SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL

International interior design duo Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen's Sussex garden is designed to captivate all year round

- JACKY HOBBS

While Paolo Moschino and Philip Vergeylen's garden looks, at first sight, like a simple design, it is, in fact, quite complex, created to work on three levels. The first from the inside 'like a framed picture,' with views from every window; the second as an outdoor extension comprising a collection of independent 'rooms'; and the third, as exterior decor, blurring the indoor/outdoor boundary.

Interior design director Philip won Homes & Gardens 2021 Best Large Garden for his first-ever design. 'We know about interiors; spatially we work with rooms, which is how I approached the garden's design,' he explains. The part-Tudor timber and brick farmhouse sits in the centre of a 2.5 acre plot. Philip's design eye saw the potential for individual garden rooms leading off each side of the property. 'Originally the land was flat, open, an amorphous wash of grass with a few beds and pathways,' recalls Philip, who superimposed a more structured, geometric plan over a printout of the property's Google Earth image.