Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Rustic Elegance by Alida Blair landscape designer

When Alida Blair invited me up to view her newest landscape installation in Napa Valley I jumped at the chance.
I have long admired the design work of Alida and welcomed the opportunity to see one of her projects in person.
The project is located deep in the heart of California’s wine county, the Napa Valley.
Most people are familiar with the low land of Napa, with it’s sprawling majestic open acres of vineyards , wineries and quaint little towns offering wonderful restaurants and upscale boutiques.
But there is more to Napa Valley than just the low lying vineyards. There are the surrounding undulating hills studded with native oak trees, manzanita and fir trees.
This is where many of the wine makers and locals live.

Below is a glimpse into how one family lives their lives out of doors in rustic elegance in the Napa Valley.

A stone terrace and overhead shade structure adjacent to the back of the home.

From Alida Blair Landscape Design


From Alida Blair Landscape Design


Californian natives such as Centranthus rubra commingle with other low water use perennials and shrubs
From Alida Blair Landscape Design


Located directly off of the stone terrace is the outdoor kitchen, complete with pizza oven.
From Alida Blair Landscape Design


From Alida Blair Landscape Design


From Alida Blair Landscape Design


Note the beautiful blending of rustic and finely crafted finishes such as the wood bar with it’s natural bark attached to the edging and the tree stump legs.
From Alida Blair Landscape Design


From the outdoor culinary area a dry lay Arizona flat stone path undulates down to the swimming pool, passing the hammock hung between two manzanita trees and the fire ring.
From Alida Blair Landscape Design


From Alida Blair Landscape Design


I really liked the variety of herbs and low growing creepers growing in the dry laid patio beyond the fire ring

From Alida Blair Landscape Design


A photo of the designer, Alida Blair walking down the path towards the pool
From Alida Blair Landscape Design


From Alida Blair Landscape Design


From Alida Blair Landscape Design


I will be posting more photos of this soulfull garden in the coming weeks.
Stay tune to see the infinity edge swimming pool as well as some other wonderful details.

5 comments:

Linda@ Lime in the Coconut said...

Oh, Man...I am loving this space! Gorgeous!

Susan aka Miss R said...

So wonderful to experience a great design through the eyes of another designer. I look forward to the next installment.

danger garden said...

Thanks for sharing!

Deviant Deziner, aka Michelle said...

Linda, yeah, I loved this space too.
It felt so comfortable.

Susan, I'm looking forward to going back up to this garden to take more photos. The pool safety key was missing so we couldn't open the pool to take photos.
Whaaaaaa ! So we'll be going back up ,.. and will make sure the pool cover key is in place !

Danger, thanks for stopping by.

P.S. - Susan, have a fun filled trip in Portland. Looking forward to your review.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful outdoor space!!!
Might it be possible for you to share how they achieved such a tight radius in the pergola horizontal support beam? I do not recall ever seeing one so tight.