Secluded sanctuary

Designed by: Grace Design Associates Inc., Santa Barbara, CA

Grace Design Associates Inc., Santa Barbara, CA

Lead Landscape Designer Margie Grace recalls this award-winning landscape project as one with an interesting challenge: The husband at this account recently put in a garage and a parking area at their Montecito foothills compound (main house, guest house, office, all staggered down a slope). His wife called Grace Design Associates once the “‘parking lot” was done: “She was nearly reduced to tears, hoping we had some remedy that would transform what didn’t get paved into a garden and home once again.”

Grace Design Associates Inc., Santa Barbara, CA

There were existing stucco walls around two sides of the property, and around the patio. The Grace team built a new stucco wall to separate what is now known as the “garden motor court” from the entry garden.

Grace Design Associates Inc., Santa Barbara, CA

“We added a fabulous set of antique doors that call out the way to the front door,” Grace points out. “Next, we took out the gate in [the] patio wall nearest the motor court and replaced it with an antique iron screen,” she says, noting that the team “didn’t want people winding up there while searching for the front door.”

Grace’s playful eye for detail shines throughout the account.

Grace Design Associates Inc., Santa Barbara, CA

“We draped the motor court walls with vines and arranged huge pots with fantastical, sculptural plantings and pebble mulch along the new wall,” Grace says.

Grace Design Associates Inc., Santa Barbara, CA

In addition, the Grace team planted huge olive trees inside and outside of this wall, to soften the bright motor court without taking away an inch away from parking.

This project garnered a 2011 Merit Award in Residential Design from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers (APLD). Learn more about the association’s Annual International Landscape Design Awards program at APLD.com.