Every once in a while, we come across a story on sibling site Remodelista that would be just as at home here on Gardenista. Such is the case with Margot’s recent post on the refined, naturalistic Devon home of Russell Pinch and Oona Bannon.
“The two together run Pinch, a London furniture company that is all about refined details, honest materials, and unstinting craftsmanship. They had already devoted years to turning a cow shed in France into a vacation retreat for themselves and their two daughters. Did they have the stamina and the savings for another pipe dream?” writes Margot of their latest project.
Reader, they did. Working closely with award-winning architect David Kohn and landscape architect James Hamilton, the couple crafted a singular home that feels authentically rooted in nature—which is why we’re spotlighting it on Gardenista, too.
Have a look. And be sure to head to Remodelista for the full story (and more photos).
Photography by Michael Sinclair, courtesy of Pinch.
Above: Russell and Oona founded Pinch in 2004 “to create furniture and lighting we would want to live with”—they recently celebrated Pinch’s 20th anniversary by opening a showroom in NYC. The furnishings throughout are Pinch designs mixed in with antiques. Above: The couple’s kitchen garden flanks a flagstone entry path. Russell tells us that they initially wanted to be able to park in front—”but in reality, it was awful to walk by the car to get to the front door, so we immediately ripped that out and put in vegetables.” The concrete-framed stainless steel door alludes to the property’s factory past. Above: The central new building is clad in locally quarried pink sandstone edged with reclaimed brick. “The back of the house overlooks a newly introduced one-acre wild flower meadow. Russell and Oona worked with landscape designer James Hamilton who planted, among other things, some 500 trees on the rolling property. The combined structures are 2,400 square feet and were recently named UK House & Garden’s Project of the Year.
As fall settles in and the air turns brisk and cool, we bid a slow, reluctant farewell to the garden (at least until spring). For those who live in homes designed to foster a better connection between nature and humans, though, the turning of the season may feel markedly less distressing. Below, three recent examples, […]
This week, we’re revisiting some of our all-time favorite stories about gardening in New York City. Cultivating plants in the Big Apple comes with challenges—yards tend to be small and shady, and privacy is rare—but if you have the patience, these urban gardens can produce some big-time magic. Behold…
Courtyard gardens, enclosed on all sides by walls or fences, can transform a cramped space into an oasis. They preserve privacy while welcoming sunlight. And they can make even the smallest townhouse feel larger. We’ve collected 10 of our favorites from New York City, the unofficial epicenter for courtyard gardens.
Above: When garden designer Brook Klausing first saw his clients’ townhouse backyard in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood, it looked bleak: a chain-link fence, an old concrete patio, and a patch of hard-packed dirt. No more. Photograph courtesy of Brook Landscape, from Garden Designer Visit: Brook Klausing Elevates a Brooklyn Backyard.
Above: An airy hedge of bamboo provides screening at the garden’s perimeter while a pared-down palette of green and white focuses the eye on the center of the space. “The white limestone is like a canvas. When the sun is directly overhead, you can see the shadows of the bamboo and other plants starkly against it,” says designer Julie Farris. Photograph by Matthew Williams, from Before & After: From ‘Fishbowl’ Townhouse Garden to Private Oasis.
Byró Architekti’s smallest project to date is its biggest scene stealer. Located in a garden enclave just 20 minutes from Prague’s city center, the shed was built on the foundation of a dilapidated cottage. The owners use the property as a retreat and wanted an outbuilding that serves as a library, gathering space, shelter from the rain, and extra bedroom, while communing with the surrounding greenery.
To tick all those boxes, architects Jan Holub and Tomáš Hanus devised a pavilion with built-in bookshelves, a sleeping loft, and a façade that pops up to fully connect indoors and out. It’s a practical folly.
Above: “The building is designed as a wooden structure in a two-by-four construction system,” write the architects. It’s finished with blackened spruce cladding aka shou sugi ban. Above: Doors fold back to reveal a polycarbonate window. Above: The structure’s defining feature is a delightful surprise.
“We thought about how to connect the building as closely as possible to the surrounding garden, and we ultimately came up with the idea of a folding panel that allows one side of the house to completely open,” write Holub and Hanus.”This way, the interior seamlessly transitions to the outdoors, with the garden penetrating the building, creating a kind of paraphrase of a garden loggia, which was our architectural inspiration.”
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A couple months ago, I wrote a story for Remodelista about a modernist landmark Brooklyn Heights townhouse restored by Starling Architecture. The post focused on the sophisticated midcentury-style kitchen, but I was equally enamored with the verdant backyard, cleverly laid out as multiple outdoor “rooms.”
The goal, says landscape designer Nishiel Patel, the mastermind behind the exterior overhaul, was to forge a better connection between the inside and outside. “Previously overgrown with non-native shrubs, the garden acted as a barrier between the two ‘living rooms’ (interior and exterior), discouraging use of the garden completely,” she explains. In addition, the path from the home to the rear pergola (the main living space in the backyard) was awkward, requiring “two sharp turns to even enter the garden.”
Her solution: “We designed the garden to re-orient the home and the exterior deck [the rear pergola] towards a central and usable verdant courtyard, unlocking new views and connections between the two.”
Here’s how Nishiel reset the landscape design on the right path.
Above: “The facade of the house is landmarked, including the integrated large plant beds and entry stairs, so we treaded lightly,” explains Nishiel. “We did, however, add a Hollywood juniper and two Japanese maples to the front with a shrubby understory of rugosa rose and ‘Pee Wee’ oakleaf hydrangeas. The junipers and maples were selected for their twisted and gracefully open forms, respectively, as a contrast to the monolithic cube form of the house. Both trees are commonly found in the neighborhood which, over time, will make them feel as if they’ve always been there.” Above: Nishiel redirected the path from the interior living room to the exterior living room (the raised deck with pergola in the rear) so that it was more straightforward and easily accessible. In the middle, she added a fire pit area with Adirondack chairs (left) and a hot/cold plunge station (right). Above: “While the garden’s primary exposure is from the south, the light is filtered through two existing and large honey locust trees on the adjacent street. Naturally, the light is dappled, and the pockets of more direct and intense light change throughout the day. So we chose to create a matrix of plants that do well in the shade (oakleaf hydrangea, Pennsylvania sedge, Japanese anemone, Actaea, and Brunnera), and then a lot of perennials that prefer varying levels of direct sun (Amsonia hubrichtii, Sesleria autumnalis, Echinacea pallida, Echinacea ‘White Swan’, Martagon lilies, Verbascum, and Penstemon), with the goal of letting nature take over at some point. The plants will do well if they find themselves in a location that allows it!” Above: The cedar hot tub is from Northern Lights with the all-electric pumps, and the cold plunge is the Cold Stoic from Renu Therapy. “Both are intentionally recessed into the new deck so that they appear almost like pure shapes carved into the deck rather than stand-alone objects. This meant that we needed to excavate and retain the earth below by almost four feet to maintain airflow around them and provide subgrade drainage (in the form of a dry well) when the pools needed to be drained. We took advantage of the space below to also hide the hot tub equipment and provided a secret hatch in the deck for access below.”
If you’re looking to upgrade your outdoor furniture, and are a fan of Scandinavian design but live in the US, we have some exciting news for you: Iconic Danish furniture brand Carl Hansen & Søn‘s outdoor teak collection by architect Alfred Homann is now available stateside at Room & Board. There are two Carl Hansen & Søn outposts in the US (one on each coast—San Francisco and New York City); Room & Board, meanwhile, has more than 20 locations scattered across 12 states, so you’ll have plenty more options to test out the pieces.
We like that the collection uses untreated teak wood, which gradually morphs into a silvery gray shade as it ages. And we love that the teak is Forest Stewardship Council-certified.
Above: The Carl Hansen & Søn AH Collection features 10 pieces, including a deck chair, lounge chair, sofa, and side tables, all pictured here. Above: Cushions are available for each seating option. Pictured are the chaise and ottoman (with and without the cushion). Cushions are made from CertiPUR-US-certified foam and outdoor fabric that partially includes recycled acrylic.
Above: The deck chair—with and without cushions ($935 and $7o5, respectively). Pieces in the collection range from $395 to $3,335. Above: The dining table is also available in a larger, rectangular size.
“There isn’t another site like this available anywhere near Portland, Maine,” said Russell Tyson of Whitten Architects, “and it’s the site that makes this house so unique.”
He’s describing a jaw-dropping 36 acres perched along the oceanfront in Scarborough, Maine, the site of many native habitats—rocky coastline, woods, wetlands, and meadows included. Most of the land is in a conservation trust to preserve its natural character, but that didn’t deter the owners, a young couple with two children who wanted a weekend retreat that was “the antithesis of their high-rise life in New York City.” Two acres could be developed, so they removed an existing 1980s house that had “no sort of relationship to the landscape,” said Tyson, the project architect. In its stead, they designed a four-bedroom, mostly single-story house and detached car barn with guest quarters above.
Whitten partnered with landscape architect Todd Richardson to create a strong connection between the house and landscape. They knew each other well and had collaborated before, so they designed the project’s indoor and outdoor elements in tandem. “Here, the exterior spaces were just as important as the interior ones,” said Tyson. Let’s take a look.
Photography by Trent Bell except where noted, courtesy of Whitten Architects.
Above: At the entryway, a Rockport granite boulder directs visitors from the parking court toward the front door just off to the right. A small apple orchard flanks the walkway.
The site was once part of a farm, full of rolling meadows that drop down to the shore.
Above: In the front garden are salvia and ornamental grasses mixed with lawn. “The walls extend outward from the house to throw the architecture out into the landscape,” said Richardson.
The previous house had an asphalt parking lot prominently featured in front; in contrast, said the architect, “we wanted you to park your car and forget about it for the rest of the time you are here.”
Above: Flanking a porch off the bedroom wing: A birch tree at far left hovers over highbush blueberries, northern bayberry, low huckleberry, lowbush blueberry sod, and hay-scented fern. The patch on the right side of the walkway also includes black chokeberry, rhodora, and cinnamon fern.
The landscape architect chose native plants that thrive in this part of Maine.
Above: Each bedroom has a porch to encourage residents and guests to head directly outdoors in the mornings.
The house is framed in Douglas fir and stained in Cabot Nantucket White. The decking is water-resistant ipe wood, and the roof is standing seam metal in slate gray.
Above: Bordered by full-height sliding glass doors, the living room links a courtyard in front of the house to a patio on the opposing side. The landscape architect planted pitch pine here, centered on the axis of a single large pitch pine hovering over the water’s edge—the only tree along the waterfront for about 1,500 feet, visible beyond the living room.
Angus and Charlotte Buchanan—the co-founders of London-based creative design studio, Buchanan Studio—both grew up in the English countryside. Angus has vivid memories of entire seasons spent outdoors: “My parents are quite relaxed and bohemian,” he says. “They created this entire outside world.” Charlotte is more direct: “Your mother is a die-hard romantic who is incredibly nostalgic,” she asserts. A tour of the Buchanan’s own garden reveals that the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree …
The Buchanans bought their home in Harlesden, north west London, in 2020. They had been hoping to leave the city, but the logistics of running their own studio and raising a young family stalled the plan. Instead, they purchased a handsome—if completely neglected—property that enabled them to tick off some of the lifestyle changes they craved. They added a dog to their family, designed their kitchen around a gleaming Aga, and set about transforming their urban garden into a whimsical outdoor world.
Now in its third spring, their family home has settled into a highly-anticipated rhythm that effectively sees their living space expand to the far reaches of their garden. As they raised the canvas awnings on their outdoor room, we visited the Buchanan’s garden and found a heady combination of nostalgia, romance, and re-use in this unlikely urban pocket of the capital.
Here, eight design ideas to borrow from their backyard oasis.
Photography by Alicia Waite, courtesy of Buchanan Studio.
1. Let mature trees guide your design.
Above: A pear tree separates the outdoor kitchen area from the slightly raised seating and dining area in the outdoor room. Angus has trained roses to grow up the trunk and planted pony tail grasses at the base.
Above: The view from the lavender-edged lawn to the house.
When the line is blurred between indoor and outdoor living spaces, a versatile rug is essential. Here is our edit of outdoor rugs that are just as suitable for indoor or liminal spaces, all in neutral palettes and designs to complement a variety of settings. For more rugs, see our picks: 10 Easy Pieces: Washable […]
In northern Europe there are varying ideas of what a summer house might be: a place by the water in Scandinavia, a dwelling among vegetables in Germany, or, in the UK, a leaky outdoor room, maybe furnished with a couple of old chairs. In Russia there is the dacha, a more elusive term that is as central to its culture as samovars and vodka. They were bestowed as a favor by a tsar or a Communist official, and at one point, numbered in the millions across Russia, in every shape and size, handed down between generations. Many still remain, but as Fyodor Savintsev’s wonderfully textured photographs in the new book Dacha reveal, they are too often on their last legs.
Accompanied by romantic autochromes dug up by Anna Benn (author of the engaging essay that accompanies Savintsev’s pictures), Dacha: The Soviet Country Cottage is a volume to inspire builders and dreamers. There’s no denying the charm of rushing to one’s dacha every weekend in summer on a crowded, antique train. With its “relaxed sociability” and an incentive to grow things, the concept of a dacha has never been more interesting.
Photography by Fyodor Savintsev, courtesy of Fuel.
Above: Most of the dachas documented in this book are the sort that photographer Savintsev remembers from his childhood summers spent at the dachas of his grandparents and cousins near Moscow. Pre-revolutionary, wooden, with multi-paned windows, they have the romance of a Nordic folk tale.
Above: With parents working during the week in the city, dacha life with the grandparents taught old-fashioned values and rituals such as growing, picking, and preserving.
Above: The Russian writer Alexander Pushkin described the privileged aspects of pre-Revolution dacha living: Easy enough to get to after a night at the theater, they invited subversive behavior “beyond the norms and hierarchies of the city,” says Anna Benn, who reminds us of Pushkin’s influence on the Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina.
Above: At Arkhangelsk, in northern Russia, post-war dachas were small plots of land given out for the purpose of vegetable growing. “Restrictions on the footprint of a building meant that they were often expanded vertically, with overhanging second floors and attics, rather than take up valuable space for attics.” Bourgeois leisure was not the point here.
Above: “The elaborate glazing of many dachas is as much the result of expediency as it is creativity, designed to accommodate small off-cuts of glass, as opposed to large sheets.”
