A detail of Nancy Lancaster's garden at The Coach House, Haseley Court, Little Haseley, Oxfordshire, England. Image from David Hicks's "My Kind of Garden", which is being reprinted by Garden Art Press in October 2009.
Pick a colour, any colour, and make it your garden's hallmark, brushing it onto gates, furniture, even the handles of tools if you've a mind to go that far. Nancy Lancaster's pergola, garden chairs, gates, and tables wore a subtle shade the native Virginian called Confederate Grey, which contrasted nicely with the greenery surrounding her house in Oxfordshire and was adopted by so many of her admirers that she began to find the colour wearisome. American interior decorator Ruby Ross Wood, on the other hand, selected magenta, which, she noted, quickly faded to a pleasing soft plum. At our house in the country, the spouse and I have spray-painted just about every plein-air accessory (wrought-iron chairs, cast-iron urns, the mismatched furniture on the piazza) a dark-chocolate shade of enamel to match the building's glossy exterior doors. It makes a strong background for cushions made of crisp red-and-white mattress ticking.
11 comments:
AAL- How do you keep these posts coming? This is a great one ,as usual, Pictures desired of chocolate and ticking stripe.I have just purchased a great garden book- photographs of gardeners taken by Valerie Finnis,(did a recent post on her) a little gem. I have what appears to be a french blue faded on a pr of ancient park benches and a few obelisk but all that is very much still in the works. la
Entirely agree that establishing a single color for one's outdoor furnishings (in its broadest definition) creates the most cohesive and balanced (and attractive) situation on one's property. We decided to do so several years ago and have painted all of our iron furnishings Farrow & Ball "off black" (and we've got a lot of them--urns, seating, hitching post, birdbath--I scraped and painted every bit) and our wooden garden furniture (dorm-room Windsor chairs and a deacon's bench) F&B's "mouse's back". Great way to unify bits and pieces collected hither and yon. But I confess there's one hold out: I haven't been able to bring myself to repaint a graceful and willowy Regency style metal garden bench that I painted F&B's "saxon green" before our unified approach came to pass; it looks too lovely to do so, sitting as it does against a weathered wall of old, early 19th century brick...
I think it's the French that are masters of using the same color on furnishings in the garden.
At least that's where I learned it on a study tour. Other European countries, during study tours, weren't as paintedly cohesive as the French.
Returning home from France I decided all of my outdoor wood would be a faded Monet green and all of the iron a robins egg blue.
Now, all of my field gathered things flow. Harmony.
When something new arrives in my garden it's painted either my green or blue. Love a no brainer. Ironically, I was just at Lowe's yesterday getting another gallon of my custom green stain.
Life is good, indeed.
Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
Dear AAL,
The notion of even having garden furniture painted some Fab F&B color is something New Yorkers like me wax rhapsodic over....this and maybe a real kitchen rather the pullman style I've learned to live with....
It's very nice to visit you...a lovelier, more civilized point of view, or a memory of those "greats" of the past who either lived fabulously or Lived Well On Nothing A Year is truly balm for my ragged ADD nerves that come from having to navigate the world with the meager offerings from a sound bite culture....
Best
C.
Another wonderful post! Thank you for the dependable, beautifully written and original articles. Your standards are the very highest, and I commend you on always finding such uncommon and interesting (but oh, so aesthetic) things to write about. I am never disappointed. Really fantastic!
Square with Flair
Love this post. Just added you to my blogroll. Love the reference to the confederate gray color... it does look beautiful in the garden. Inspiring!
Chloe
http://findingdesign.typepad.com
A great book and a constant source of inspiration.
There was a time in England, not so very long ago, where everything thing in the garden was painted, in one or other tone of blue.
It was as if the whole garden design world had joined the army and had had the British Tommy's motto of "If it moves, salute it. If it stands still, paint it!" drummed into them at full volume.
I don't mind admitting to having become as jaded as Nancy Lancaster to paint in the garden.... but maybe you are right and now is the time to revisit the idea....
confederate grey. i love that! the image is wonderful. i'm adding the hick's title to my wish list. i feel very inspired by this post. thank you, aal!
happy weekend!
I like a Chinese red to contrast with the greenery - and it too fades and mellows.
If you go all HOBAC on us it will cause our brains to go puddley. Enjoy the country and give your fertile brain a rest, but come back to your blog knowing the nation's intelligence requires your instructions.
I just painted our front door a dark brown/black and painted two benches on the front porch the same color! I agree that it looks so much better and the green and white striped pillows really stand out.
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