When LA-based landscape designer Judy Kameon of Elysian Landscapes first visited the Studio City property her clients were planning to buy, she looked past the scruffy conventional lawn and saw potential. There were sweeping views of Los Angeles and more than half an acre of land for a garden. “And there was a history of someone who loved plants here,” she says. “There were agaves we saved, and an amazing tree, and a hedge we could keep for privacy.”
Her clients Sarah Lambert and John Dolan (she’s a pastry chef and he directs commercials) brought Kameon to the site while they were still in escrow—”it was our second project together,” she says—because they wanted her to design the garden in tandem with a planned remodel of the ranch-style house. “The intention was for there to be a very fluid connection between the interior and the exterior spaces,” says Kameon, who worked on the project with architect Barbara Bestor and interior design firm DISC Interiors. (See the interior on Remodelista.)
“The change is extraordinary,” says Kameon. “Before, it was a classic California ranch-style house and a bit warren-like. Barbara Bestor did a brilliant job of making it open and light-filled and of getting it to where it always should have been.”
Photography by Laure Joliet, except where noted.
Above: In the garden, Kameon’s design emanates from the threshold of the house, including a pergola with a sunshade and a patio large enough for an outdoor living room, dining table, and kitchen.
“As I often say to people, if you have the great fortune of living in a house often the backyard is the biggest room of your home,” she says. “The patio replaced an old one that was a very sort of stingy patio and had a cramped feeling.”
Above: Behind the outdoor kitchen, a gigantic bird-of-paradise plant (at right) provides additional screening. It is decades old and “we were lucky to be able to save it,” says Kameon.
Above: Kameon furnished the space with pieces from her Plain Air collection of outdoor furniture, including a custom daybed designed and built to fit into the corner of the patio. The oval shape of the coffee table is a custom version of her tiled Plain Air Coffee Table.
Above: The pergola has a retractable awning. “The awning is so big we were concerned that any one color in such a huge volume of material would feel like a lot, so we decided to make the awning three colors,” says Kameon. “It’s done in a gradient of light, medium, and dark gray and doesn’t feel bulky at all.”
Above: Outside the master bedroom sits a blue ceramic bowl, a water feature designed to create a burbling sound. “It’s a subtle little detail that adds a lot,” says Kameon.
Above: A trio of Capiz Shell Pendants from Restoration Hardware hang from the frame of the steel pergola.
Above: To save water, Kameon replaced a conventional turf-grass lawn. “We used a meadow grass variety for the lawn that uses only half the usual amount of water,” says Kameon. “It’s a native bentgrass.”
Above: Low-water plants including succulents and grasses border a fire pit. From Kameon’s Plain Air collection, a steel Fire Pit has stainless steel legs and holes for drainage and a gas line. Hoop Chairs have vinyl cord and powder coated steel frames. Photograph by Erik Otsea.
Above: A silk floss tree (Ceiba speciosa) was on the property when the clients bought it. “That is one amazing tree,” says Kameon. “In spring, it blooms with these orchid-like flowers before the foliage pushes out. There’s a moment when the tree is bare and then it’s bare with only flowers, and then the foliage kicks in.”
Above: Kameon designed a decomposed granite pad to surround the fire pit. Visible at the edge of the property (at right) is a privacy hedge that was on the property when the clients bought it; Kameon incorporated it into the new landscape design.
The Front Garden
Above: A stairway bordered by flowering echeverias guides guests from the driveway to the front door. “In the plant palette we mixed a combination of subtropical, Mediterranean, and California native plants,” says Kameon.
Above: In the front garden, succulents grow in tiered planting beds. At the bottom of the stairs is a vegetable and herb garden. “The vegetable garden is tucked away, so you can look at the view over it,” Kameon says.
Above: To take advantage of the view, a small concrete patio has chairs and a table from Kameon’s Plain Air collection. Built to stand up to the elements, the chairs have powder coated steel frames and cushions covered in outdoor fabrics.
Above: Photograph by Judy Kameon. The view from the front door.
“The biggest challenge of this project is the site is really up an incredibly steep driveway, so the access was challenging,” says Kameon.
See more of Judy Kameon’s work in Required Reading: Gardens are for Living and Spring Comes to Manhattan, Upper East Side Edition.