Fresh-Air Affairs | Alfresco Tips from Garden Designer Molly Wood
Your Home & Lifestyle Magazine
The only thing on par with a beautiful garden? A beautiful patio that bridges the worlds between indoors and out. Just ask Molly Wood, a garden designer who has perfected the art of living alfresco.
Take this Newport Beach, California home, where Wood designed a covered, attached patio for the active family who lives there. “The intention was for them to just live with the doors open and extend their use space from the inside out, and make it really, really inviting and comfortable,” the designer says. (It’s a handy approach in a town where the average annual temperature is a balmy 65 degrees Fahrenheit.)
To achieve their design goals in a long-lasting way, it was vital to employ hard-wearing furniture and surfaces that can stand up to all manner of Southern California weather. Underfoot, Wood selected Ipe—a sustainably produced Brazilian hardwood—for the decking. It has a “nautical boat vibe, but it’s also really great for drainage,” she says. The furniture—made of teak, resin wicker, and outdoor fabrics—is by Lloyd Flanders, which Wood appreciates for its durability. “I love adding that for a natural texture and softness,” she says.
One key to a functional patio design is keeping what’s going on inside the house top of mind. “It’s important to relate to what’s going on inside, and make sure it flows properly,” says Wood. “If there’s a dining table inside, I try to avoid putting the dining table right outside it, stacking the tables. So, we stagger them a little bit.”
Wood’s surname suits her, as a green thumb—and she indulged her clients in plenty of leafy plantings on this patio. “Asparagus ferns are some of my go-tos because they have such personality,” she says of one of the plants tucked under the overhang. “The other plant is the alocasia, the black-leafed one . . . here, we were pretty deep undercover, so I needed to use some plants that did not need a lot of sun. I loved bringing in that dark foliage to contrast against the white of the house and then pull in the dark trim that they have going there and add a little drama . . . and maybe a little bit of Tommy Bahama vibe!”
For more drama, Wood recommends going big alfresco, especially when it comes to patio plants. “Don’t skimp. Think big! Make big, grand gestures. It’s better to have two or three nice big, anchored elements than fifteen little ticky-tacky things,” she says. In short, nothing garden variety will do.
-
Flora Finds
Here, we share some of Molly Wood’s favorite treasures available for purchase from Molly Wood Garden Design.
Huxley Pendant
This dome-shaped pendant light made of faux-rattan cords “does a really good job of blurring the lines between inside and out,” says Wood. “It looks like an interior fixture, but it’s made of all outdoor- weather, durable materials.”
Terra Cotta Sun
“Such a beautiful, happy symbol to look at,” says Wood. “He just has a really happy face!”
The Sun Outdoor Table
“I love this table because it brings the warmth of wood to your space, and it has a really cool midcentury-modern look,” the designer says of this piece, which seats six and is made from bamboo and gray, powder-coated aluminum. “It’s from a Danish furniture company and I just love how they roll.”
-