…Linking Gardens to Lifestyle
Where do you start when empty nesting in ‘the big ol’ family home’?
When you look around YOUR home, has elegance up and left? Are there rooms and rooms and more rooms, but none you want to hang around in any more? Does the kitchen need renovating? Is the previously pleasing pool area looking surprisingly unremarkable now, bereft of shrieking teenagers and all their friends and nonsense? Do the gardens barely retain any semblance of a cohesive plan other than an attempt at ‘street appeal’ decades ago?…..sigh…..you can almost smell the onions broiling….and that faint whiff of wet family dog.…it suddenly seems just ‘’too much information’’…. how can you possibly invite other grownups to this!? ‘We have to downsize! We have to get out!’ However, relocating can be expensive, not to mention the rupture of leaving neighbourhood and memories behind. What to do? Don’t eSCAPE, reSCAPE! Remodelling the home’s gardens and strengthening links between indoors and out can bring such a strong sense of revitalisation and relevance to the ‘big box’ family home, particularly homes that have been more about size than their quality of space and light and place in the landscape. In a recent project for a pair of ‘empty nesters’, with 5 recently departed adult children between them, Brady Bunch style, and a gaggle of empty-nest friends, debate ran hot between the options. The decision…‘stay put’ and create beautiful outdoor spaces and landscaping to link their new lifestyle with their gardens. A large house on a large site, the transformation is soft, nuanced and sensitively responds to:
How they live together
How time is shared
Engagement with family and friends
A range of spatial experiences
Seasons, aspect and micro-climate
Engagement with internal spaces
Safer, easier access for all
The outcome? A BEAUTIFUL CELEBRATION OF THE ART OF LIVING & GATHERING, empty-nest style. If you would like to have a discussion about reSCAPing your living environments….reach out.
Collaborators:
Soft Landscaping: Larc landscape Architecture. Larc.la
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