A landscape designed to embrace play, pause and perspective.
This Red Hill project was created to work hard for every season and every age. From the basketball court to an oversized pool positioned to take in rolling hill views, each element was carefully placed to support both movement and stillness.
A sunken firepit forms a protected gathering space, extending evenings well beyond summer, while the garden continues to soften and connect the landscape as it matures.
Rather than treating each feature in isolation, the design focuses on how the entire site functions as one connected environment - active, social and restorative in equal measure.
Design @mintdesignau
Pool and landscape @tlc_pools
Photography @mitchlyonsphotography
One of our most requested outdoor kitchen designs and still a favourite for its minimal, sculptural simplicity.
Big Green Egg, built in and ready to fire up.
This outdoor kitchen is finished in soft textures and curved detail, designed to sit quietly within the landscape and let the food (and the views) do the talking.
📍Noosa
For those unfamiliar, the Big Green Egg is a ceramic charcoal cooker that works as a grill, smoker and oven. Its insulated design holds heat beautifully, making slow cooking, searing and even pizza nights effortless.
Landscape Design: @mintdesignau
Project: @honghenwood.design@honghenwood@biggreeneggau
Curves are forever. At Mint, they’re not just a design choice - they’re our signature. 🌿
We love how they add softness, flow and a sense of calm to any space, creating landscapes that feel as good as they look.
Stay curvy. 💫
#curvesindesign #gardendesign #gardenarchitecture #landscapedesign #landscapearchitecture #curves #curvesarein #pooldesign
Where this backyard started.
Before the materials, planting and styling, the entire LUME House landscape was resolved on plan. Pool, spa, basketball court, entertaining zones and circulation all carefully considered long before construction began.
It’s often this stage that determines whether a backyard simply looks good in photos or genuinely feels effortless to live in day to day.
Swipe through to see how the original landscape plan translated into the finished project.
We’ve also put together a deeper look at the LUME House project, including an interview with @aimeetarulli_stylist - link in bio.
Design: @mintdesignau
Build: @tlc_pools
Landscape: @modernlivinglandscapes
Home: @thomasarcherhomes for @aimeetarulli_stylist
Photography: @mitchlyonsphotography
Most planting palettes are built on green. Limonium perezii is what changes the mood.
Also known as Sea Lavender, it’s a plant we return to again and again in coastal and contemporary projects, not for its subtlety, but for the quality of contrast it brings.
Those soft violet flower heads float above the planting layer and catch afternoon light in a way that’s genuinely hard to replicate with anything else. Beneath them, large rounded leaves hold their structure year-round, giving you an architectural base that works even when the plant isn’t flowering.
It also performs where others don’t. Coastal exposure, persistent wind, dry conditions, harsh reflected heat from stone and paving, Limonium handles all of it without complaint, which is exactly why it earns its place in so many of our poolside and exposed garden projects.
The principle behind why it works is worth remembering for any palette: the most successful planting combinations pair structured hardscape with something looser and more expressive. Limonium does that effortlessly.
Save this for your next coastal or contemporary palette. 🌿
#plantingdesign #plantlove
How to get a planting scheme to feel calm and resolved.
A tight palette. Repetition that builds rhythm. Soft groundcovers sitting against structure. Green on green, doing all the work.
It feels effortless, and that’s the point.
Every plant has a role. Every layer has a reason.
This is the norsuHOME planting scheme and it’s one of the clearest examples of how restraint, done well, becomes the whole design.
If this is the direction you’re working towards, the full planting guide breaks it down plant by plant, zone by zone.
Link in bio.
Landscape design @mintdesignau
Landscaping @mjblandscapegardens
Home by @norsuinteriors and @norsuhome
Architect @herbertandhowes
Builder @thecarbonist
Photography @elisescott.studio
#plantingdesign #gardendesign
Backyard basketball court ideas.
How much space is actually viable?
Where it should sit so it works with the house?
What surface to choose, and how it plays and wears over time?
These are the decisions that shape how a court reads in a garden.
From compact shooting areas through to larger half and full court layouts, the detail is what makes it feel considered rather than added on.
One thing we always come back to… it should feel like part of the landscape, not something placed on top of it.
We’ve put together a practical guide covering all of it, including sizing ranges, surface options and real project examples.
Save this - and if you want to go deeper, you’ll find the full guide via the link in bio.
Photography @mitchlyonsphotography
#basketball #backyardbasketball #basketballcourt
Why do mature olives work so well in modern gardens?
Because everything else is new -> Clean lines • Fresh materials • Sharp edges.
An olive brings in age and movement in a way that sits comfortably against that.
There’s an effortlessness to it. The kind that never dates.
Save this for when you’re planning your planting.
Design @mintdesignau
Landscaping @acmoutdoors
Concrete @conc.au
Builder @lawlessconstruction
Photography @mitchlyonsphotography
The brief didn’t start with a firepit, it started with a water tank.
Rather than trying to hide it, we used it. The tank structure allowed for a raised circular terrace, which we paved in full so it reads as a purposeful space within the garden, not something left over.
The circular form set the direction from there. Round steppers lead you up and mirror the geometry, tying the space back into the wider landscape so it feels considered from every angle.
Planting does the rest. Layers of soft, textural greens break down the edge of the concrete and help the structure settle into its surroundings.
What could have been an awkward requirement now feels completely intentional, and has become one of the most used areas in the garden.
If you’re working with a tank, level change or any fixed element, it’s often the starting point rather than the problem.
What you’re looking at here only works if everything underneath it is exact.
Pools like this don’t allow for compromise. When the edge is this clean and the relationship to the surrounding levels is this precise, the entire build comes down to set out, coordination and execution on site.
On this project, the pool and all adjoining elements were established early and tied back to stable ground using strip footings and concrete piers. From there, every line you see was built exactly as intended.
It’s not the part you notice first, but it’s what allows a pool to sit this comfortably within its setting.
📍 Red Hill
Design @mintdesignau
Build @tlc_pools
Photography @mitchlyonsphotography
