Interior Design in London Goes Exterior! - Sketching out a Garden Scheme

The work of interior designers professionals doesn't stop at the back door - increasingly, interior design teams are expanding to include specific garden design expertise. In this four-part collection of articles, "Interior Design Goes Exterior," I rely on my years of know-how gleaned from collaborating with London's finest interior design teams to explore the latest in garden design. This article discusses how to sketch out a suitable theme regardless of size - whether a compact central London urban garden or the luxurious and expansive grounds of a grand mansion outside London.


Interior design teams will often start by making a sketch to conceptualise the lighting design for a garden. In drawing rooms and reception areas, London interior designers will often choose a favourite painting as a focal feature. Similarly, for garden design it is essential to decide which are the most visually interesting plants, shrubs or flowers in order to create a ranking system for emphasis differentiation. Elements that need extra priority will have to be specifically illuminated - associated lights should all be placed on a single illumination control frame. If the interior design team recommends a soft wash on intermediate bushes and shrubbery, this illumination can be attached to a separate throw-switch. Alternatively, some London interior design professionals will encourage clients to include structural focal points on a separate circuit to the one used for winter, when flowers are no longer in bloom. In the winter, a planter, vase or perhaps an evergreen can be illuminated to increase the level of interest. In the London winter, bare branches and shrubs should be allowed to reside in the shadows. But above all, your interior design team will focus on creating a harmonious balance that is luxurious whatever the season.


Your interior design team will allow the feel of your London garden to be fine-tuned to suit your emotions by building or subduing the illumination levels. In the late afternoon the lighting scheme will be less apparent but after dusk the results will become amazing - perfect for the London summertime. Interior design professionals who are experienced with garden design understand that this natural process basically allows the intensity of daylight to shift a garden's mood almost effortlessly.


When your interior design team plans carefully and places the lighting systems on separate circuits, the ambience of the garden can be controlled across a range of moods. We can move from a minimalist, gentle well of light immediately outside the house - serving to soften the sensation of ominous blackness outside - to a theatrical lighting display that illuminates the entire garden during an extravagant London soiree.


In the next article in this collection which I call "Interior Design Goes Exterior," I will describe how London Interior Designers approach general, task and feature lighting in gardens.



Interior Design London - Global Interior Design Consultancy Company in London, UK for interior design services.