Loom & Leaf

"Loom & Leaf" is a garden that reflects the balance between modernity and nature. Like a woven fabric (Loom) with a clear structure, each thread blends with the gentle touch of nature (Leaf), letting visitors feel calm, relaxed, and warm within the space.

The brief

The owners had a new house with a clean, modern shell and a garden that was little more than lawn and a boundary wall. They wanted somewhere to sit in the evenings, a garden their children could run through, and a way to make the narrow side yard feel like part of the home instead of a leftover strip.

Design approach

We treated the plot as a single woven surface. Hard lines — the terrace, the stepping slabs, the white wall — form the warp; soft planting runs across them as the weft. The eye moves from the front terrace to a sunken water court with a single white bowl fountain, then along the side path back toward the house.

An existing tree near the fence was kept and braced with a hand-tied bamboo frame, giving the garden a sense of age from the first day.

The result

The garden now works as an outdoor living room: morning coffee on the terrace, the sound of water in the afternoon, and a side path that the family actually uses. The planting palette is deliberately short and climate-appropriate, so the garden stays calm and easy to maintain.