News
6 Japanese Zen Garden Decor Ideas To Try
The ultimate goal for many looking to landscape their gardens, is to create an outdoor space that inspires peace and serenity. That’s why the Japanese zen garden style is so widely adored across the globe, including here in Australia. There are many benefits to transforming your backyard into a Japanese zen garden. For starters, the zen garden style is the perfect home for many garden decor items, from modern water features, to charming statues. There are also many ways that you can design and lay out your Japanese zen garden, meaning that you can feel free to make the space your very own. So what options are available to you when it comes to designing your Japanese zen garden? We’ll be sharing 6 garden decor ideas to help transform your backyard space into your very own serene and striking Japanese zen garden. Rock and stone elements Japanese zen gardens can actually be the perfect setting to plant drought-tolerant plants, thanks to their typically sandy or rocky terrain. If you are hoping to create your own life-sized sand garden to be raked to your heart’s content, then it’s definitely worthwhile adding some rock and river stone elements to complete the look. This is where our nature-inspired rock water features will be sure to shine. Boasting natural materials like river driftwood, stone, and desert rocks, this collection of water features will help add a dynamic sense of both contrast and unity to your Japanese garden space. How so? As sand is produced by the weathering down of rocks and stones, these rock water features can help signify the natural passing of time in your Japanese zen garden. The end result will be a space that naturally helps you feel centred, present, and connected to the natural world in all its millions of years of evolution. Buddha water features Speaking of feeling connected to the world around you, Taoist and Buddhist teachings and imagery also tend to be given positions of honour in traditional Japanese zen gardens. For this reason, it’s fairly common to see Buddha figures that are surrounded by or adorned with natural elements. This phenomenon is part of the inspiration behind our Buddha water features here at Fountain Store. The peaceful figure of the meditative Buddha coupled with the ambient sound of flowing water can help add an extra dimension of serenity to your Japanese zen garden. Our expansive selection of Buddha features also includes a range of different materials, including stone, bronze, and GRC (glass reinforced concrete), just to name a few. Simply select a feature that best complements the other elements in your Japanese zen garden space. Multi-drop fountains There’s no denying that playing with the elements is the key to creating a dynamic garden space. This rings especially true to Japanese zen gardens, which are often characterised by their ability to combine both the natural and man-made worlds. Because of this innate characteristic, Japanese zen gardens already possess a certain dimensionality that can be further enhanced by playing with different levels in your garden space. In other words, you should look for opportunities to play with the placement of your garden decor, both horizontally and vertically. For example, garden pond features can be a great way of juxtaposing grainy sand beds with flowing water. Similarly, multi-drop fountains can also be used to add a natural verticality that contrasts against tall garden trees like Japanese maples, and other more solid vertical elements. Just be sure that you’re maintaining a sense of balance between both your horizontal and vertical elements, just as you should between your natural and man-made elements. Paper collage wall art Just like the Japanese art of origami paper folding, Japanese zen gardens are renowned for their ability to draw together hard and soft elements in perfect harmony. Stones meet sand, just as trees meet winding streams in the most thoughtfully designed and curated zen garden spaces. With this in mind, it’s only fitting that your own Japanese zen garden includes some paper collage wall art to help inspire harmony between all of your garden’s natural and man-made elements. Our selection of paper collage art pays homage to the natural world through using repurposed paper materials, with the end product being a complex, eye-catching artwork that’s sure to complement any Japanese zen garden space. You can also select which animals, plants, or insects feature in your paper collages. Our Flower Tiger Collage Art is sure to pair well with this particular garden decor theme. Serene statues Not all zen gardens have to be traditionally Japanese. In truth, the concept of ‘zen’ can be highly personal to you. If you’d prefer to create a garden space that’s more zen for your purposes and is aligned with your own values, then you can opt to remove all eastern spiritual imagery for garden decor that honours the natural world and perhaps other cultural connections. If you’d like to avoid using Budda figures or other religious or spiritual imagery in your Japanese zen garden, then you could simply incorporate garden statues that inspire a sense of zen within you. We have a collection of nature-inspired garden statues that can help anchor your zen garden firmly in the natural world, allowing you to connect with nature and enjoy the peace and serenity that simply comes from being present. You can select between whimsical statues of animals like horses, rabbits, and elephants, all of which are accompanied by their own spiritual and cultural connections. Or you could incorporate garden statues that honour the innate flexibility and versatility of the human form. Mirrored reflections with stainless steel fountains Last but certainly not least, one of the most quintessential elements of a Japanese zen garden is that they’re the perfect space for reflection and introspection. You ideally want your Japanese zen garden to be a space that you can escape to, just to be with your own thoughts and sit with yourself. So it stands to reason that garden decor with reflective surfaces or other mirrored elements will work perfectly well with your other Japanese zen garden decor. Any of our stainless steel fountains will undoubtedly look right at home in your modern Japanese zen garden space. Alongside providing a reflective element to mirror the personal reflections you’re likely to experience in the zen atmosphere of your garden, these modern fountains can also help create additional dimensionality and contrast between any water features like ponds or streams that are included in the designs of your Japanese zen garden. ~ Whether you utilise all the garden decor ideas we’ve outlined above or just one or two that resonate with you most, chances are your Japanese zen garden will provide all the peace and escape you need. Just remember that like the passing of time and the changing of the seasons, your zen garden is not at all static and will naturally evolve. So long as your design methods are mindful and true to your idea of zen, your Japanese zen garden project will surely be a success.Visit Fountain Store today to find inspiration with decor ideas to try for your Japanese zen garden.
6 Japanese Zen Garden Decor Ideas To Try
The ultimate goal for many looking to landscape their gardens, is to create an outdoor space that inspires peace and serenity. That’s why the Japanese zen garden style is so widely adored across the globe, including here in Australia. There are many benefits to transforming your backyard into a Japanese zen garden. For starters, the zen garden style is the perfect home for many garden decor items, from modern water features, to charming statues. There are also many ways that you can design and lay out your Japanese zen garden, meaning that you can feel free to make the space your very own. So what options are available to you when it comes to designing your Japanese zen garden? We’ll be sharing 6 garden decor ideas to help transform your backyard space into your very own serene and striking Japanese zen garden. Rock and stone elements Japanese zen gardens can actually be the perfect setting to plant drought-tolerant plants, thanks to their typically sandy or rocky terrain. If you are hoping to create your own life-sized sand garden to be raked to your heart’s content, then it’s definitely worthwhile adding some rock and river stone elements to complete the look. This is where our nature-inspired rock water features will be sure to shine. Boasting natural materials like river driftwood, stone, and desert rocks, this collection of water features will help add a dynamic sense of both contrast and unity to your Japanese garden space. How so? As sand is produced by the weathering down of rocks and stones, these rock water features can help signify the natural passing of time in your Japanese zen garden. The end result will be a space that naturally helps you feel centred, present, and connected to the natural world in all its millions of years of evolution. Buddha water features Speaking of feeling connected to the world around you, Taoist and Buddhist teachings and imagery also tend to be given positions of honour in traditional Japanese zen gardens. For this reason, it’s fairly common to see Buddha figures that are surrounded by or adorned with natural elements. This phenomenon is part of the inspiration behind our Buddha water features here at Fountain Store. The peaceful figure of the meditative Buddha coupled with the ambient sound of flowing water can help add an extra dimension of serenity to your Japanese zen garden. Our expansive selection of Buddha features also includes a range of different materials, including stone, bronze, and GRC (glass reinforced concrete), just to name a few. Simply select a feature that best complements the other elements in your Japanese zen garden space. Multi-drop fountains There’s no denying that playing with the elements is the key to creating a dynamic garden space. This rings especially true to Japanese zen gardens, which are often characterised by their ability to combine both the natural and man-made worlds. Because of this innate characteristic, Japanese zen gardens already possess a certain dimensionality that can be further enhanced by playing with different levels in your garden space. In other words, you should look for opportunities to play with the placement of your garden decor, both horizontally and vertically. For example, garden pond features can be a great way of juxtaposing grainy sand beds with flowing water. Similarly, multi-drop fountains can also be used to add a natural verticality that contrasts against tall garden trees like Japanese maples, and other more solid vertical elements. Just be sure that you’re maintaining a sense of balance between both your horizontal and vertical elements, just as you should between your natural and man-made elements. Paper collage wall art Just like the Japanese art of origami paper folding, Japanese zen gardens are renowned for their ability to draw together hard and soft elements in perfect harmony. Stones meet sand, just as trees meet winding streams in the most thoughtfully designed and curated zen garden spaces. With this in mind, it’s only fitting that your own Japanese zen garden includes some paper collage wall art to help inspire harmony between all of your garden’s natural and man-made elements. Our selection of paper collage art pays homage to the natural world through using repurposed paper materials, with the end product being a complex, eye-catching artwork that’s sure to complement any Japanese zen garden space. You can also select which animals, plants, or insects feature in your paper collages. Our Flower Tiger Collage Art is sure to pair well with this particular garden decor theme. Serene statues Not all zen gardens have to be traditionally Japanese. In truth, the concept of ‘zen’ can be highly personal to you. If you’d prefer to create a garden space that’s more zen for your purposes and is aligned with your own values, then you can opt to remove all eastern spiritual imagery for garden decor that honours the natural world and perhaps other cultural connections. If you’d like to avoid using Budda figures or other religious or spiritual imagery in your Japanese zen garden, then you could simply incorporate garden statues that inspire a sense of zen within you. We have a collection of nature-inspired garden statues that can help anchor your zen garden firmly in the natural world, allowing you to connect with nature and enjoy the peace and serenity that simply comes from being present. You can select between whimsical statues of animals like horses, rabbits, and elephants, all of which are accompanied by their own spiritual and cultural connections. Or you could incorporate garden statues that honour the innate flexibility and versatility of the human form. Mirrored reflections with stainless steel fountains Last but certainly not least, one of the most quintessential elements of a Japanese zen garden is that they’re the perfect space for reflection and introspection. You ideally want your Japanese zen garden to be a space that you can escape to, just to be with your own thoughts and sit with yourself. So it stands to reason that garden decor with reflective surfaces or other mirrored elements will work perfectly well with your other Japanese zen garden decor. Any of our stainless steel fountains will undoubtedly look right at home in your modern Japanese zen garden space. Alongside providing a reflective element to mirror the personal reflections you’re likely to experience in the zen atmosphere of your garden, these modern fountains can also help create additional dimensionality and contrast between any water features like ponds or streams that are included in the designs of your Japanese zen garden. ~ Whether you utilise all the garden decor ideas we’ve outlined above or just one or two that resonate with you most, chances are your Japanese zen garden will provide all the peace and escape you need. Just remember that like the passing of time and the changing of the seasons, your zen garden is not at all static and will naturally evolve. So long as your design methods are mindful and true to your idea of zen, your Japanese zen garden project will surely be a success.Visit Fountain Store today to find inspiration with decor ideas to try for your Japanese zen garden.
How To Design A Garden That Connects Your Home To Nature
How to design a garden is a question we all come across at some point in our lives, a daunting task to undertake and consider. But, now gone are the days where our homes were built to be separate environments to the outside world. More and more contemporary Australian homes are being designed using architectural methods that help to bring the outdoors in. From adding larger windows to our homes to constructing facades and interiors with natural materials like timber, clay or mud brick, and marble, and incorporating green home decor like decorative planters, there are an abundance of ways to bring the natural world into your home. But how exactly can you help add this same effect of melding home and heartland into your backyard spaces? How to design a garden with so many variables and ideas to consider? Today, we’ll be sharing our top tips for designing modern garden spaces that help effortlessly connect your home to the natural world. Read on to learn just how to design a garden that is sure to become a sanctuary for all eco warriors and garden lovers. How To Design A Garden? Play With The Four Elements Designing with the natural world in mind will undoubtedly mean incorporating natural elements. And what better way to incorporate natural elements than making efforts to play with all four, these being earth, air, water, and fire? Utilising these four natural elements in your garden design can organically help add a sense of life and action to your backyard. Consider installing some backyard water features made with natural build materials to represent your water and earth elementals. If your fountain or water feature presents a waterfall, it may also provide an air element to your garden space by creating a cool, refreshing breeze. Air can also be represented through the flow of your garden space. Consider the layout of your garden’s pathways and plant life, and how all these design elements work together in order to create a flow of air, light, and space throughout your finished and fully landscaped garden. And as for playing with fire, incorporating fire heaters or torches to your backyard can add both some warmth and verticality to your garden space. If you’d like the only vertical elements in your garden to be trees, then why not add an electric fireplace to your garden complete with some surrounding timber or wicker tables and seating? Use Naturalistic Walls and Pathways In accordance to your question on how to design a garden? Your garden may require some man-made elements in order to enhance its functionality and comfortability for you and your family, this doesn’t necessarily mean that your man-made elements need to contradict from your natural theme. There are an abundance of garden decor, walls, and pathways that have been constructed using natural or organic materials. A good example on how to design a garden, would be bamboo screens and stone pathways, just to name a few. You can place bamboo screens over your fences in order to provide a neutral backdrop and perhaps even create a jungle effect for your garden space. Similarly, naturalistic stone pathways can be a far more attractive alternative to concrete pathways in your garden. If you have any garden statues that you’d like to add to your space, consider finding pathways that match the materials used to create these figurines. In doing so, you’ll be able to ensure that your garden statue feels as organic as possible in your garden space, as if it were carved by the winds of time itself. Incorporate Bee and Bird-Attracting Plants The best nature-inspired garden spaces are those that actually inspire the natural world to interact with your built backyard environment. That’s why more Aussie households are opting to include bee and bird-attracting plants into their garden spaces. Adding bee and bird-attracting plants to your garden won’t just provide you and your household with plenty of opportunities to interact with native bugs and animals, but it can also help support those bugs and animals throughout the year. For example, providing bees with plenty of flowers to pollinate can help your local ecosystem thrive during spring and summer. Bee pollination can, in turn, inspire other bugs to visit your garden, which may then attract birds who are looking to feed and drink, if you have also added some bird baths to help them stay hydrated through the summer. As soon as you know it, your quest on how to design a garden will begin to unfold. Your garden will soon be teeming with life, and your verandah becomes a kind of outdoor theatre from which you can watch a nature documentary in real time. Hang Some Nature-Inspired Wall Art Although it may seem easier to design a nature-inspired backyard over a nature-inspired home simply because backyards already organically possess green elements, DIY designers are likely to find that designing around these existing green elements is truly easier said than done. Our home interiors are like a blank canvas when it comes to designing with nature in mind, whereas our backyard and garden spaces will already be accompanied by a few natural elements that you’ll likely need to design around. As a result, it can take a little trial and error to cultivate a truly harmonious backyard or garden space that effectively melds the natural elements of your home with the wider, wilder world that exists outside your windows. Thankfully, you don’t need to incorporate solely natural materials or plant life into your garden space in order to create a nature lover’s haven. Even something as simple as some botanical art prints can help boost the natural elements of your garden space. Fountain Store has a range of nature-inspired garden decor and designs to help bring a touch of the Aussie bush to your own backyard. From native Australian wall art to painted concrete and acrylic planters that are perfect for presenting native plants and trees, you can easily create modern Aussie garden spaces that feel like a bush sanctuary all on their own. ~ Creating nature-inspired backyards is about so much more than just doing some gardening. It’s about finding ways to blur the lines between the great Australian bush that exists outside of your home, and the contemporary design of your own home. As the middle man between these two distinct environments, your garden space is where you can feel totally free to meld natural and man-made elements together in order to create truly awe-inspiring environments that are able to incorporate the best of both worlds. So get ready to follow these tips and create something wild and wonderful. Shop our extensive range of unique features to suit your garden and better yet answer how to design a garden that connects your home to nature. View our wonderful feature collections at Fountain Store today.
How To Design A Garden That Connects Your Home To Nature
How to design a garden is a question we all come across at some point in our lives, a daunting task to undertake and consider. But, now gone are the days where our homes were built to be separate environments to the outside world. More and more contemporary Australian homes are being designed using architectural methods that help to bring the outdoors in. From adding larger windows to our homes to constructing facades and interiors with natural materials like timber, clay or mud brick, and marble, and incorporating green home decor like decorative planters, there are an abundance of ways to bring the natural world into your home. But how exactly can you help add this same effect of melding home and heartland into your backyard spaces? How to design a garden with so many variables and ideas to consider? Today, we’ll be sharing our top tips for designing modern garden spaces that help effortlessly connect your home to the natural world. Read on to learn just how to design a garden that is sure to become a sanctuary for all eco warriors and garden lovers. How To Design A Garden? Play With The Four Elements Designing with the natural world in mind will undoubtedly mean incorporating natural elements. And what better way to incorporate natural elements than making efforts to play with all four, these being earth, air, water, and fire? Utilising these four natural elements in your garden design can organically help add a sense of life and action to your backyard. Consider installing some backyard water features made with natural build materials to represent your water and earth elementals. If your fountain or water feature presents a waterfall, it may also provide an air element to your garden space by creating a cool, refreshing breeze. Air can also be represented through the flow of your garden space. Consider the layout of your garden’s pathways and plant life, and how all these design elements work together in order to create a flow of air, light, and space throughout your finished and fully landscaped garden. And as for playing with fire, incorporating fire heaters or torches to your backyard can add both some warmth and verticality to your garden space. If you’d like the only vertical elements in your garden to be trees, then why not add an electric fireplace to your garden complete with some surrounding timber or wicker tables and seating? Use Naturalistic Walls and Pathways In accordance to your question on how to design a garden? Your garden may require some man-made elements in order to enhance its functionality and comfortability for you and your family, this doesn’t necessarily mean that your man-made elements need to contradict from your natural theme. There are an abundance of garden decor, walls, and pathways that have been constructed using natural or organic materials. A good example on how to design a garden, would be bamboo screens and stone pathways, just to name a few. You can place bamboo screens over your fences in order to provide a neutral backdrop and perhaps even create a jungle effect for your garden space. Similarly, naturalistic stone pathways can be a far more attractive alternative to concrete pathways in your garden. If you have any garden statues that you’d like to add to your space, consider finding pathways that match the materials used to create these figurines. In doing so, you’ll be able to ensure that your garden statue feels as organic as possible in your garden space, as if it were carved by the winds of time itself. Incorporate Bee and Bird-Attracting Plants The best nature-inspired garden spaces are those that actually inspire the natural world to interact with your built backyard environment. That’s why more Aussie households are opting to include bee and bird-attracting plants into their garden spaces. Adding bee and bird-attracting plants to your garden won’t just provide you and your household with plenty of opportunities to interact with native bugs and animals, but it can also help support those bugs and animals throughout the year. For example, providing bees with plenty of flowers to pollinate can help your local ecosystem thrive during spring and summer. Bee pollination can, in turn, inspire other bugs to visit your garden, which may then attract birds who are looking to feed and drink, if you have also added some bird baths to help them stay hydrated through the summer. As soon as you know it, your quest on how to design a garden will begin to unfold. Your garden will soon be teeming with life, and your verandah becomes a kind of outdoor theatre from which you can watch a nature documentary in real time. Hang Some Nature-Inspired Wall Art Although it may seem easier to design a nature-inspired backyard over a nature-inspired home simply because backyards already organically possess green elements, DIY designers are likely to find that designing around these existing green elements is truly easier said than done. Our home interiors are like a blank canvas when it comes to designing with nature in mind, whereas our backyard and garden spaces will already be accompanied by a few natural elements that you’ll likely need to design around. As a result, it can take a little trial and error to cultivate a truly harmonious backyard or garden space that effectively melds the natural elements of your home with the wider, wilder world that exists outside your windows. Thankfully, you don’t need to incorporate solely natural materials or plant life into your garden space in order to create a nature lover’s haven. Even something as simple as some botanical art prints can help boost the natural elements of your garden space. Fountain Store has a range of nature-inspired garden decor and designs to help bring a touch of the Aussie bush to your own backyard. From native Australian wall art to painted concrete and acrylic planters that are perfect for presenting native plants and trees, you can easily create modern Aussie garden spaces that feel like a bush sanctuary all on their own. ~ Creating nature-inspired backyards is about so much more than just doing some gardening. It’s about finding ways to blur the lines between the great Australian bush that exists outside of your home, and the contemporary design of your own home. As the middle man between these two distinct environments, your garden space is where you can feel totally free to meld natural and man-made elements together in order to create truly awe-inspiring environments that are able to incorporate the best of both worlds. So get ready to follow these tips and create something wild and wonderful. Shop our extensive range of unique features to suit your garden and better yet answer how to design a garden that connects your home to nature. View our wonderful feature collections at Fountain Store today.