From layered interiors to flowers and gardens, everything she touches is gorgeous and trés chic. Today we explore Lola Thompson's high-style courtyard. The cornerstone of her landscape design is to bring the inside out, to be at home in the garden. Interior fabrics drape over pillows, mirrors hang on exterior walls and oil paintings find a home in the garden alongside religious artifacts and statuary.
Lola has created a garden space that integrates with the home's eclectic interior - it fluidly transitions for entertaining and just enjoying a daily read in the garden.
The crunching of the decomposed granite beneath your feet and the glimpses of statuary through the greenery invokes the feeling of a stroll through France's finest of manicured gardens. Varying topiaries, native grasses and succulents, all artfully contained, are highlighted by pops of fuchsia mumms and lavender lilies. An assemblage of cast aside flea market tables, statuary fragments and remnants of vessels provide design-depth to this space. A discarded old workbench becomes the perfect hostess coffee table.
French wine bottle dryer becomes garden art alongside concrete spheres
Religious artifacts
Mirrored garden
Rough luxe
Painting décor
Interior fabric draped over pillows
Tactile garden art
Hidden statuary
Rusty beauty
Legs of interior chair peak thru the layers of grain sack and French flag
Courtyard entrance
Impromptu statuary candle holder
Beaded statuary
Garden entertaining
Design Notes
Indoor or out, the décor goal is the same, to create an inviting, stylish living space.
- Instead of throwing out that old chair, use it to create an impromptu living space in your garden.
- An eclectic mix of garden furniture, in varying styles, are more inviting, relaxed and visually pleasing than a matching set. Garage sales are a great place to score one-off patio chairs and urns.
- To ground the eclectic space, paint the mismatched tables and planters in a coordinating color or pair with coordinating pillows.
- Grain sacks bring a tactile quality to a garden and fare inclement weather surprisingly well. (As with any fabric, prolonged use outside will cause the fabric to fade or mildew.)
- When decorating the garden with paintings, place the painting out of direct sun and under an overhang to protect from rain.
- Include statement pieces, eye-catchers, such as Lola's oversize statute or bottle art, in the distance.
- Antique gates add style, function and interest.
Images by Brooklyn Boheme.