18th Century

Green Eyes: Treillage in Lyford Cay

GREENI'm quite mad for trelliswork in general, I love how it can exude such sophistication in spectacular gardens and facades on grand buildings, yet it can stand alone casually and timelessly in a beach home like the above retreat in Lyford Cay. At the request of interior designer Amanda Lindroth, the elaborate design, featured in House Beautiful, was commissioned by Philippe Le Manach from Accents of France. Based in California, Accents of France specializes in custom and decorative treillage inspired by 18th century French Designs. The company has worked on projects around the globe and aside from breathtaking work with custom interior and exterior spaces, the group also designs custom planters, jardiniéres, obelisks, vases, urns, lighting and furniture (see portfolio here). Below, a note from Accents of France's site that speaks to the history of treillage:

It wasn’t until the 17th century, under the reign of Louis XIV, that the art of treillage would rise to unseen heights. The King hired emerging landscape architect André Le Notre to design his garden at Versailles; an elaborate design that would soon become the most impressive formal French garden the world had ever known.

Le Notre and other landscape architects like him, relied heavily on forced perspective to bring a sense of grandeur to the garden. While it would have taken years for hedges and topiaries to grow to full maturity, treillage brought instant architecture, impressive scale and elegant formality to a newly built landscape.