition of four rectangular screens/shelving units, placed strategically around the space to mask various points in the garden, helping to break-up the space and generate a sense of intrigue and discovery. Constructed from sturdy new railway sleepers, the screens will be constructed in various sizes and will feature rectangular shelves and cut-outs, some of which will be inlaid with coloured perspex screen, others left open for the client to place sculpture and garden ephemera.
Planting in the space will consist of herbaceous perennials and evergreen shrubs selected to bring year round interest. Red and yellow flowering plants will brighten up the darker areas, with a variety of colours and shapes in the foliage to add further interest throughout the space. The client is to supply a large Trachycarpus fortuneii and Pheonix Palm, to be planted within 'cut-outs' in the terraced decking steps and the decking adjoining the lounge respectively. The existing raised bed on the left hand side will be raised slightly higher with the addition of two extra courses, and rendered and painted to provide a more attractive receptacle for a bank of tall bamboo chosen to provide screening from the windows of the high building in the garden beyond.
The garden will be complete with the inclusion of a comprehensive lighting scheme designed to maximise the use of the space when the sun goes down. Large round white LED deck lights set into the riser of each of the decking steps will safely guide one up and down the space, with further LED deck lights set into the decked walkways to lead one around the garden. The three smaller railway sleeper screens will benefit from chrome down lighters set into the underside of selected crossbeams to turn each screen into a nocturnal sculptural feature, while the largest screen (housing a large Boldstone sculpture (to be supplied by the client)) will support two stainless steel adjustable spotlights to highlight the sculpture within. Two strong submersible lights installed under the surface of the pond will inbue the space with a gently undulating light, with further light provided to the main decking adjoining the kitchen with two tall steel LED bollard lights.
Ample lighting will be provided to the covered deck area with the inclusion of four stainless steel spotlights installed at intervals around the walls. The large trachycarpus and pheonix palm will be underlit by strong mains voltage spotlights installed in the bed below while a series of low voltage lights installed throughout all planting beds will cast a gentle ambient glow across the garden whilst serving to highlight individual specimen plants.
Front garden
The front and side garden designs focus on formal elegance combined with functionality and a slight modernist streak.
Flooring throughout both side and front will consist of attractive, hard-wearing and durable Indian sandstone paving. The basic structure and layout of the side and front garden remains basically unchanged. Front garden contains two pathways with a central area of flush level paving in place of the existing sunken area, and a large drive in front of the garage doors. Paving throughout the front garden will be laid in a formal grid pattern, whilst down the sideway the stones will be laid in a more free-form random lay pattern.
The front garden will feature a new garden wall. Again the layout of the wall remains mostly unchanged, but the new wall will be built in a Flemish bond pattern (this pattern necessitates a double thickness wall) from bricks selected to match those used in the house construction. These bricks will also be used to construct two low, long raised beds running down either side of the main pathway to the front door. The necessary functionality of the space will be made as inconspicuous as possible, with a brick wall constructed in the top left corner to hide the household bins, and a bike store nestled in the top right corner of the garden.
A modicum of security will be provided with the installation of 90cm high double sliding gates across the driveway. Constructed from black painted cast iron in a simplistic style with central circle motif, these gates will be fully automated and controlled by a remote-control key-fob to allow the client to open the gates without leaving the vehicle. Two matching manually operated hinged gates will be installed in the wall openings at the entrance to both paths.
The side garden will benefit from an extension (approximately 3m long x 1.8m high) of the rendered wall down the kitchen side passage. This will become a feature 'canvas' for the client to display wall mounted sculpture
Planting in the side gardens will complement the existing shrubbery and will feature variegated ivy trained along an irregular rectangle catenery wire trellis in the style of a Mondrian painting on the kitchen side, with standard variegated holly specimens planted in front of each window on the shed side. The front garden planting will follow a formal style, featuring 50cm diameter box balls planted at intervals in the raised beds. The shrubs along both side beds will be conditioned and supplemented with additional evergreen shrubs. Planting in the central flush beds outside the main window will also feature evergreen shrubs.
Lighting in the front garden will be both functional and aesthetic. Stainless steel eyelid lights set into the sides of the raised beds along either side of the main pathway will guide visitors to the front door, while further stainless steel eyelid lights set into the other side of the bed adjoining the driveway will illuminate the clients passage from car to house. The bin area and bike store will be illuminated with a single stainless steel adjustable spotlight installed onto the side of the house, with two stainless steel adjustable spotlights installed on the wall between front door and garage serving as high-lighters for wall-mountable sculpture (client to supply sculpture). Low voltage spotlights will be placed throughout the beds to complete the front garden lighting scheme.
A simple lighting scheme down the sideway will consist mainly of low voltage spots throughout the beds, with a set of stainless steel adjustable spotlights installed along the rendered wall serving to highlight the sculpture and ivy trellis.