The Seamless Flow

Here’s an extract from an article written by Josh Harrison that appeared in North Shore Living magazine about creating the ‘Seamless Flow’ between the home and the garden:

Elements of a residential landscape design are often highly personal and inspired by a client’s hobby, lifestyle or location. Living in the North Shore, it’s no surprise to me that most of the requests I receive are to create a natural continuation between the interior and exterior of the home and garden, this is what designers call ‘the seamless flow’.

Replicating the homes exact style is not necessary, although matching materials between both is a simple way to achieve a seamless flow and bridge the gap between indoors and outdoors. Using the same flooring material for both inside and outside cleverly creates an ongoing and natural link between the two. When installing a deck, using the same species of timber or at least a similar colour to imitate style further adds to the feel of a smooth transition or using polished concrete inside the home and outside.

Ceiling height also plays an important role in consistently linking the two areas; there is nothing worse than walking out of a house with beautiful high ceilings and finding yourself underneath a pergola that’s so uncomfortably low, it can feel claustrophobic.

Respecting the architecture and style of a home is key.  Falling victim to the ‘holiday curse’ and implementing an exotic style, foreign to the home must be avoided.  Unfortunately, that 4 foot high Balinese Buddha statue you purchased on a recent trip to Kuta will never look at home in your Mediterranean courtyard, in Pymble. It can often be tempting to ‘have it all’ when it comes to designing your garden, but you should feel confident that you generally purchased or built the home because you like that particular style of architecture.