SHANGRILA IN LA ?

This is it, my version of Shangrila. The courtyard gardens at Charles Jacobsen Inc. in Southern California. Charles is a dealer in the most exquisite antiques and garden ornaments, while access is to the trade only you may visit with your interior designer or find him online here.

MY LATEST PROJECT

OK, so some of you are wondering where I have been hiding the last couple months? I have been having far to much fun on my latest project at Newport Coast in Southern California. The challenge is to completely redesign the interior and beautiful gardens in just under eight weeks!

We are three weeks into the remodel, so far so good! I love my job!!! I will update soon.

A GARDEN FOR ENTERTAINING

Click on photo to enlarge

You might ask why an interior designer would design a garden? Why not! I look at it as an outdoor room with all the same concerns as designing an interior space. For this garden I wanted the "outdoor room" to flow from the interior which is one of my favorite projects in the coastal town of San Clemente California.

The challenge was to create entertaining space from an intimate back yard once covered by an expanse of lawn. I designed a grid of poured in place concrete pads surrounded by DG (decomposed granite). The central focal point is a concrete fire bowl filled with crushed glass opposite the "sofa" at just over twelve feet is the anchor for the lounge area. At one end of the garden is a floating ledge stone wall with a sheet of water falling into a black pond below. The wall is serving double duty as a backdrop to the dining area and concealing the outdoor cooking station.

Together with succulents and my favorite papyrus grass the garden is the perfect outdoor room

ready for entertaining.