Tricks to Make Your Garden Look Bigger
Employ these simple perspective tricks in your garden to add the illusion of depth to smaller outdoor spaces
Renaissance painters used colour, line and scale to create a linear perspective in their artwork, giving their paintings realistic depth. These techniques can also be used in garden design, to trick the eye into believing a space is much larger than it is.
Use linear perspective in paving
This boardwalk illustrates how linear perspective tricks the eye. As the decking recedes, the slats appear to get narrower – they would appear to meet if they continued to the horizon.
This boardwalk illustrates how linear perspective tricks the eye. As the decking recedes, the slats appear to get narrower – they would appear to meet if they continued to the horizon.
The same effect can be seen in the linear paving used here. Rather than using square pavers, the designer employed perspective illusion with long, thin pavers that lead the eye into the distance.
The paving joints help emphasise the illusion – this could be increased further with a more pronounced joint on the long sides and a narrow, less visible joint on the short sides.
A scaled-down feature at the end of the path would intensify the perspective as well.
The paving joints help emphasise the illusion – this could be increased further with a more pronounced joint on the long sides and a narrow, less visible joint on the short sides.
A scaled-down feature at the end of the path would intensify the perspective as well.
Enhance perspective by mixing scale
Boundary walls and hedges can display the same perspective illusions as paving or decking, with their base and top lines seeming to taper toward one another the farther away they get. The illusion could be increased by clipping the tops of the hedges to be shorter toward the garden’s far boundary.
Boundary walls and hedges can display the same perspective illusions as paving or decking, with their base and top lines seeming to taper toward one another the farther away they get. The illusion could be increased by clipping the tops of the hedges to be shorter toward the garden’s far boundary.
You can also increase the illusion of perspective with stepping stones, especially when they’re on flat planes of grass or gravel.
Here, the distance between the pavers is reduced the farther away they are out in the garden, creating an impression of greater distance.
Get the lowdown on stepping stones
Here, the distance between the pavers is reduced the farther away they are out in the garden, creating an impression of greater distance.
Get the lowdown on stepping stones
In this design, larger circles in the foreground and smaller circles in the background accentuate the perspective, convincing the viewer the garden is larger.
Add width with winding paths
Make small gardens seem longer by adding a curved or zigzag path, rather than just employing a straight, central pathway. This will give the impression that the garden is wider, as the eye will move from side to side rather than straight up the middle to the rear of the garden.
Make small gardens seem longer by adding a curved or zigzag path, rather than just employing a straight, central pathway. This will give the impression that the garden is wider, as the eye will move from side to side rather than straight up the middle to the rear of the garden.
Carefully placed plantings help to accentuate the snaking of the path through this small garden, and boost the illusion that the garden is larger than it really is.
Expand volume with colour
Colour can be a great way of changing our perception of spaces, and unlike the previous perspective illusion techniques, it doesn’t rely on the garden’s being viewed from a single point.
Bright, hot-coloured plants tend to seem larger in volume and advance toward us, while cooler blue tones recede visually.
To increase perceived depth in your garden, plant intense reds, oranges and yellows at the front and cool blues, purples and lilacs at the rear.
Colour can be a great way of changing our perception of spaces, and unlike the previous perspective illusion techniques, it doesn’t rely on the garden’s being viewed from a single point.
Bright, hot-coloured plants tend to seem larger in volume and advance toward us, while cooler blue tones recede visually.
To increase perceived depth in your garden, plant intense reds, oranges and yellows at the front and cool blues, purples and lilacs at the rear.
Additionally, dark colours retreat while paler colours advance. Pastel shades are perfect to create this illusion, with light colours planted to the fore and deeper tones set farther back.
This technique applies to the hardscape as well, and is especially effective in smaller gardens and courtyard. Painting a rear boundary fence or wall a dark colour will give the impression that it’s receding, giving more depth to the garden.
Suitable paints for the Aussie outdoors
Suitable paints for the Aussie outdoors
Bringing texture into play
Texture can create the illusion of depth in the garden. Landscape painters create the illusion of depth in paintings by reducing foliage detail in the distance. In gardens, the same effect can be achieved by incorporating plants with finer, more uniform foliage at the rear of the garden and adding bold, glossy-leaved plants near the front.
Texture can create the illusion of depth in the garden. Landscape painters create the illusion of depth in paintings by reducing foliage detail in the distance. In gardens, the same effect can be achieved by incorporating plants with finer, more uniform foliage at the rear of the garden and adding bold, glossy-leaved plants near the front.
This enclosed courtyard garden shows in its design all the benefits of using the tricks of linear perspective. The longitudinal paving leads the eye to a vanishing point beyond the boundary wall, and while the four tall planters are actually the same size, those at the rear look much smaller as perspective takes hold.
Garden designers, like painters, are magicians, and perspective is just one of the tricks that they keep in their tool bag.
Make the most of your courtyard
Garden designers, like painters, are magicians, and perspective is just one of the tricks that they keep in their tool bag.
Make the most of your courtyard
These techniques were developed for paintings, but we can follow the same rules to trick the eye into believing our outdoor spaces are larger than they actually are. Similar to its use in a painting, linear perspective in the garden tends to work only from a single viewpoint. But there are other techniques we can use in the garden to create the illusion of size and depth.