A SENSE OF CALM

RESTRAINED MATERIALS AND A MUTED COLOUR PALETTE ENSURE THIS GARDEN IN THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS IS A WELCOME RETREAT FROM THE BUSTLE OF LOS ANGELES

- NATASHA GOODFELLOW

Whether it’s Sunset Strip, Venice Beach or the film studios of Hollywood, Los Angeles is not a city generally associated with calm – which is what makes this garden, set high in the Hollywood Hills, all the more remarkable. ‘There’s so much hustle and bustle in LA,’ says Mintee Kalra of garden design firm Peruse. ‘You have to drive to get up here, through all the traffic and the chaos, so when you arrive, I wanted there to be the feeling of an exhale.’

The garden, which belongs to a house designed in the 1970s by LA architect Fred Smathers, an early proponent of outdoor living, is extraordinarily restful. In part this is achieved through its restrained palette of both materials and plants but there are other tricks at work, too. Mintee – a former fashion designer – was keen that the garden should channel the languid, voluptuous feeling of gardens she’d visited in Provence while travelling for her job. ‘I love that culture of lingering over meals and enjoying an intimacy in the company you’re with,’ she says.