Nicky Haslam’s charismatic approach to garden design.

In this video, Bunny is in Nicky Haslam’s garden, finding out how he approaches garden design.

Nicky is a world famous interior designer who loves making really special items from basic materials for both inside and out which contributes to the charismatic and individual style that he is famous for. Nicky shares tricks that he has learnt including  his favourite shades, bringing the inside out and the outside in as well as the occasional scheme he was not happy with.

#nickyhaslam #bunnyguinnesspodcast

Nikki it’s lovely to see your garden
I’ve obviously seen ones that you’ve
done for other people and admired them
greatly and then the hunting lodge that
you had before was wonderful um so tell
me really well to start with you’ve seen
an awful lot I I couldn’t believe when
you said that when you first flew from
Heath Road there were Nissen Huts that’s
true there were there was three Nissen
Huts in a field uh and looking at you I
can’t believe that you’re that old but
that’s pretty amazing that’s old
it really puts everything in perspective
but you’ve got a very um youthful way
about you haven’t you and you’ve
obviously done had a huge experience
designing Gardens and it’s well I don’t
you’re giving me more credit than I do
I’ve sort of fiddled about I’m not a
great Garden designer I sort of know how
I ought to look and I tell clients ought
to do this that the other I’ve have
designed very minimally how the layout
of gods but I’m no plantsman I can’t say
do this that the other so it’s really
structural addition extension of the
house that I do yeah I think people find
the structure of the garden the most
difficult to be honest I think we all
play around with plants and some much
more satisfactory than others but people
really stumble on getting the bones
right and that from your parents home
which had very strong bones laid out by
the Italian Gardener no it by cesil
pinsent cesil pinsent he wasn’t Italian
oh sorry but he worked in it lot well he
worked for the famous garden was itti
for barison yeah and laoi for for Aro
who was my godmother and you’ve always
said that when you do a design for
garden you like the bird’s eye view yes
yes like like K or whatever you called
that famous engraver do the birs I view
of layouts of garden layout and and I
find it impossible to do a layout of
garden without a survey which is
effectively a I’ve used because none of
the lines are as you think they are are
they and when you actually see them
surveyed accurately what you think is a
rectangle is huge trapezoid or whatever
changes your whole perspective um and
with your little Terrace here um which
is just perfect isn’t it the orientation
you’ve got the formality by the house
and then you’ve got the beautiful
view thing to terminate the view the de
terminates The View stop yeah and then
you go beyond it yeah and thater is that
the
word uh is it is is I you see through
the Hedge would be a CL wouldn’t yes if
but you get that when you stand up
because the landscape just goes right on
and that is the sort of typical Park CL
the wood pastures isn’t it with the huge
oak trees or trees and then the grave
seeders SE lovely cedars in the for
ground so capability only really use um
Cedar of
Lebanon EX
they must have just come in when he was
young I think yeah when he was starting
and he put them usually near the house
yeah they’re Wonder wonderful wonderful
trees um so when you’re when you were
doing a garden or when you’re helping
people with a garden what are the few of
the things that you would like to do
keep it mainly green and white so you
like Simplicity yeah but I can see I
like green pink yeah a few purple but
those colors pink pink purple I like
Escapist yeah I don’t really like yellow
you don’t like yellow not really or
orange yeah that’s a that’s come into
Vogue hasn’t it in with in the last sort
of five or 10 years the orange yeah but
before then it was a very Norm people
did have hot borders didn’t they yes
doesn’t dick have a famous hot border um
he he he’s got Exotics and things like
he replaced he tore out his rose beds in
and put in his Exotics but yeah gerre
gel was hot which jumps forward and then
she’ transition back the Blues in the
distance to make it look much much
longer but the use of color whether
you’re inside your palette of colors
inside you would would you be so
restricted to yes I tend to use inside
off-white Grays moves BR I love Brown
room Brown rooms are wonderful Lou I
read the other day Louis the 14th
favorite color was Brown It’s
extraordinary isn’t it really I love um
pale brown with pale blue I that’s a
lovely mixture isn’t it really nice um I
didn’t know that cuz brown is so many
different things isn’t it you we it’s a
sort of I love brown brown velvet walls
are wonderful o oily greeny Brown what
about is it elephant’s breasts we always
call my parents had El’s breath it’s a
very it’s a 30’s color yeah but would
you call that a brown is sort of brown
it’s what I call Grove gray brown
move is that of not not indefinable
color and when you you’re in the CWS now
when you drive around a lot of the doors
it’s interesting to see how the
paintwork has changed because sort of 40
years ago they’d all be white or
off-white they pre I mean white bright
white only came in in the 20th century
didn’t it and and then now we’ve all
gone to the much more muted tones on the
outside yeah because it makes them
recede into the beautiful stonework and
it is so much more attractive isn’t it
well it certainly
helps when they’re un when it’s certain
in a village but it unifies it yeah
that’s nice yeah but it’s nice we were
driving through um Morton in the marsh
and you would see one with sort of
elephant’s breast one with the muted
gray so they were all of that IL but
they weren’t identical but it pulled
them together the old some bright red
front doors then but the worst color
wine clar is my worst color what about
Obin cuz Oban is trending now well it’s
quite good if it’s dark enough has to be
almost I mean realine I not dark as
possible there’s 100 miles from clar
Strang isn’t it I think yeah and and
color is obviously a thing that affects
your mood it affects the whole look so
it’s a big thing in your life and I
noticed with your clothes and your
dresses you’re very tuned into color
aren’t you certain amount yes yeah and I
just looking through your house I
noticed that you done because I read
that you went to stay with a license
screen for Christmas and you you knocked
up for them uh a big table you found a
big oat Plank and then you found
something to rest it on huge oat tree
trunk a crunch yeah and then you found a
plank on the top and then you did a faux
marble top and over there we’ve got this
bit of faux Mar I did that the other day
to to be a base for this wonderful
monkey
so this is the you are basically highly
creative and making your own things I
love handicrafts I keep I love a
handicrafts more than anything in the
world like Min hog she liked handicrafts
and I remember reading about your first
study at Ethan when you were probably 15
and um that you had faux leopard
curtains yeah you had um faux grass
which you it was Urban fa earing yeah oh
really and then you had a faux grass
carpet you got from a green r or
somewhere from the from the Barrow at
belgrave square and then you made your
pelmets from cut out card very thick
white card to look like something
ostrich feathers ostrich feathers so the
whole thing was totally original yeah
totally made well well it was original
it was what I had some seen in some mad
DEC or on on stage oh I see and then you
brought it to life yeah I just like that
copy thing and that your house was
impressed that he used to actually take
people after entertained for dinner to
show them your study I mean what what
did your peers think of this as bit
unusual most of them would have nudes
with they on the wall or something
they’re flying
Ducks Peter
Scott but but you you obviously didn’t
mind standing out making your mark
showing your creativity no not the least
um and and but you nearly then went into
um clothes design you well I thought of
it
but um I mean because a lot of my
friends were young clothes designers yes
and I thought it’d be fun to do it
but I didn’t get very far I did a few
Gast designs I was turned down by the
Central School of Art um so then I went
into well I worked in Vogue and that so
that was another side of fashion yeah I
do wonder if they hadn’t turned you down
if we’d all be reading about the Nikki
hlam collection yes bought easily yeah
quite easily you could easily
you buy Nikki has them sunglasses and
Nikki has them bags and Nikki has themg
yeah right well that’s your next 5 years
let’s let’s crack that one Nikki and
this is another example of your
creativity I mean you might think it’s
dear girl that is I did that 1972 I
think but this is just a brick and it’s
a door stop you’ve just covered it with
some leopard material and it’s just so
effective but they very thought of it
done it for two and six months and it’s
fun and that is the thing you do with
your Gardens isn’t it they are original
they are fun you love eBay like me
you’re a b an addict um put things
together make things up and then you
might using the using the not the exhaus
but using the strange in gardens I quite
like the sort of things you wouldn’t
expect to be in a garden so what does
the stranger like put in Door furniture
like that those those console tables
yeah which I paided which were I think
they were pale green when I got them and
I paid to them that color cuz it looks
like steel cuz I read that when Lou the
14th was building Versa he had the
window frames painted that color to look
like steel cuz it was the
latest latest hard surface to come in
was steel came up for for guns and um
arms oh and it was the latest fashion to
have steel I see steel so are those
really wood no no they’re yeah they are
metal right but I mean brown furniture
is so cheap now would you ever use any
of that outside and treat well perhaps
outside but I would I might I mean Brown
fer pained white looks wonderful yes and
CH chair white and you’re happy yeah but
it wouldn’t be durable outside most of
it would be mahogany I suppose mahogany
would be durable outside yes but also
you get those paints that are completely
durable
to
pain PE them off have you done that have
you
but it would be good to do because when
you think of the price of garden
furniture it’s astronomical but you can
pick up brown bir for pair of
candlesticks under the table next door
yes that go outside at night ah fast
ones fast wooden candlesticks lovely so
we should be more we should move things
out out in flexibility idea absolutely
most important and putting trellis on
your kitchen wall as well as outside
bringing a garden bench into your hall
all that sort of thing yeah so that’s
fun isn’t it and do you keep it moving
do you like to change things and
suddenly find something keep it dynamic
or I do less I used to a lot more change
things um now I’m getting lazy yeah and
I think well one day I’ll change that
and then one day I don’t and which
Gardens have you had a hand in that that
um we might
recognize somebody called Johnny Ola I
did a garden for in Hampshire or
designed it yes um which was very pretty
Johnny and darl also who else have I
done I come so long I
Gods I mean my mind’s going south of
France I did one for PLS right I mean I
said I did it I suggested what it look
like and have you know a focus point
there or longest view possible I me I
mean often just getting the mood
deciding on the mood and how you want
the thing to look is important is it
because it’s when people shilly sh
around and have bit of this bit of that
and bit of the other it really falls
down exactly but you a strong feel to
the Garden you have to get the space
right and then you decorate it from
finding it from interesting sources so
it’s individual and charismatic a bit
like
yourself right no it’s um it it really
is a stunning space and it’s lovely to
see it and um I’m hoping you’re going to
do your Memoirs next an update on your
man well I keep thinking I should but I
may do one day but other things to do in
between yeah you’re a very busy man
aren’t you reviewing books doing all
sorts of things lot of lot of writing
yes and still doing interior designing a
little bit not not a lot anymore I can’t
I don’t want to travel I just turned on
a job in New Orleans CL I’ve done four
hours is full yes but I can’t really
travel that far right I bet they’re
disappointed well they’re so old there
but I forgot they ask
me I love it and have you ever done
anything you thought my God I shouldn’t
have done that have you made any because
you’re always pushing the boundaries we
did I did a lot of russes I did all the
oligarchs I did brovich um Derry Pasa
aam Goldberg I all the great I but I did
one who had a huge hideous Apartment in
Moscow yes and it was it it was of a
horror what the whole every floor was on
different level to be used as a sort of
show room
yeah
sorry have been used as as a kind of
showroom but every awful in laid floors
and it was vast and I did things I
thought well it’s so ugly I can’t make
it worse and we did sofa 18 mil long and
I did a whole room in Fringe on the
walls 18 m i mean 20 M of Fringe on the
what sort of Fringe like really deep
Fring deep FR would you you wouldn’t
normally do it Fring well I actually
I’ve done I’ve done it in s it looks
wonderful but um we did we did it was
terrible as a apart but and I thought
well luckily nobody who ever see it
bloody hell it won a prize is the best
R and then everyone sees that’s what you
do yeah oh dear oh dear well he
obviously liked it you satisfied the
client yes but that do you not go by the
the maxim then that the client is always
right and even if you do something that
you think is hideous as long as he likes
it happy no you don’t agree the room
speaks the cloud speaks and I speak and
I win right right rooms do speak rooms
tell you what to do yeah yeah you take
your I think L tells you what to do oh
definitely the garden you must have that
all the time the time yes there’s a
voice in nature there’s a voice in
buildings that says don’t do that to me
don’t hang a picture there it’s not
going to be right yeah I I always think
it’s more with the landscape because the
landscape is so there and molded
um I think the you can you can mold at
landscape your own desires bu you but
they the natural beauty of the landscape
so here so obvious is it suppose it was
a gravel pit you could make that oh then
you can make yeah we’ve done gravel pits
yes we’ve done them made them into all
sorts of things and they’re lovely
because you’ve got cart blanch often
haven’t you and then it’s totally
different apart from the fact you’ve got
to work with the soil or whatever but
yes no then you can do anything but when
you’ve got a historic landscape or
you’ve got a you know beautiful
buildings listed and all this sort of
thing yeah it you’re more obviously you
follow in that vein but no this is
idilic and the summer’s coming and
you’re bu writing yeah and designing and
everything but thank you very much for
showing us it was lovely you came and
I’m great honor to have you in this
house thank you you are so kind