Whether you’re looking to imbue your already established Westhampton, NY, landscape with a bit of whimsy, or you’re starting from the ground up with grand visions, here are five design ideas for walkways that will transform your space into an inspired romantic getaway:
Create Secret Hideaways
A meandering walkway through the landscape inspires interest with the promise of something hidden. Whether a vine entangled swing, a work of art, or a breathtaking view as a focal point, creating a sense of mystery and discovery is the signature of good design. Secret coves and hidden nooks shaded by evergreen hedges, craggy trees, or shrubs work to create intimate, tucked-away pockets. A hidden archway leading from one area of the landscape to another can create a sense of adventure. Most importantly, a romantic walkway should engage the imagination, and illicit the feeling that one doesn’t quite know what might be revealed around the next bend.
Don’t Be Afraid to Let Nature Take Over
Romantic walkway designs demand a bit of the untamed. What better way to mimic or invoke the romantic spirit than with a portion of your landscape devoted to nature herself? Think about keeping things naturally beautiful with native species of shrubs, perennials, and tall billowy grasses. This not only eliminates the need for the frequent use of fertilizer and pesticide, but will likely attract backyard-friendly pollinators and butterflies so vital to the Westhampton environment.
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Engage the Senses
By incorporating an array of colors, textures, and fragrances into your landscape design, guests can enjoy simple sensory pleasures as they stroll along your walkways. Adding layers of vibrant color and shape using a combination of small flowers and grasses, creates a playful, wildflower meadow effect. Flanking the walkway with a water feature can add texture to the landscape design while creating a backdrop of calm-inspiring sound. Lighting, also, is a visual feast. Consider having your meandering path lined with solar lights, or warm and glowing lanterns hung in some of those hidden nooks and crannies.
Bring the Inside Out
Using walkways to divide spaces and form separate outdoor rooms can create interesting places to sit and enjoy a glass of wine, a good book, or intimate conversation. Vines, arbors, and trees create natural divisions of space. Archways, are also a fine way to partition spaces, and can create a ‘walking into a new world feel.’ Additionally, through dividing spaces and
incorporating alcoves along the walkway, one can also help achieve the illusion of having a larger space.
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Work With What You Have
Incorporating already-existing, large-specimen trees, or perennial flowers, into your newly imagined landscape is a particularly compelling way to let the space tell its story and inspire guests wandering along your walkways. Older plants and intact walls or structures, add a sense of history and narrative to the space. Already established features of the space can be incorporated into the flow of the walkway for a more interesting layout. For example, rather than removing an ancient tree to accommodate direct walkways, why not have your walkways designed around it for an added sense of harmony and flow?