Jet Black Garden

The owner of this traditional Fulham house is a fashion designer and after some years in the house, decided to overhaul and update the house with a major refurbishment inside and outside.

The style of the interior was to be minimilist and simple with a colour theme of black/dark grey and deep walnut using glass, basalt and a timber to achieve this. She was keen to continue this theme in to the 13m x 5m garden.

The layout of the house was to be unusual with the main sitting room at the rear of the house, leading to the garden so it was crucial that the look continued.

"There was an existing wisteria which was very mature which would work very well with the colour theme, apart from that there was no planting.'

We decided to use a combination of dark coloured materials in the garden to achieve the effect: namely dark stained oak decking leading to a dark grey/almost black granite finished off with black polished pebbles. The colour palette for planting was to be black, purple, green with some limey green/cream. The final result is an almost seamless continuation of the style and colour palette from the house into the garden.


The garden had been an underutilised space and was overgrown and rambling before works began		The garden from inside the sitting room showing continuation of colour theme into garden


A plan of the garden


The moodboard showing the colour how the colour theme was to be achieved.		Photomontage showing how garden would look on completion


A special planting board was prepared to illustrate the use of colour in the planting

"The lighting, which is a combination of subtle spots and dramatic uplighting, combined some light washes in some of the beds makes the garden really come alive at night."

There was an existing wisteria which was very mature which would work very well with the colour theme, apart from that there was no planting. To achieve the result sought a strictly limited palette of plants were used: Ophiopogon planiscapus nigrescens and Phyllostachys nigra for the black colour, structure was achieved with Pittosporum tobira Nanum, Cornus stolonifera 'Flaviremea' and Euphorbia charachias Wulfenii, Trachlespermum jasminoides was used as the main climber and purple was introduced with Lavendula stoechas, Angelica gigas, Salvia nemorosa and bulbs such as Tulipa Queen of the Night and Allium hollandicum 'Purple Sensation'.

The lighting, which is a combination of subtle spots and dramatic uplighting, combined some light washes in some of the beds makes the garden really come alive at night.