Sydney’s balmy climate demands living solutions where inside and outside spaces exist in pristine partnership. It’s a design marriage that’s beautifully illustrated at Boulder House, the home of landscape designer Anthony Wyer. While interior designer Tamsin Johnson refreshed the home, Anthony shaped the landscape – together, they have created a Mediterranean-style oasis whose interiors and exteriors exist in sublime harmony.
The corner site allowed for an enveloping garden, with multiple spaces for every mood and every weather. The main outdoor living space, however, is at the rear, where a naturally occurring limestone boulder provided inspiration for much of the garden design, neatly punctuating the adjacent grotto seating area. “The outdoor cave, or grotto as it’s become known, developed organically through the design process,” says Anthony. “While exploring how to square up the back boundary and create privacy, the idea of creating a recessed lounge area that engages the rear of the garden came to life.”
Drawing cues from Mediterranean resorts, the palette is a luminous combination of bamboo, limestone and white textured render, heightened by the warmth and earthiness of our Cotto Luce handmade terracotta tiles. “The boulder … had these beautiful warm tones and veins of orange running through it,” Anthony explains. “When we set about selecting materials, they had to have some relationship to it. The natural terracotta tone of Luce complemented the scheme perfectly. The unique texture of the tile and the fact it is handmade added another layer to the organic look and feel we were chasing.”
The tiles’ small format meant they could be used across multiple applications – as flooring in the cabana-like grotto, in the pool area and barbecue bench, and framing the voluptuous curves of the outdoor fireplace – creating a unifying vernacular across the diverse zones. “The warm and gentle tones settle the overall appearance of the garden, allowing plant species and other materials to take their place.”
“The tiles’ warm and gentle tones settle the overall appearance of the garden, allowing plant species and other materials to take their place.”
