A First Peek Inside: Terrain the Book

It’s finally here! After two years of hard work, the Terrain book has made it from our imaginations to your hands. It’s 400 pages packed full of useful reference guides, gorgeous photography, décor projects for each season, and hundreds of examples of our design principles in practice. Some of the ideas are subtle and some are statement-making, but all are intended to blur the line between indoors and out, creating inspiring, special decor moments for the home and garden. Our hope is that this book finds its way into your garden shed, kitchen counter, backyard, and front porch - smudged with dirt, well-loved, and often-used. We sat down with Greg Lehmkuhl, our creative director and the editor of the book, to get his take on how he hopes you’ll use the book and which section he sees getting the most use in his own copy.

terrain: First, what do you want people to get out of this book?

Greg: What I'd love for people to get out of this book is to trust their own instincts and feel free to bring the outdoors into their home décor. I want people to use what's around them and available in their own yards to create something new for their indoor space. It's kind of counterintuitive, but it adds an element of the unexpected to use those prevalent materials that are right in front of you.

terrain: That's so true! Sometimes we see things in the landscape so often that those elements become almost invisible.

Greg: Exactly. As we get older, we lose that childlike inquisitiveness so we have to consciously remind ourselves to notice what's around us with fresh eyes. Plus, we have information at our fingertips now that might have stopped us from interacting with nature before. If you see a material that you like in the wild, you can easily do a quick web search to see whether something is poisonous or otherwise harmful.

terrain: Speaking of looking at things with fresh eyes, are there plants, materials, or trends that you disliked in the past but have grown on you, so to speak, over time?

Greg: Oh, all the time. When we chose plants from the window boxes for the cafe in Devon, we mixed in dark green aeralia plants for height. In some contexts, aeralia is considered too boring or easy, but when you take it out of context and mix it with plants that you wouldn't expect, it becomes more interesting and fresh.

terrain: This is probably a tough one for you to answer, but do you have a favorite section or project from the book?

Greg: The branch guide is what I'll come back to the most to use as a resource. It’s so important that we show photos of what the branches looked like before they're flowering, so you know what to look out for when you’re foraging for them yourself.

And with that, it’s time to get outside and start creating - so grab your copy of the book today.