GARDEN TOUR: WHERE CONIFERS AND TEXTURE RULE

I have never toured a garden and not taken something away from it that I want to put into practice or plant in my own garden. If you ever feel like you're in a gardening rut, it is the single most inspirational thing you can do.

The garden I visited a few weeks ago was one of the most impressive private gardens I've visited. It was started in the mid-1970s when only three trees stood on the city property (it's about a third of an acre). The gardener, a lovely dedicated woman who told me she has spend most of her day in the garden from April to October for the last 40 years, discovered early on that the garden is on heavy clay soil. She became a great proponent of compost and makes copious amounts of the stuff, throwing it on anywhere she can.

In addition to a fascination with conifers as well as a few other additions to my must-have plant list, here are some of my take aways from this tour:

1. Make every plant accessible. Every bit of the garden was accessible by paths or by being cut into sections with grass paths between. I think you probably could have reached every plant without stepping in a bed. 
2. Hide the ugly stuff. Rather than be greedy and take as much space as possible for the garden, she did a double fence on the side of the property. One abuts her neighbor's yard. Another identical fence is located about 10 feet inside of the first and she hides all of the ugly bits in between. A huge composting area, collections of nursery pots, wheelbarrows, etc. 
3. Have a beautiful enough garden and your house doesn't matter. Beyond recalling that it was a one-story house, I have no idea what the house looked like. 

Great use of lamina as a groundcover. 

Her brunnera were all huge. Unfortuantely I don't know the shrub. Anyone recognize it?

Another great plant combination: heliopsis and daylilies.

Pinus strobus 'Tiny Kurls'

The path to the front door is marked by her Rhapsody in Blue garden, full of blue plants.

Amsonia pops up again. It WILL be in my garden next year.

If this garden proves anything, it's one of the things that has taken me the longest to learn about garden design: Texture, perhaps more than anything, is so important. Of course there are many elements to garden design—size, structure, color, arrangement—but without texture, all of these fall flat.

There are so many lessons to take away from every garden, but this one was particularly inspirational. What a delight to be able to spend some time in it. 

Oozing charm all over the place

After a go-go-go business trip last week, it was a go-go-go weekend here. We've been enjoying an amazing fall (which I feel we deserved after a less-than-stellar summer) but the weather is going to take a turn this week. The feeling that the time for outdoor projects is running out has created a mad dash of trying to get what needs to get done, done.

Of course nothing got finished. A lot was started and even more was continued, but as far as I can tell, not a damn thing was finished, which makes for pretty lame blogging.

I think I set a personal record, though. I bought five quarts of paint this weekend, four of them completely different colors (and one a fix of the another color). I didn't actually need them all this weekend, but I will need them soon and I figured as long as I was paint shopping I might as well get them all at once.

Speaking of paint, I spied a Maine Cottage store across from our hotel in Annapolis. I love Maine Cottage's (extremely expensive) furniture so I was eager to pop in and explore the store.

I don't think I could live in a whole house decorated with this furniture. It's all just a little too perfect and it's quite whimsical, so while I think a touch would be great, if you did an entire house in it, it could end up looking like some kind of fantasyland. What I sort of love about Maine Cottage furniture is that it's a great place to get ideas for DIY projects because basically everything is painted a fun color.

I love the Color Bar with cute little holders for swatches of all their paint colors.

This bed is so charming and such an amazing color.

This fabric isn't really my favorite but I thought this whole seating area was just so cute. I love the side table (although all their side tables seemed a little on the high side to me).

I don't know where I'd put a little loveseat like this but I'd sure put it somewhere because it is so comfy looking.

If I had a summer cottage to decorate (and lots of money to do it) you can bet this nightstand would be in it. I just love that fish.

Cottage-worthy bar cart.

They had these amazing cutting boards that are painted and I just fell in love with them. These two kind of look like lobster pot buoys. I can't think the paint would hold up to repeated washing very well, but I think these could be so cool hanging on the wall when not in use.

They also had this shape with a leather strap on the top. I'd get one just to hang on the wall.

I loved the floors. 

These round cork boards and the oval coat racks with shiny hooks are so pretty and I took a picture because this is one of those things you could definitely do yourself for a fraction of the cost. I wish someone would start selling unpainting round frames though, because I like me some round frames.

The counter at the Color Bar was so intersting. It appeared to be concrete that an old sail had been embedded into and then painted. 

 So what do you think? Is this kind of cottage charm up your alley or better used for a bit of DIY inspiration? Or maybe it's just not your cup of tea at all ....

Virtual tour: Kohler Design Center

If you are ever in southeastern Wisconsin, I highly recommend a stop at the Kohler Design Center in Kohler, Wisconsin. People come from all over to visit this kitchen and bathroom dreamland (located across the street from the Kohler factory), but I'm lucky enough to live about a 25-minute drive away.

We're hoping to add a bathroom sometime soon (I'm not sure this is possible, but we're already behind schedule before we even start), and I actually got my husband to agree to come to the Design Center with me so I could get a feel for what he really likes and really doesn't like. Frankly, most Kohler fixtures are out of our budget, but the Design Center is a great place to brainstorm ideas and I was surprised to find that some things aren't as expensive as I thought they would be.

There is a toilet museum on the lower level that memorializes the history of toilets (and it's more interesting than you might think) but I didn't go down there this time because really, how many times do you need to review the history of toilets? My husband, however, did make a stop down there to use the bathroom saying that looking at all these toilets made him had to go!

I took the camera along to take pictures of some of the things we like, but I thought I'd share a few photos with you to give you a taste of the dreaming you can do there. There are a lot of pictures here so bear with the length of the post. If you want to see them larger, just click on them.

Hugh Hefner's bathtub?

How's this for a few body sprays? All controlled via a digital touchpad, of course.

 I sort of liked this sink and was surprised to find later that I could buy it online for as little as $80.

A really cool vanity

I must have a teak floor in my shower!

I thought this penny round tile floor was really neat looking but I couldn't help but think about how dirty all that grout would get.

This bathroom is a wild design with wild tile to match. Check out the freestanding vanities in the middle of the room. The shower is open, under the windows. It's not a bathroom I'd want but I love the light, airy feeling of it.

 This is the showerhead in the bathroom above. I love the grid they did on the ceiling.

I love this vanity. Not loving the unmatching sinks.

This bathroom had gray tile and a lilac sink, toilet, shower and bathtub. Amazingly, it worked.

This is the floor in the above bathroom. It's absolutely spectacular Ann Sacks tile.

Your eyes do not deceive you: This is a huge, two-story wall of toilets (San Raphael model, in case you were wondering) in every color imaginable.

The mirror in this mini-kitchen was amazing.

Talk about mirrors! All of the cupboards in this kitchen had mirror insets. I'm not sure what the random cocktail dress was doing there.

I LOVE the open shelves in this kitchen. Like LOVE IT, love it.

Another vanity I like

 This was truly a spa bathroom, complete with this wood shower.

 This was the vanity in the spa bathroom.

Don't you have a massage table in your bathroom?

This was the coolest medicine cabinet. It opened by sliding up and revealed a magnifying makeup mirror and all sorts of cubbies for organizing things. Very contemporary (and about $2,900 a pop) but neat!

I'm not sure what the practical application of this sink is, but I'm guessing if you have the money to afford it, practical applications aren't really a big concern.

One of the best things to look at at the Kohler Design Center are the hand-painted sinks (which remind me of my grandma, who had one in her house). These were just a few of the beautiful sinks there.