Design and layout of a winter garden in Italian style

This piece of Italy will look no worse in any home than it would in a Neapolitan villa.

It is best if the winter garden is adjacent to the south side of the house and slightly elevated. A typical Italian style solution is a patio, which is found in almost every Italian home. In essence, it is a continuation of a covered terrace, only with a roof and no walls. Considering your wishes and the specifics of our climate, the patio can be made not entirely open, but with a glass roof.

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Italian-style garden in white. They should look as if they have been bleached by the scorching sun.

It should be noted that no Italian garden is complete without sculpture and an artificial pond of a rectangular or circular shape. Usually, in the center, there is a small tiled pool with a fountain. Around it are Italian ceramic planters, in which you can plant, for example, citrus plants, wrought iron furniture with glass or mosaic tabletops, a multitude of white stone pots and benches in an antique style, and, of course, the furniture Italians love most—armchairs. A mandatory condition, which, by the way, all famous Italian designers adhere to, is that everything must be comfortable, yet elegant.

Even if you do not intend to use your winter garden as a greenhouse, it makes sense to decorate the patio with at least a small number of plants. Without them, the Italian style may lose its uniqueness.

It is customary in this stylistic concept to trim shrubs into the shape of a sphere or a cube and arrange them in a precise geometric order. Flower beds must be rectangular. Flowers include crocuses, tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, or lilies. They will help maintain the desired color palette, namely, red, orange, yellow, and blue tones.

A hedge can also serve as a beautiful addition to an Italian garden.

And most importantly—for an Italian-style winter garden, sound accompaniment is very important. As a rule, this is the murmur of water falling from steps, the splashing of a fountain, or even the echo of footsteps resonating in the space.

French Winter Garden

A winter garden in the French style is a standard of formality, solemnity, and spectacularity.

If you want to impress everyone with your taste and sophistication, create a space for private conversations, or simply complement a house designed in a classic style, this solution is the best fit.

To imagine a garden in the French style, it is enough to recall the luxurious Baroque, which originated in France but successfully took root in Russia as well. Its general atmosphere can be characterized as grand and solemn. Accordingly, the design of the winter garden features: furniture with curved legs and bronze details, carved frames, stylized flowers and fruits, floral motifs, and expensive vases. A great deal of attention is paid to decor: an indispensable attribute includes floral garlands, mirrors, and porcelain. The color palette consists of blue, pink, and pale green combined with white and gilding. Charm and sophistication must be felt in everything, but not at the expense of comfort. Place a traditional French invention in your winter garden—a bergère chair. Sinking into it, as if into a soft feather bed, you can enjoy socializing with guests or simply dining while admiring the sunset.

If you plan to use the winter garden as a dining room, a traditional French interior item—a dresser—a cupboard for dishes—will be a good decoration for it. Ideally, it is nice to fill it with porcelain, to which the French are quite partial. A characteristic element of the furnishings is striped upholstery on chairs. You can choose, for example, a lampshade pattern that matches the stripes.

An integral part of a French-style winter garden is garden art itself. The small garden is typically located on a raised terrace — a classic French technique — designed to be clearly visible from any point. It is based on geometric layout and strict lines. The main idea of a French garden is man-made order in contrast to nature. It is not without reason that it is called a formal garden. Typical inhabitants of such a garden are low-growing pruned shrubs, often in the shape of a sphere or a pyramid. Fences made of living climbing plants and an essential lawn are frequently encountered.

An interesting feature of the French garden is the presence of vegetable crops and medicinal plants. Here they are planted

‚ in small, geometrically regular beds in such a way that the pattern resembles a mosaic.

The atmosphere is well complemented by lanterns, vases, and even small sculptures.